Book Description
-- Lisa Jardine, author of Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance
During the last two decades, sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has become a dominant force in cultural activity ranging from taste in music and art to choices in food and lifestyles.
The Field of Cultural Production brings together Bourdieu's major essays on art and literature and provides the first introduction to Bourdieu's writings and theory of a cultural field that situates artistic works within the social conditions of their production, circulation, and consumption.
Bourdieu addresses many of the burning issues that have consumed literary, art, and cultural criticism over the past decade: aesthetic value and canonicity, intertextuality, the institutional frameworks of cultural practice, the social role of intellectuals and artists, and structures of literary and artistic authority.
Book Description
From the Introduction
Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
It is a beauty of things modest and humble.
It is a beauty of things unconventional.
The immediate catalyst for this book was a widely publicized tea event in Japan. The Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi has long been associated with the tea ceremony, and this event promised to be a profound wabi-sabi experience. Hiroshi Teshigahara, the hereditary iemoto (grand master) of the Sogetsu school of flower arranging, had commissioned three of Japan's most famous and fashionable architects to design and build their conceptions of ceremonial tea-drinking environments. Teshigahara in addition would provide a fourth design. After a three-plus-hour train and bus ride from my office in Tokyo, I arrived at the event site, the grounds of an old imperial summer residence. To my dismay I found a celebration of gorgeousness, grandeur, and elegant play, but hardly a trace of wabi-sabi. One slick tea hut, ostensibly made of paper, looked and smelled like a big white plastic umbrella. Adjacent was a structure made of glass, steel, and wood that had all the intimacy of a highrise office building. The one tea house that approached the wabi-sabi qualities I had anticipated, upon closer inspection, was fussed up with gratuitous post- modern appendages. It suddenly dawned on me that wabi-sabi, once the preeminent high-culture Japanese aesthetic and the acknowledged centerpiece of tea, was becoming-had become?-an endangered species.
Admittedly, the beauty of wabi-sabi is not to everyone's liking. But I believe it is in everyone's interest to prevent wabi-sabi from disappearing altogether. Diversity of the cultural ecology is a desirable state of affairs, especially in opposition to the accelerating trend toward the uniform digitalization of all sensory experience, wherein an electronic "reader" stands between experience and observation, and all manifestation is encoded identically.
In Japan, however, unlike Europe and to a lesser extent America, precious little material culture has been saved. So in Japan, saving a universe of beauty from extinction means, at this late date, not merely preserving particul
Customer Reviews:
Thought-provoking, well-crafted, informative.......2007-09-14
An informative and enlightening introduction to the concept of 'wabi-sabi', that also succeeds at inducing the actual feeling of wabi-sabi, leaving you not only with a sense of heightened awareness, but wanting to linger in that pensive, slowed-down state-of-mind into which you are deftly drawn.
a quiet, memorable read.......2007-09-07
The book is unconventional and perhaps that is the beauty of it as it attempts to define the essence of the term Wabi-Sabi. It is important to be in the right frame of mind when reading this as it is philosophical, contemplative and yet, very relaxed, understated. It's a peaceful, poetic and elightening read. I've given it out as gifts in my designer circles.
Wabi Sabi translates when working with people of technology as a designer.......2007-08-13
This is a wonderful book giving insight to a world that doesn't understand there is beauty without perfection as defined in magazines.
As a designer people will often want to lean into a contrived, look that is staged.
This book validates it is often good to step outside of the box and make a space more interesting and creative by doing so. Using the unexpected material or leaving a space uncluttered, simple to give the eye a rest.
In general it is finding perfection in imperfection in life. Our perception of things change as we grow and view the world differently.
We can only hope in a world filled with diversity we learn to open up and this is a good little book to enlighten any reader.
Content where I am, also willing to improve.......2007-04-26
The Japanese tea ceremony is popular in global literature, movies, and theater to the point of what seems a small cult following. Westerners wonder at its significance and find it mystic. "Wabi-Sabi" by Leonard Koren provides us with a glimpse of its underlying importance that can be taken as a symbol for the whole of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. To clearly define wabi-sabi in words is to destroy it. However, this book succeeds in preserving wabi-sabi's identity as a way of existence of all things in eternal transition.
