Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the ArtsEchoing Edward Said's belief that "Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism," the renowned critic Clive James presents here his life's work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, Cultural Amnesia illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. In discussing, among others, Louis Armstrong, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, James writes, "If the humanism that makes civilization civilized is to be preserved into the new century, it will need advocates. These advocates will need a memory, and part of that memory will need to be of an age in which they were not yet alive." Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 71
Page xxi
... once spoken in the British Empire but because it is spoken now in the American international cultural hegemony . Born to speak it , we can view the whole world as a dubbed movie , and not even have to bother with subtitles . Should we ...
... once spoken in the British Empire but because it is spoken now in the American international cultural hegemony . Born to speak it , we can view the whole world as a dubbed movie , and not even have to bother with subtitles . Should we ...
Page xxii
... once famous for being better informed than anybody in Vienna . In a city stiff with polymaths , he was the polymath's polymath . Egon Friedell looms large in this book . Active from the early years of the twentieth century until the ...
... once famous for being better informed than anybody in Vienna . In a city stiff with polymaths , he was the polymath's polymath . Egon Friedell looms large in this book . Active from the early years of the twentieth century until the ...
Page xxv
... once said that what we keep in our heads is the sum of a writer : a " composite quota- tion . " But the only reason I still know that Bely once said that is that I wrote it down . There was a time when I could fairly fluently read ...
... once said that what we keep in our heads is the sum of a writer : a " composite quota- tion . " But the only reason I still know that Bely once said that is that I wrote it down . There was a time when I could fairly fluently read ...
Page xxvii
... once believed to be self - evidently creative . George Orwell thought , and said , that the bourgeoisie was the enemy of the proletariat , until the practical evidence persuaded him that anyone who believed the two classes could not be ...
... once believed to be self - evidently creative . George Orwell thought , and said , that the bourgeoisie was the enemy of the proletariat , until the practical evidence persuaded him that anyone who believed the two classes could not be ...
Page xxix
... once was myself , almost every foreign phrase is translated on the spot ; but the occasional single foreign word is left to stand alone when its meaning can be easily inferred . Sometimes a quoted phrase , or the account of an incident ...
... once was myself , almost every foreign phrase is translated on the spot ; but the occasional single foreign word is left to stand alone when its meaning can be easily inferred . Sometimes a quoted phrase , or the account of an incident ...
Contents
VII | 11 |
IX | 16 |
XI | 23 |
XII | 31 |
XIII | 45 |
XIV | 47 |
XV | 57 |
XVI | 63 |
LXXVI | 432 |
LXXVII | 441 |
LXXVIII | 455 |
LXXIX | 460 |
LXXX | 470 |
LXXXI | 481 |
LXXXII | 485 |
LXXXIII | 492 |
XVII | 72 |
XVIII | 77 |
XIX | 85 |
XX | 87 |
XXI | 94 |
XXII | 101 |
XXIII | 106 |
XXIV | 110 |
XXV | 115 |
XXVI | 119 |
XXVII | 122 |
XXVIII | 128 |
XXIX | 133 |
XXX | 145 |
XXXI | 148 |
XXXII | 154 |
XXXIII | 161 |
XXXIV | 163 |
XXXV | 169 |
XXXVI | 175 |
XXXVII | 181 |
XXXVIII | 183 |
XXXIX | 188 |
XL | 199 |
XLI | 201 |
XLII | 205 |
XLIII | 209 |
XLIV | 220 |
XLV | 224 |
XLVI | 230 |
XLVII | 250 |
XLVIII | 255 |
XLIX | 257 |
L | 261 |
LI | 271 |
LII | 280 |
LIII | 289 |
LIV | 297 |
LV | 299 |
LVI | 305 |
LVII | 311 |
LVIII | 321 |
LIX | 328 |
LX | 335 |
LXI | 337 |
LXII | 341 |
LXIII | 343 |
LXIV | 348 |
LXV | 353 |
LXVI | 359 |
LXVII | 364 |
LXVIII | 368 |
LXIX | 377 |
LXX | 379 |
LXXI | 407 |
LXXII | 409 |
LXXIII | 414 |
LXXIV | 420 |
LXXV | 428 |
LXXXIV | 501 |
LXXXV | 515 |
LXXXVI | 524 |
LXXXVII | 533 |
LXXXVIII | 535 |
LXXXIX | 543 |
XC | 545 |
XCI | 555 |
XCII | 557 |
XCIII | 562 |
XCIV | 571 |
XCV | 574 |
XCVI | 578 |
XCVII | 583 |
XCVIII | 585 |
XCIX | 589 |
C | 591 |
CI | 600 |
CII | 607 |
CIII | 612 |
CIV | 625 |
CV | 637 |
CVI | 639 |
CVII | 650 |
CVIII | 658 |
CIX | 664 |
CX | 669 |
CXI | 680 |
CXII | 684 |
CXIII | 706 |
CXIV | 715 |
CXV | 719 |
CXVI | 727 |
CXVII | 729 |
CXVIII | 735 |
CXIX | 742 |
CXX | 747 |
CXXI | 759 |
CXXII | 761 |
CXXIII | 766 |
CXXIV | 773 |
CXXV | 781 |
CXXVI | 783 |
CXXVII | 790 |
CXXVIII | 795 |
CXXIX | 797 |
CXXX | 801 |
CXXXI | 809 |
CXXXII | 811 |
CXXXIII | 823 |
CXXXIV | 825 |
CXXXV | 829 |
CXXXVI | 833 |
CXXXVII | 845 |
CXXXVIII | 847 |
CXXXIX | 853 |
857 | |
Other editions - View all
Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts Clive James No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
admirers Alfred Polgar already American Aron artist beautiful believe better café called career civilization Communist creative critic culture death Egon Friedell English Ernesto Sabato Ernst Jünger essay everything exile famous film French German gift Goebbels Golo Golo Mann Gombrowicz happened hard Hitler human idea intellectual jazz Jean-François Revel Jews knew language later less liberal literary lived look Marcel Reich-Ranicki mental mind modern Montesquieu movie Nazis never novel philosopher play poem poet poetry Polgar political probably prose Proust Raymond Aron reader reason remember Revel Rilke Sartre Schnitzler sense sentence Shakespeare Sophie Scholl sound Soviet Union Stalin Stefan Zweig story student style Tacitus talent talk tango tell thing Thomas Mann thought tion took true truth twentieth century Vienna wanted whole Witold Gombrowicz word write written wrote young Zweig