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 Customer Reviews
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
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Customer Reviews
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
Superb graphic novel, 07 Oct 2008
Who says British comics are dead? They're alive and well and in a new format as this excellent adaptation of Dickens' most famous work proves. Superb artwork from Mike Collins on this his 25th year as a professional comic artist. Great value for money. Would make an excellent Christmas present or a gift at any time of the year.
Classical Comics are producing some impressive books in this line. Check them all out.
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Customer Reviews
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
Superb graphic novel, 07 Oct 2008
Who says British comics are dead? They're alive and well and in a new format as this excellent adaptation of Dickens' most famous work proves. Superb artwork from Mike Collins on this his 25th year as a professional comic artist. Great value for money. Would make an excellent Christmas present or a gift at any time of the year.
Classical Comics are producing some impressive books in this line. Check them all out.
A worthy addition to the series, 24 Nov 2007
I'll admit I was a little disappointed when I first read North Face of Soho, but after reading it a second time I now feel it makes a perfect addition to the series. Getting over the disappoint was just a matter of taking the book on its own terms. At times it does feel like a different book from its predecessors, but there are good reasons for this (James himself discusses them at the end of the third volume) and the differences don't detract from the usual levels of style, story-telling and entertainment we've come to expect.
The main differences relate to the book's focus, which James feels has to be narrower than before. He operates a strict media blackout when it comes to his family so we sadly get almost nothing of Clive James the husband or father. But James more than compensates by giving us a superbly engaging account of his professional development: his first successes in literary journalism and television, the failures that inevitably accompanied them, the people who influenced him, and the slow but steady rise to stability and stardom. We might be sorry that he rarely strays beyond these limits, but, as usual, we can't fault him on the story that he does tell.
Aside from different content there is also a change in overall tone, with the author's sense of the clock running down informing much of his commentary. His impressions as he occupies `the waiting room' can tend towards the fatalistic at times, but the old sparkle is never far away; the funny moments may be slightly fewer and further between, but they are certainly there and when they arrive they are as painfully funny as you would expect. (And if the author sounds a little more serious, we can hardly begrudge this in a book about growing up.)
James is an older man now and it's no surprise if he isn't writing exactly the same kind of book he was writing ten or twenty years ago. But the current volume of memoirs displays an impressive continuity with its predecessors and there's every reason to look forward to the next. Read this one in the context of the other three, accept that it will have a slightly different feel to it, and you won't be disappointed.
The Best Yet, 01 Oct 2007
"Falling Towards England" was always the funniest book I've ever read. In this latest installment of his memoirs Clive James takes the humour of the previous volume and hones it to a sophisticated perfection - the descriptions of his colleagues and various editors and mentors at The Pillar of Hercules had me bellowing with laughter - but tempers it with an older wisdom, a poignant sense of time passing all too quickly and not in the right direction.
Here too are some wonderful apercus about the process of writing, and a passionate sense of how much it matters. The result is a celebration of the fun of bohemia and of the deep seriousness which must underpin it if the work is to get done.
A change of pace, 07 Sep 2007
It's been a long time since the last installment of Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs appeared in 1990; the previous one came out five years before then, and the original volume (from which the series takes its title) five years before that. So there's been a change of pace, and there's a change of style as well. Much of the appeal of the first three books came from the stories of how a well-respected, intelligent, prolific media figure started out in life; the contrast between his tough public persona and - say - the defecating, masturbating, over-consuming child depicted in the first volume was particularly striking. The air of self-deprecation (if not brutal honesty) hung over the second and third installments, as he sought to make his way to England, and established himself at Cambridge.
Although this installment follows on immediately from the end of the last one (where he was just about to leave Cambridge following his marriage), everything changes here. Being more an account of how he found his way into London's media scene (where he became preeminent), he's left out the self-deprecation, preferring to tell the story straight. Part of this appears to be a sharing of his experiences in an attempt to instruct any reader who has ideas about following in his footsteps. This is doubtless a worthy cause, but it has the effect of limiting the range of appeal for the book - certainly when compared to the original volume, which (as he acknowledges here) has become the most popular of all his books.
So lovers of his wit and humour won't find much to admire here. They also won't find many examples of his brilliantly coruscating style - indeed, parts of the writing appear to be somewhat rushed, as he makes promises to return to subjects in a way that's almost chatty, and certainly not up to his usual standards of construction. The hubris that he's sometimes accused of breaks through here and there as well, as when he attempts to excuse his poor listening skills by noting that "they used to accuse Scott Fitzgerald of the same thing". However, there are still memorable examples of his characteristic knack for finding exactly the right image, as on p150: "If all the accomplished but not especially interesting would-be writers became schoolteachers and taught grammar, the country would be on the road to recovery. The sky has more stars than it knows what to do with, but it can't do without gravity."