Many people are intrigued by the Japanese way of "knowing without knowing." This book is a step toward some understanding of this concept that makes Japanese culture different from the West, although there are also similarities. Wabi-sabi is associated with the Japanese tea ceremony, but westerners do not understand that ceremony. Some think it to be simplicity. Others, tradition. Others, magic. They are all correct, but to express these all at once in words tears a corner out of the larger picture and sets the concept off kilter. Nothing is or can be perfect. Everything is in a stage of becoming. Even a stone is eroded by wind and water. When it is finished, it is destroyed, but it has also become another substance: dust. The dust will become something else - it will be gathered up in raindrops or hailstones or it will be washed out bit by bit to sea, any of these options deposited as sediment, once again to combine and become a stone. Anything perfect is dead or has taken on another form and will continue to do so in natural cycles. This is a small corner of wabi-sabi.
Koren's book is about seeing beauty, but not a beauty that the average American might expect, appreciate, or even take for granted. To put the concept of wabi-sabi into words is to lessen it. It is a way of knowing, but it is more a way of being. This book is physically short, but it is long. One must read it ten times and with each reading comes further understanding, especially in light of the photographic subjects included in "Wabi-Sabi" -- cracked pots, ferns, pieces of natural objects, a small dried fish, a wall. Normally, a Westerner would not see the beauty of a cracked pot, but this book can make that beauty understood.
The wabi-sabi realm is described by Koren to include a state of mind, moral precepts, material concepts, spiritual values, all combined with metaphysical properties. This last element is the state of passing through nothingness, either coming from or going to, and always one or the other - or both at once. When Westerners say that the journey in life is more important than the goals achieved, then they are grasping a part of wabi-sabi. The cracked teacup lying in the middle of a dirt road is more beautiful that the new teacup on the ceremonial table.
"Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers" begins with a historical consideration of wabi-sabi and some definitions that might be used to understand it. However, no verbal definition is completely correct or inclusive. After this first section, there is "The Wabi-Sabi Universe" in which Koren discusses all of its elements in an intriguing style. I read the entire volume in one sitting and have read parts of it several times over. The discussion of moral precepts is most interesting. "Get rid of all that is unnecessary" is good advice. In this consumer culture, Americans simultaneously throw away too much and accumulate unnecessary amounts of things. The explanation of the humble spirit that comes next is very important. Wabi-sabi rejects hierarchy, but it does not advocate anarchy. To this end, in order to enter a traditional tearoom, all participants must bend low or crawl into a small opening where they will find a simple room made from mud, paper, and bamboo. Inside, they put aside social position, politics, and rank and all are respectful to one another, all appreciating the beauty of one another and the simple objects of the tea ceremony. This is one of the spiritual values of wabi-sabi itself: Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. In addition, wabi-sabi is something that occurs naturally, not something that people purposely create, although some art pieces emulate the essence of wabi-sabi to their viewers.
"Wabi-Sabi" would be enjoyable and informative to readers interested in Asian aesthetics, nature, philosophy, art, and architecture,
A Good Book-But Not For All People.......2007-04-19
By its very nature Wabi-sabi is difficult to define. It is an aesthetic best learned through observation and personal experience. However, as Westerners we have a need for everything to be explained with words and categories. We seek to make the intuitive, rational. If you are a person who best learns through the written word, this book is for you. It is well written and dispenses with a lot of mystical babble that is often used to explain Asian philosophy. However, if you are a visual learner, you may find this book disapointing. Too much writing and not enough visual examples of the Wabi-sabi aesthetic.
Book Description
The Birth of Tragedy is one of the seminal philosophical works of the modern period. The theories developed in this relatively short text have had a profound influence on the philosophy, literature, music and politics of the twentieth century. This edition presents a new translation by Ronald Speirs and an introduction by Raymond Geuss that sets the work in its historical and philosophical context. The volume also includes two essays on related topics that Nietzsche wrote during the same period.
Customer Reviews:
Greeks, those who made life seem most seductive... .......2006-05-06
Although I'd spent some time reading Nietzsche somewhat intensively, I'm far from being a "student of Nietzsche," let alone a "Nietzsche scholar." My reading of him was more as a disturbed soul than as a student/scholar, and I didn't get much in the way of philosophical achievement of his. One of my plans for the summer is to read him more carefully and more with an eye to his intellectual development, and I began with The Birth of Tragedy.
