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Title: Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life by Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, E. F. Jephcott ISBN: 0-86091-704-5 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: December, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A callenging, flawed thinker reflects a flawed world.
Comment: Like Noam Chomsky, Theodor Adorno is one of those thinkers whose exposures of what society keeps hidden are so antithetical to received opinion, that they are either ignored or attacked by those who evade the actual issues at hand. While Chomsky uncovers hypocrisy and deception in international politics, Adorno cuts to the heart of alienated modern subjectivity, exploring the paradoxes and delusions of a world that most people imagine couldn't be otherwise. While his writing always carries a faint glimmer of hope that "things could be different", Adorno is largely pessimistic about the possibility of true freedom and reconciliation (in a Marxist sense) under the often absurd conditions of modern life. Now, this doesn't mean that he subjects "society" to vicious attack. On the contrary (and again, like Chomsky), Adorno speaks with sobriety and erudition. He's not afraid to interogate the customs and habits that are woven into the very fabric of modern institutions, charting their evolution and pointing out the relatively late development of many types of human interaction that are ordinarily dismissed as human nature, if thought of at all.
Adorno's dense, challenging prose can be difficult to digest in large portions. I made the mistake of beginning my exploration of his work with "Aesthetic Theory", which consists of 250 pages of undiluted thought, and no chapter divisions. The aphoristic collection of ruminations that is "Minima Moralia" is a much better introduction to this twists and turns of Adorno's thinking. As always, he uncondescendingly offers faithful transcriptions of his very thought processes, making things both difficult for the lazy reader, and more revealing to attentive readers able to hug the sharp corners at accelerated mental speeds. Adorno's critique centers on the alienation produced by commodity culture, where everything is reduced to a price tag, the complementary "administered" world, where all aspects of modern existence are mediated by government beaurocracy, and the shallow "culture industry" that dispenses the bread and circuses of corporate pop culture to superficially fill the void at the center of a "free" existence enslaved to capital. This book will hit some uncomfortable nerves, and sections here have the same potential to change one's life as David Edwards' "Burning All Illusions", a more psychological/political attack on the underlying societal assumptions that are uncritically accepted as given. However, unlike Edwards, Adorno sees no way out of the vast prison of alienation that precariously butresses the pervasive false consciousness of the modern subject. Potential avenues of escape are quickly dismissed as illusory products of man's false sense of freedom. Edwards doesn't pull any punches in his emphasis on the difficulty of escaping the myriad mental bonds of contemporary existence, but at least he pushes the reader to seek a better life beyond the superficial trappings that have all but smothered our apprehension of the big picture of human history. Adorno resigns himself to the small consolation of having diagnosed the sickness, while advising a low-key existence, afloat in a sea that is, nevertheless, recognized for its falsehood.
Ultimately, Adorno was a vital critic of what often goes unconsidered, not to mention a razor-sharp philosophical mind. While a master of unmasking the falsity of so-called first principles, he isn't without his own ideological givens: He relies far too much on the dialectical method of Hegel and Marx. Still, within the experimental controls provided by his subtly dogmatic ideological undergirding, Adorno provides ample food for thought. The hardline intellectual presentation requires the reader to operate at a level conducive to critical thinking, not only in relation to society, but in relation to
Adorno's thought itself.
Rating: 1
Summary: Stay away from Adorno
Comment: Since nobody found the previous review helpfull, I'll change it. In fact, I'll use this space to point you in the direction of more helpful criticism. Read "The Opium of the Intellectuals" by Raymond Aron...I just want to point out his comment that "[p]olitics is action: political theory is either the comprehension of action crystallized in events or the determination of what action is possible or advisable in a given situation."
Mr. Adorno's writings exist in the nebulous world of ideology, and some bright people have undergone a great deal of mental contortion to bring his ideas down here to the earth's surface. It seems from other reviews that Mr. Adorno is respected for his insights into modern culture. But let me ask: what are we to do with these brilliant epiphanies? Can they actually guide us toward anything real or useful? No. I believe his fragments fail, ultimately, under the weight of their own pretension. They are nothing more than semi-artful ways of serving up less-than-brilliant thoughts. No new ground is broken here. Adorno hasn't found a different way of seeing things, just a different way of saying them. And really, his way is impossible. Take a look at the prose for yourself. It's thoroughly uninteresting. A good writer is sometimes distinguished by references that are at first hard to understand, so that the reader is later drawn back to the work. Adorno crosses the line, however, relying too intensely on an elitist use of language that in some instances contradicts his arguments. I am highly turned off by this book. I recommend avoiding it.
Rating: 5
Summary: i am speechless...
Comment: ...when it comes to praising this book. as a european refugee in this country, i feel that adorno's lucidity is almost uncanny. many times i read and reread one page, enjoying and deeply respecting his wisdom and intellectual courage, shocked by his insight. it is not an easy reading and it is mostly painful...but very, very rewarding. i love books more than anything, and i spend all my money and time on them, but until now i have not read anything comparable. the only other book i know of that offers such challenge and such solace is le mythe de sisyphe by camus. by the way, i hope the english translation is good, but i recommend to read it in german.
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Title: Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, Robert Hullot-Kentor ISBN: 0816618003 Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr (Txt) Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Negative Dialectics by Theodor W. Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno ISBN: 0826401325 Publisher: Continuum Pub. Date: November, 1983 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Culture Industry (Routledge Classics) by Theodor Adorno, J. M. Bernstein, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno ISBN: 0415253802 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 30 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950 (Weimar and Now ; 10) by Martin Jay ISBN: 0520204239 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: February, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Illuminations by Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt ISBN: 0805202412 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: December, 1985 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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