Disappointing after the excellent Unreliable Memoirs., 14 Aug 2007
Clive James has a lot to answer for, I obsessively read and reread the first three volumes of his autobiography. The combination of bad behaviour and good delivery was irresistible.
Unfortunately this volume was much flatter, it deals with James' formative media years as a writer for the Observer and a rising TV presenter.
Becoming a household name is obviously a lot of hard work, and it generally seems that Clive has less affection for these times, unfortunately it shows in the writing. Although there are laugh out loud parts of the book, they are rarer than the first three books, and generally a feeling of exhaustion and self reference seems to have overcome the whole project. When he starts quoting himself in the final chapters, it begins to get quite irritating.
The chapter on interviewing movie stars is very funny and astute but the rest is quite ordinary. He's also quite dismissive of Manchester and far too nice to media types like Janet Street Porter and Pamela Stephenson.
Don't bother unless you're a fan.
Among the soho boozers, 04 Jan 2007
There is much to admire in Clive James's writing: erudition, compact phrasing and a discursive style that can engage a reader's interest in often obscure topics. Unfortunately, the fourth instalment of memoirs takes all these elements and regurgitates them into accidental self-parody.
The problem that the author has is that the launching of his undeniably successful media career is likely to be of far less interest to his readers than it so obviously is to himself. The first three books derived their humour from the pitfalls of growing up in the suburbs and overcoming the gaucheness and pretensions of early adulthood, topics we can all relate to in some way.
The current book deals at inordinate length with the details of freelance contracts, negotiating a salary increase at the Observer and the rather inane accoutrements of the jobbing journalist - which doubtless induces a shiver of recognition in struggling freelancers but remains superfluous in terms of riveting biography. It is hard to see how we are supposed to interpret these vignettes apart from the fact that they are entirely self-congratulatory.
The same goes for the long passages about having lunch with Christopher Hitchens and Martin Amis. Despite the fact that Christopher Hitchens has had an awful lot of lunches with many people of interest, the buyers of this book are unlikely to be among them. The most revealingly comment on the "London Literary Society" lunch club, as Mr James dubs them, is that few, if any of them, have produced anything of note in years and Christopher Hitchens has become the cell block punk for the neo-conservatives in Washington.
There is enough in the book to sustain the read, but be prepared for the type of belaboured puns, metaphors and similies that bear all the hallmarks of a once-good writer in terminal decline. The recent Robert Hughes autobiography, an Australian contemporary and also part of the 1960's Kangeroo valley in London, shows a much better grasp of factual storytelling.
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Customer Reviews
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
Superb graphic novel, 07 Oct 2008
Who says British comics are dead? They're alive and well and in a new format as this excellent adaptation of Dickens' most famous work proves. Superb artwork from Mike Collins on this his 25th year as a professional comic artist. Great value for money. Would make an excellent Christmas present or a gift at any time of the year.
Classical Comics are producing some impressive books in this line. Check them all out.
A worthy addition to the series, 24 Nov 2007
I'll admit I was a little disappointed when I first read North Face of Soho, but after reading it a second time I now feel it makes a perfect addition to the series. Getting over the disappoint was just a matter of taking the book on its own terms. At times it does feel like a different book from its predecessors, but there are good reasons for this (James himself discusses them at the end of the third volume) and the differences don't detract from the usual levels of style, story-telling and entertainment we've come to expect.
The main differences relate to the book's focus, which James feels has to be narrower than before. He operates a strict media blackout when it comes to his family so we sadly get almost nothing of Clive James the husband or father. But James more than compensates by giving us a superbly engaging account of his professional development: his first successes in literary journalism and television, the failures that inevitably accompanied them, the people who influenced him, and the slow but steady rise to stability and stardom. We might be sorry that he rarely strays beyond these limits, but, as usual, we can't fault him on the story that he does tell.
Aside from different content there is also a change in overall tone, with the author's sense of the clock running down informing much of his commentary. His impressions as he occupies `the waiting room' can tend towards the fatalistic at times, but the old sparkle is never far away; the funny moments may be slightly fewer and further between, but they are certainly there and when they arrive they are as painfully funny as you would expect. (And if the author sounds a little more serious, we can hardly begrudge this in a book about growing up.)