So, BT is his first book, published when he was only 27. As he himself famously noted, 14 years after the first publication of BT, it is "a first book in every bad sense of the word." Apart from his own criticism (in "Attempt at a Self-Criticism"), any new reader just entering Nietzsche's corpus and Nietzsche scholorship is bound to hear of critical belittlements toward BT. So we hear that Nietzsche of BT is far from the mature philosopher we admire in Beyond Good and Evil and other later works, that he was under a strong sway of his youthful influences (Wagner, Schopenhauer) and was helplessly romantic. That he was a mere "philologist and cultural critic," whose philosophical maturing is years to come. That, taken with Nietzsche's later intellectual developments in mind, it is a "scandalous" (albeit in a different sense from what his detractors used it on its publication) book. Etc. Etc.
I'm now into Human, All Too Human, and I cannot but think that what Richard Schacht says in "Introduction" as to this another llargely ignored book of Nietzsche's early period equally applies to BT: "Even today, few recognize it as the gold mine it is, not only as an excellent way of becoming acquainted with his thinking, but also for its wealth of ideas worth thinking about." Coarsely put, isn't it often true that the worst work by the greatest mind often is far superior to the best by the mediocre?
My reading of BT this time concludes: his most pressing concern in BT is *not* to pay homage to Wagner or Schopenhauer, rather it is to seek ways to learn from Greeks, for as he notes, "the ability to learn from this people is in itself a matter of lofty fame and distinguishing rarity." By tracing the birth and death of tragedy in ancient Greece, Nietzsche is showing us how a culture could "justify" (affirm and embrace) even the "worst of all worlds," and how it perished. His diagnosis of modern ills toward the end of BT is indeed a goldmine, a wealth of ideas worth exploring, and is so pertinent to our time.
Perhaps Nietzsche's insights and ideas in BT have been fully explored and exhausted, and thus we may benefit more from elsewhere in this regard. Yet, as a beautifully written "youthful" book, belonging to the precious group of books we may call "books for the eternal youth (in us)," it has the power to make our heart beat faster, awakening the spirit in us we thought we have long lost.
It got me through a long plane ride.......2006-05-06
My mom gave me this book to read on a plane flight to Prague. I loved it and it kept me glued to the pages for the whole time. "The age of the Socratic man is over...only dare to be tragic men" - I love this stuff!
Sincerely,
David
Not Nietzsche's best.......2005-09-03
Mediocre work of philosophy which is riddled with overly sentimental and often corny language which drowns the originality and power of Nietzsche's thinking. Actually, Nietszche's preface to the book, which is a self-critique is excellent, and lays out the problems of the work better than I ever could, the essay is often considered a model of self-criticism. "The Birth of the Tragedy" attempts to explicate the nature of Greek tragedy, which Nietzsche argues was born when the Apollonian world view collided with the Dionysian. The second half of the book seeks to examine modern culture and art through the lens of classical Greek Tragedy, and he argues that the modern cultural era can be redeemed through a re-birth of Dionysian tragedy, which Nietzsche sees in the music of Wagner. Aside from some interesting comments on music and ancient Greek thought and mythology, "The Birth of the Tragedy" is ultimately a disappointing and pompous work.
Cross-Roads of Tragedy, Music and Philosophy.......2000-09-14
"Birth of Tragedy" can be stated as the first study off the hands of a master, concerning the European thought while establishing cross-roads between theater and music. According to Nietzsche, who approaches diverse philosophical problems along paths other than European philosophical tradition, thinking man is defined as creative, progressive and productive. His superior talents qualify him as one of the "über-mensch". Tragedy too embodies an application quality which makes its way through the dephts of human nature with the aid of music. Thus, this study is among the works which represent the intellectual personality of Nietzsche excuisitely.
Book Description
The only scholarly book in English dedicated to recent European contemporary dance, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement examines the work of key contemporary choreographers who have transformed the dance scene since the early 1990s in Europe and the US.
Through their vivid and explicit dialogue with performance art, visual arts and critical theory from the past thirty years, this new generation of choreographers challenge our understanding of dance by exhausting the concept of movement. Their work demands to be read as performed extensions of the radical politics implied in performance art, in post-structuralist and critical theory, in post-colonial theory, and in critical race studies.
