Cultural Amnesia
by Clive James · first published 2007
10mentions
4recommended by
5HN commenters
2013–2022first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
Echoing Edward Said's belief that "Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism," renowned critic Clive James presents here his life's work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, this book 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 t
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…others also don't hear. That is Kraus' alter ego speaking, in the context of the Great War and jingoism in Austria-Hungary, which the play satirizes. If you want an intro, Clive James has an essay in Cultural Amnesia, which is a great book in its own right.
on “The Last Days of Mankind” ↗Clive James has an interesting essay on Mann in Cultural Amnesia.
on “The Unbearable Pathos of Thomas Mann (2016)” ↗Tl;dr, have to get to work. But a. For a cooler look at Karl Kraus, check out the essay on him in Clive James's Cultural Amnesia. b. The PC/Mac/whatever bit is tedious and silly. c. Comparing the US to the Austro-Hungarian empire is also silly. One might stipulate that we comprise wildly different cultures also; but that would…
on “Jonathan Franzen: what's wrong with the modern world” ↗Clive James wrote a book — Cultural Amnesia — that comes at this concept from a slightly different angle, but still very interesting.
on “Forgetting the Asbestos – how we lose knowledge and technologies” ↗Can thoroughly recommend his 'Cultural Amnesia' with its highly eclectic collection of thoughts on almost 100 people as disparate as Louis Armstrong, Terry Gilliam, Hitler, Mao, Kafka, Fellini, Beatrix Potter, Sartre, Tacitus, Thatcher, Wittgenstein…
on “Clive James Got It Right” ↗Clive James' website is and will (I believe) remain up. https://www.clivejames.com/ Definitely worth a visit. Try video/talking in the library for a load of fascinating interviews. His book 'Cultural Amnesia' is a marvellous cultural review to stimulate, annoy and delight most readers.
on “The Enduring Prose and Poetry of Clive James” ↗To quote (approximately) from Clive James (essay in Cultural Amnesia) on Gibbon's style "the Grand National, with fences 10 yards apart, each to be jumped forward and backward; and you have to carry your horse."
on “Edward Gibbon and the importance of great writing to great history” ↗…necessary for those of us who aren't handy with Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and don't have the Bible memorized. Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit (vol. ii) by Egon Friedell. Clive James's recommendation in Cultural Amnesia put me onto this one. Most interesting, but slow going because my German is rusty. [Edit: got rid of most of the "most interesting"s.]
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗Some of the books in my 2020 to be read basket: Cultural Amnesia by Clive James Exhalation by Ted Chiang Silver, Sword & Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Maria Arana The World As I Found It by Bruce Duffy Alice And Bob Meet The Wall Of Fire…
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗Upvoted for the mention of Cultural Amnesia. Jonathan Franzen brought out The Kraus Project in 2013; I haven't read any of it, unless an excerpt from the introduction in a book review.
on “The Last Days of Mankind” ↗