James is an older man now and it's no surprise if he isn't writing exactly the same kind of book he was writing ten or twenty years ago. But the current volume of memoirs displays an impressive continuity with its predecessors and there's every reason to look forward to the next. Read this one in the context of the other three, accept that it will have a slightly different feel to it, and you won't be disappointed.
The Best Yet, 01 Oct 2007
"Falling Towards England" was always the funniest book I've ever read. In this latest installment of his memoirs Clive James takes the humour of the previous volume and hones it to a sophisticated perfection - the descriptions of his colleagues and various editors and mentors at The Pillar of Hercules had me bellowing with laughter - but tempers it with an older wisdom, a poignant sense of time passing all too quickly and not in the right direction.
Here too are some wonderful apercus about the process of writing, and a passionate sense of how much it matters. The result is a celebration of the fun of bohemia and of the deep seriousness which must underpin it if the work is to get done.
A change of pace, 07 Sep 2007
It's been a long time since the last installment of Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs appeared in 1990; the previous one came out five years before then, and the original volume (from which the series takes its title) five years before that. So there's been a change of pace, and there's a change of style as well. Much of the appeal of the first three books came from the stories of how a well-respected, intelligent, prolific media figure started out in life; the contrast between his tough public persona and - say - the defecating, masturbating, over-consuming child depicted in the first volume was particularly striking. The air of self-deprecation (if not brutal honesty) hung over the second and third installments, as he sought to make his way to England, and established himself at Cambridge.
Although this installment follows on immediately from the end of the last one (where he was just about to leave Cambridge following his marriage), everything changes here. Being more an account of how he found his way into London's media scene (where he became preeminent), he's left out the self-deprecation, preferring to tell the story straight. Part of this appears to be a sharing of his experiences in an attempt to instruct any reader who has ideas about following in his footsteps. This is doubtless a worthy cause, but it has the effect of limiting the range of appeal for the book - certainly when compared to the original volume, which (as he acknowledges here) has become the most popular of all his books.
So lovers of his wit and humour won't find much to admire here. They also won't find many examples of his brilliantly coruscating style - indeed, parts of the writing appear to be somewhat rushed, as he makes promises to return to subjects in a way that's almost chatty, and certainly not up to his usual standards of construction. The hubris that he's sometimes accused of breaks through here and there as well, as when he attempts to excuse his poor listening skills by noting that "they used to accuse Scott Fitzgerald of the same thing". However, there are still memorable examples of his characteristic knack for finding exactly the right image, as on p150: "If all the accomplished but not especially interesting would-be writers became schoolteachers and taught grammar, the country would be on the road to recovery. The sky has more stars than it knows what to do with, but it can't do without gravity."
Disappointing after the excellent Unreliable Memoirs., 14 Aug 2007
Clive James has a lot to answer for, I obsessively read and reread the first three volumes of his autobiography. The combination of bad behaviour and good delivery was irresistible.
Unfortunately this volume was much flatter, it deals with James' formative media years as a writer for the Observer and a rising TV presenter.
Becoming a household name is obviously a lot of hard work, and it generally seems that Clive has less affection for these times, unfortunately it shows in the writing. Although there are laugh out loud parts of the book, they are rarer than the first three books, and generally a feeling of exhaustion and self reference seems to have overcome the whole project. When he starts quoting himself in the final chapters, it begins to get quite irritating.
The chapter on interviewing movie stars is very funny and astute but the rest is quite ordinary. He's also quite dismissive of Manchester and far too nice to media types like Janet Street Porter and Pamela Stephenson.
Don't bother unless you're a fan.
Among the soho boozers, 04 Jan 2007
There is much to admire in Clive James's writing: erudition, compact phrasing and a discursive style that can engage a reader's interest in often obscure topics. Unfortunately, the fourth instalment of memoirs takes all these elements and regurgitates them into accidental self-parody.
The problem that the author has is that the launching of his undeniably successful media career is likely to be of far less interest to his readers than it so obviously is to himself. The first three books derived their humour from the pitfalls of growing up in the suburbs and overcoming the gaucheness and pretensions of early adulthood, topics we can all relate to in some way.
The current book deals at inordinate length with the details of freelance contracts, negotiating a salary increase at the Observer and the rather inane accoutrements of the jobbing journalist - which doubtless induces a shiver of recognition in struggling freelancers but remains superfluous in terms of riveting biography. It is hard to see how we are supposed to interpret these vignettes apart from the fact that they are entirely self-congratulatory.