In this far-ranging and exceptional study, Andre Lepecki brilliantly analyzes the work of the choreographers:
* Jerome Bel (France)
* Juan Dominguez (Spain)
* Trisha Brown (US)
* La Ribot (Spain)
* Xavier Le Roy (France-Germany)
* Vera Mantero (Portugal)
and visual and performance artists:
* Bruce Nauman (US)
* William Pope.L (US).
This book offers a significant and radical revision of the way we think about dance, arguing for the necessity of a renewed engagement between dance studies and experimental artistic and philosophical practices.
Customer Reviews:
Superb Introduction to Holistic Science.......2003-07-11
An absolutely fascinating read, at a level suitable for both professional scientists and academics but easily accessible to the layperson as well. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in holism, holistic science and the limits of science. Bortoft provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Johan Wolfgang von Goethe's approach to science, clearly showing the contemporary relevance of his entirely different way of coming to an understanding of the natural world. He underpins this analysis by his own philosophical research on the relationship between the whole and its parts.
In our daily thinking we tend to be stuck in what Bortoft calls analytic consciousness, through which we try to understand the phenomena in our world by analysing them into parts and then building them up again from those parts. In this way, the whole becomes an entity, which stands alone, albeit constituted from its parts. Goethe's way of science, however, draws on a very different conception of the whole, as being intimately entwined with its parts, in such a way that, in a sense, the whole comes into being through the parts, while at the same time the parts come into being through the whole. We can only really understand this by experiencing it and drawing on our intuitive mode of consciousness.
Bortoft shows how Goethe dwelled in the phenomena he studied to such degree that he was able to understand these phenomena, without needing to explain them. Moreover, Bortoft does an excellent job at showing how this mode of science is objective in the exact same way as conventional science is objective, in that it is verifiable by others, but dependant on a shared way of seeing the world.
Having read many parts of the book over again, I am in awe of the wholeness of this work, in the Goethean sense, so that each section forms both a part of the whole, but at the same time contains the entire work within itself. Once read as a whole, each section brings to life again the entire work, revealing each time new aspects and helping me to think afresh, with thought-provoking ideas. Striking in all this is how Bortoft has managed to bring the entire subject to life by showing so clearly how Goethe's science comes into being.
The relevance and importance of this work will no doubt increase over the years.
Incredible.......2002-02-10
I don't know when I will have the chance to sing this books praises with more details, so here I will just say the following:
This book is a masterpiece on several fronts. Here we have the best articulation yet as to why modern science must reject the healing tonic which lives in Goethe's approach. Here we have the best articulation yet of how an alternative approach to science is possible- one that is systematic and exact, yet open and participative with nature.
The methodology presented in this book is epistemologically sound, unlike the on-looker/representational epistemology that modern natural science is necessarily bound to.
This book shows us how to begin taking a step in a beautiful, true and necessary direction. more later
best non-fiction book I have read.......1999-08-13
No praise is adequate for this book with its strong unsentimental philosophical approach tempered with a relaxed style and exceptionally clear explanations of the material. It opens up a completely new way of viewing and doing science one not easily acceptable to a rigid interpretaion as it stands today. Very broad in its scope discussing very deeply the idea of world view, it is an essential read for any scientist even applied mathematicians such as myself. Unlike other books in the same vein eg metaphysical etc, in whose domain it does not belong, there are no fantastical explanations with no grounding but rather well researched arguments in favour of an almost a Socratic perspective, refering here to Socrates's character and life rather than Plato's use of him in his arguments. Recommended for all open minded readers and those who would like to have theirs opened.
Book Description
Theodor W. Adorno was a major twentieth-century philosopher and social critic whose writings on oppositional culture in art, music, and literature increasingly stand at the center of contemporary intellectual debate. In this excellent collection, Robert Hullot-Kentor, widely regarded as the most distinguished American translator and commentator on Adorno, gathers together sixteen essays he has written about the philosopher over the past twenty years.
The opening essay, "Origin Is the Goal," pursues Adorno's thesis of the dialectic of enlightenment to better understand the urgent social and political situation of the United States. "Back to Adorno" examines Adorno's idea that sacrifice is the primordial form of human domination; "Second Salvage" reconstructs Adorno's unfinished study of the transformation of music in radio transmission; and "What Is Mechanical Reproduction" revisits Adorno's criticism of Walter Benjamin. Further essays cover a broad range of topics: Adorno's affinities with Wallace Stevens and Nabokov, his complex relationship with Kierkegaard and psychoanalysis, and his critical study of popular music.