The same goes for the long passages about having lunch with Christopher Hitchens and Martin Amis. Despite the fact that Christopher Hitchens has had an awful lot of lunches with many people of interest, the buyers of this book are unlikely to be among them. The most revealingly comment on the "London Literary Society" lunch club, as Mr James dubs them, is that few, if any of them, have produced anything of note in years and Christopher Hitchens has become the cell block punk for the neo-conservatives in Washington.
There is enough in the book to sustain the read, but be prepared for the type of belaboured puns, metaphors and similies that bear all the hallmarks of a once-good writer in terminal decline. The recent Robert Hughes autobiography, an Australian contemporary and also part of the 1960's Kangeroo valley in London, shows a much better grasp of factual storytelling.
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
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Customer Reviews
Great collection of essays, 22 Oct 2008
A superb collection of essays on some of the most interesting figures of the twentieth century. Many of them are obscure and I found the book useful for expanding my reading in new and unexpected directions. Since buying Cultural Amnesia I have often found myself looking up further books by the people mentioned.
This is a great book to have lying around for when you have ten minutes to spare and want something quick but mind expanding to read.
Find out what you didn't know you should know!, 19 Oct 2008
How do you define your humanity, your worth and the meaning of the good life? Did the last book you read, the last poem heard, the choir on Classic FM, the last serious piece of reportage in the newspaper make you think, widen the space for thought, help you engage more as a citizen? Did you make a note of the words that hit a spot? Remember to look that book up when next in the library, wonder what that old book of essays would be like you came across in the second hand bookshop. Perhaps as you get older do you see a pattern in what moves you in music, what is good writing and which political ideas increases the possibility of greater freedom of expression and those that close the creative spaces down?
One way to describe this book is to see it as Clive James 40 years exploration to make sense himself, his work and the world around him through works of the well-known, forgotten, cut-short or bogus mainly western intelligentsia. These are over but not confined the past 150 years. He also throws in 20th century film stars, fashion designers, TV broadcasters, jazz musicians and reporters. The format is over 100 individual pen-sketches grouped in alphabetical order of individuals that have aroused his interest with as sentence, comment, or thought and been inked over the years in his journal. From these seeds grows an essay that critically reveals more about the idea or the character or the context but done in his usually witty light foxtrot prose. Knowing that nothing worse then a judgement on writing style not seem here are three extracts.
Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (p.177)
`And above all, I am not interested enough in politics to let them encumber my last days'
On the face of it, Drieu's valedictory testament was absurd. It was 1944, after the liberation of Paris; he had never made any secret of collaborating with the ***; his deeds were done and his time had run out. And his entire personal disaster had been because of his interest in politics. Already resolved to suicide, he was attributing a deficiency to himself in the very area where he had been most obsessed.
Chares De Gaulle (p.258)
After a life of misery, Anne de Gaulle, who had a severe case of Down's syndrome, died choking in her father's arms. She was 20 years old. At her funeral, de Gaulle is reputed to have said, "Now she is like the others". The awful beauty of that remark lies in how it hints at what he had so often felt...For us, that overhear the last gasp of a long agony, there is a additional poignancy of recognising that the Man of Destiny lived every day with an heavenly dispensation he could not control. But to be faced from day to day with a quirk of fate not amenable to human will is sometimes the point of sanity for a man who lives by imposing his personality-the point of salvation, the redeeming weakness.
Miguel De Unamuno (p771)
The eternal, not the modern, is what I love: the modern will be antiquated and grotesque in ten years, when the fashion passes.
The quoted passage makes more sense when we trace what he meant by eternismo, the eternal. He didn't mean an appeal to transcendental values: he meant attention to the profane reality that is always there. On the same page...he wrote the universal is in the guts of the local and circumscribe, and that the eternal is the guts of the temporal and evanescent ... (memo to myself and younger readers: all guesses about tone in a foreign language should be checked with someone who speaks it for a living).
If you have gone... "er never heard of them" then that's a major theme of this book which examines the fate of those intellectuals and their works in the fall out of the Red and Fascist terrors of the 20th centuries as well as the South American dictatorships. Voices lost as they are swept away to death camps, or corrupted to stay on the right side of the prevailing political winds. Books left as floating corpses as the Saloon life of St Peters, Vienna and Paris sank and burned in the 20's and 30's:a tradition with roots in a different form of Jewish prejudice. Another theme is the cant and empty postures by usually left wing intellectuals during the Cold War that would have resulted in a long death in the countries they claim to admire.