Many of these essays have been revised, with new material added that emphasizes the relevance of Adorno's thought to the United States today. Things Beyond Resemblance is a timely and richly analytical collection crucial to the study of critical theory, aesthetics, continental philosophy, and Adorno.
Book Description
The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was Nietzsche's first book. Its youthful faults were exposed by Nietzsche in the brilliant "Attempt at a Self-Criticism" which he added to the new edition of 1886. But the book, whatever its excesses, remains one of the most relevant statements on tragedy ever penned. It exploded the conception of Greek culture that was prevalent down through the Victorian era, and it sounded themes developed in the twentieth century by classicists, existentialists, psychoanalysts, and others.
The Case of Wagner (1888) was one Nietzsche's last books, and his wittiest. In attitude and style it is diametrically opposed to The Birth of Tragedy. Both works transcend their ostensible subjects and deal with art and culture, as well as the problems of the modern age generally.
Each book in itself gives us an inadequate idea of its author; together, they furnish a striking image of Nietzsche's thought. The distinguished new translations by Walter Kaufmann superbly reflect in English Nietzsche's idiom and the vitality of his style. Professor Kaufmann has also furnished running footnote commentaries, relevant passages from Nietzsche's correspondence, a bibliography, and, for the first time in any edition, an extensive index to each book.
Download Description
Whatever might have been be the basis for this dubious book, it must have been a question of the utmost importance and charm, as well as a deeply personal one. Testimony to that effect is the time in which it arose (in spite of which it arose), that disturbing era of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. While the thunderclap of the Battle of Worth was reverberating across Europe, the meditative lover of enigmas whose lot it was to father this book sat somewhere in a corner of the Alps, extremely reflective and perplexed (thus simultaneously very distressed and carefree) and wrote down his thoughts concerning the Greeks, the kernel of that odd and difficult book to which this later preface (or postscript) should be dedicated. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Customer Reviews:
defective merchandise.......2007-03-03
This is one of maybe five reviews I've ever written online. I only do so if I absolutely love a product or am absolutely appalled by something I wish a fellow amazon addict had included in an online review. This will be the latter. This book is rife with translation errors. Not even so much translation errors because I don't speak German but basic grammatical mistakes; "From another perspective we see the force of this un-Dionysian spirit in action directing its effects against myth, when we turn our gaze toward the way in which the way in which the presentation..." -page 56 (this is just one in a long list of examples). Another weird fact about this book is that it is the size of a magazine? I have no fundamental problem with that, I loved JG Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition which had the same dimensions; however because this book is a mere 80 pages it's just awkward to read. Do yourself a favor and buy another version of this book that doesn't have an abundance of errors. The only saving grace for this POS are the ideas contained therein.
The Op. 1 of Frederic Niezsche !.......2004-11-02
The first essay of this giant philosopher is deeply influenced for the echoes of Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner and pretends expose a new conception of the world : the tragic thought, , the intuition of the unity of the things , the converse affirmation of the life and death , the timeless return , the innocence of becoming .
Fundamental text if you want to get ready for the Apollonian and Dionisus duel!
Dionysian without Apollo Will Destroy - Rebirth of Tragedy.......2004-06-15
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The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche's first book. Why have I read it? Three reasons. One, I am studying ancient Greek culture. Secondly, I love to learn anything from mysticism, spiritual and Eastern thought, psychology and philosophy and again Grecian thought of Plato, Socrates, Aristophanes, Sophocles and etc. Third, I've always admired Jim Morrison, a Rock singer and poet who was also influenced by Nietzsche, primarily his interpretation of ancient Greek tragedy, more specifically, "The Birth of Tragedy. And so I've read it. Now Walter Kaufman's translation agrees with me and I think it one of the best in understanding and clarity. This book is a great read and answers so many questions and thoughts.