I have sympathy with this augment having seen at first hand the middle class student Trotskyites who saw the working class as the ideal except when meeting the wider trade unions membership and ordinary people. Who naturally were seduced by the media to not grasp the wisdom of their leaders in waiting. I was one of those who joined the Communists in the 80's but had no illusions of what they were doing in Russia and China. I saw the dedication and faith that the little band of activists in wanting to change things by active mobilisation rather then electoral engagement alone. Of course we would have all been the first to vanish in any of the systems that we were assuming the UK to be. But read the book and you don't see the poverty and lack of opportunity and social justice that creates the Left. I still see politics of changing the agenda more important then the politics of elections and would tackle the illusion of liberal democracy not with the charge that they are not democratic but that they see democracy stopping at the gates of the factory or school. Other notions such as Social Capital and Environmental Justice movements show currents shaking off traditional notions of Electoral Socialism.
These are minor quibbles for what is timely reminder what we are losing in this country with an Education system that fetishes churning out workers and not enabling citizens. Clive James reads many of the books he discusses in their original language, has a lively interest in how films, TV, poetry are creating our cultural life. He can judge and put into context what the writer or performer is offering. Can you? Would you try? See what you lose if you don't try.
In a conversation on Picasso's Guernica Matthews asked his students to...look at their inner response...what sound do you hear from the painting?... the room exploded in howls of pain and rage. The door flew open and two students from the hallway stuck their heads in, their expressions resembling the faces in the painting itself.
Said one participant, `Suddenly I saw that these art forms were making a claim on me. They were saying, "Wake up! Live your real life."
Stanfield, R.B. (2000) The Art of Focused Conversation p.2
Yes, look at just how clever Clive James is!!, 23 Jul 2008
This book is not so much of a polemic, but the presentation of various points of view with which the reader can debate with himself / herself and others (including the author himself). It is a book crying out for contention and argument. As a `dipping' book therefore it is one of the most intellectually worthy publications of the past few years, and I would recommend that 'dipping' in and out of its contents is the most rewarding way to approach it.
I personally do have my reservations about several points that James makes, for example I think his opinions on music (especially Jazz) are somewhat myopic, and he certainly has a big problem with both Sartre and Brecht, but the joy to be had here is to question your own perceptions of these subjects again in the light of your newly formed experiences.
James's observations remind me of George Orwell's essays in the sense that often James will push the reader to places where he does not want to go, and in so doing forces a re-evaluation of long-held and cherished opinions. This is very healthy. Also like Orwell, the points of view are written to set the blood pumping and hone the critical parts of one's brain to such an extent that it is almost irrelevant if you agree with what is being said or not.
If you re-read a chapter again a few months down the line, you may find that your opinions have changed again, just like when reading an Orwell essay.
The promotion of critical thought is the main object of this book, and Mr. James achieves it superbly with his style.
More problematical is that there are a few `typos' to be found in this edition which I hope will be corrected either in a later edition, Mr. James's website, or in the second volume that Mr. James is contemplating.
Another problem with the book is the stated aim that the book has been written to instruct the young. I feel that this objective may prove to be optimistic on Mr. James' part, not because I think that the young are not up to the challenges that a study of humanism entails, but the many faceted approach James adopts in his writing style requires the bringing to bear of accumulated life experiences which the younger reader may not have had the time to accumulate. I hope I'm wrong.
As for the `pissing contest' innuendo from a previous reviewer, all I can say to that is such a remark is proof (if proof were ever required) that the British trait of inverted snobbery is alive and well. It is more desirable alternative to have the guy dribble on about Margarita Pracatan for the rest of his career? Why is it that any display of erudition from a writer or commentator becomes something to be cynically condemned by a small but vocal part of society, as if sharing an intelligent mind is akin to the wanton display of some kind of hideous deformity. Is accumulated knowledge exclusively to be kept to one's self, or to be shared with others?
If that reviewer was to reach beyond his/her own snap judgement and actually pay attention what is actually being said, then he or she may learn something (shock, horror!), or (gasp!) may actually want to find out more.
Most of the `obscure references' referred to in the book are either available from this site or at your friendly neighbourhood second-hand bookseller. So most are not obscure at all, really.
If you are at all interested in the humanities, then this is a book to be thoroughly recommended. There is nothing to be afraid of within these pages, and if used as intended (supplemented with some of the works referred to) this book will be a passport (or postcard!) to the start of a wonderful voyage of self-discovery for any reader.
It has wit, charm, and variety in spades, and is an erudite affirmation of the human condition just when it is most needed. Congratulations to Mr. James.
Brilliant, 19 Jun 2008
If you are like me in any way and show an interest in literature, philosphy, science, history, politics, art and music - but are often put off by the often inpenetrable, pretentious writing on them - then this book is for you. If on the other hand you have no problem with inpenetrable, pretentious cultural studies, then this is for you to re-aqaint yourself with the English language!
Clive James writes wonderful, simple, clear prose. And it is full of insights, page and page. A man who seems to know so much could be forgiven for being arrogant - but there is not a hint of it in this book. This is a book written with real understanding of his subjects, you will find no ill-informed polemics here. This is not to say that he writes about some people he does not like - Sarte amongst others - but what he does do is avoid the obvious criticims. The book is broken up into chapter of about 4-12 pages, each using a famous C20th (sometimes C19th) figure as his starting point, before taking you off on an interesting angle. It's perfect for dipping in an out of, and given the size of the book, fantastic value for money. Given the number of insights he makes, it's just as well it is something you dip in an out of - I have frequently found myself putting the book down after reading a chapter, intent on letting what I have read run round my head for a while. I'll probably be dipping in and out of it for a year to come.
I haven't come across a book quite like this before. I'd go as far as to say it's the best buy I have ever made on Amazon.
Just how clever is Clive James!!, 11 Jun 2008
The great thing about Clive James is that as you read his essays you get a really positive feeling that he is sharing not just his opinions but his experiences and influences. He is one of those cultural attrators that will set you off on a complete tangent and open up new vistas in your reading life. I've read North Face of Soho and this book back to back and can't wait to dip into some of the many recommendations offered.
Superb graphic novel, 07 Oct 2008
Who says British comics are dead? They're alive and well and in a new format as this excellent adaptation of Dickens' most famous work proves. Superb artwork from Mike Collins on this his 25th year as a professional comic artist. Great value for money. Would make an excellent Christmas present or a gift at any time of the year.
Classical Comics are producing some impressive books in this line. Check them all out.
A worthy addition to the series, 24 Nov 2007
I'll admit I was a little disappointed when I first read North Face of Soho, but after reading it a second time I now feel it makes a perfect addition to the series. Getting over the disappoint was just a matter of taking the book on its own terms. At times it does feel like a different book from its predecessors, but there are good reasons for this (James himself discusses them at the end of the third volume) and the differences don't detract from the usual levels of style, story-telling and entertainment we've come to expect.
The main differences relate to the book's focus, which James feels has to be narrower than before. He operates a strict media blackout when it comes to his family so we sadly get almost nothing of Clive James the husband or father. But James more than compensates by giving us a superbly engaging account of his professional development: his first successes in literary journalism and television, the failures that inevitably accompanied them, the people who influenced him, and the slow but steady rise to stability and stardom. We might be sorry that he rarely strays beyond these limits, but, as usual, we can't fault him on the story that he does tell.
Aside from different content there is also a change in overall tone, with the author's sense of the clock running down informing much of his commentary. His impressions as he occupies `the waiting room' can tend towards the fatalistic at times, but the old sparkle is never far away; the funny moments may be slightly fewer and further between, but they are certainly there and when they arrive they are as painfully funny as you would expect. (And if the author sounds a little more serious, we can hardly begrudge this in a book about growing up.)
James is an older man now and it's no surprise if he isn't writing exactly the same kind of book he was writing ten or twenty years ago. But the current volume of memoirs displays an impressive continuity with its predecessors and there's every reason to look forward to the next. Read this one in the context of the other three, accept that it will have a slightly different feel to it, and you won't be disappointed.
The Best Yet, 01 Oct 2007
"Falling Towards England" was always the funniest book I've ever read. In this latest installment of his memoirs Clive James takes the humour of the previous volume and hones it to a sophisticated perfection - the descriptions of his colleagues and various editors and mentors at The Pillar of Hercules had me bellowing with laughter - but tempers it with an older wisdom, a poignant sense of time passing all too quickly and not in the right direction.
Here too are some wonderful apercus about the process of writing, and a passionate sense of how much it matters. The result is a celebration of the fun of bohemia and of the deep seriousness which must underpin it if the work is to get done.
A change of pace, 07 Sep 2007
It's been a long time since the last installment of Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs appeared in 1990; the previous one came out five years before then, and the original volume (from which the series takes its title) five years before that. So there's been a change of pace, and there's a change of style as well. Much of the appeal of the first three books came from the stories of how a well-respected, intelligent, p | | |