But ultimately I found something I never intended on thinking and it's staring me right in the face with bold assertiveness. I honestly never expected to find this. First Nietzsche does a superb job in slamming the Socratic culture of logic, science and optimism, which I agree, has destroyed the real chaotic nature of true art, the Dionysus nature and that of the real meaning of tragedy. He is right on the money here. "Existence is only justified as an aesthetic phenomenon." Euripides has destroyed the Aeschylean and Sophoclean tragedy into Socratized thinking. The Dionysian element of chaos, of drunkenness and dissolution, of irrational art in it's raw existence is imaged by Apollo and necessary in conceptualization of the fleeting moment of depth that only resides in temporal flow of Dionysus and yet is destroyed by the scientific Socratized analysis. Euripides's plays have adopted such logic, lost the Dionysus, taken the optimism and linguistic clarity in destroying the satyr's chaotic hold of frenzy and creativity found in formless tragedy of music. The Apollonian form is imagery while the Dionysian forms the Apollonian. "Dionysian speaks the language of Apollo, and Apollo, finally the language of Dionysus and so the highest goal of tragedy and all art is obtained." P. 130
All of this, and much more, is brilliant and profound, but then, this now leads to something about German history, and is there in the flagrant words, of Nietzsche who calls for "The rebirth of tragedy," the rebirth of Greek tragedy. Where is this? In the German spirit.
"Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which, having nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, can neither be explained nor excused by it, but which is rather felt by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelming hostile, the German music we must understand it. from Bach to Beethoven, and to Wagner." p. 119
What is this Dionysian root, this power from the German spirit.? Nietzsche symbolically calls it a "demon, " a power one that cannot be easily subdued, and it is rising from the unfathomable depths, which is against the Socratic logic and superficial optimism. And here Nietzsche goes further than music into a Dionysian spirit of German philosophy that he believes transcends the boundaries of Socratic thinking into adrenaline flowed tragic rediscovery, a rebirth of Greek tragedy.
"Let us recollect further that Kant and Schopenhauer made it possible for the spirit of German philosophy, streaming from similar sources to destroy scientific Socratism's complacent delight in existence by establishing its boundaries; how through this delimitation was introduced an infinitely profounder and more serious view of ethical problems and of art, which we may designate as Dionysian wisdom comprised in concepts. . . ." p. 120
In the earlier sections Nietzsche brought home the point that lyrical composition and most certainly concepts of any nature could not contain any shape or form of Dionysian, as it is only found in the raw and creative form of music. And now I find a contradiction, as Nietzsche is telling us of Kant's and Schopenhauer's thoughts to be comprised in Dionysian wisdom. It has now planted the seed for German readers and thinkers.
What this philosphical Dionysian wisdom and the German spirited power of Dionysian music now needs is a new political leader.
"And if the German should hesitantly look around for a leader who might bring him back again into his long lost home whose ways and paths he scarcely knows anymore, let him merely listen to the ecstatically luring call of the Dionysan bird that hovers above him and wants to point the way for him." p. 139
I don't know about you, but this sounds like the Dionysan "furor" to me. A new tragic, ecstatic leader, a non-Socratic leader with charisma and power. Now who later fits this bill?
Just imagine the adrenaline flow as the German people leave their Socratic constraints of logic and enter into their Dionysian nature of power and run down the street and smash the Jewish windows declaring in ecstasy, the Dionysian power of the new German spirit, the rebirth of Greek tragedy. Do you see what I'm leading to here? Real history! Don't get me wrong, please. Nietzsche does not talk hatred, or anti-Semitic, no not at all! But he sets the stage for chaos, for hate to come out of the depths of men and women that already contain Dionysian nature deep inside their non-Socratic nature, the "primitive man" as Nietzsche calls it, when the Apollonian is disregarded and the rational, optimistic Socratic man is destroyed and the Dionysian can come out and "tragedy be reborn."
Don't get me wrong, I think Nietzsche is amazing in his acknowledgment and connection to the real depth of the Dionysian spirit. But do get me right on this; this is dangerous teaching, dangerous enough to let educated people loose their Socratic, scientific nature and enter places they should not be. Nietzsche even writes in a letter 10/8/1868 to Rohide, (p. 120 ftn.) that the dimension of feelings of Wagner's music are greater than the "weak eyes and feeble legs of the educated."
Live life to the fullest without Apollo to conceptualize and form you, which subdues and constrains, and you will most assuredly mis-translate William Blake's words (as Jim Morrison did) in telling us "to live the road to excess." Live Socratic thinking alone, without Dionysus, and you will be destroyed, dead to the aesthetic, inner creative and primordial self. Live Dionysus without Apollo and without Socratic thinking and you will either destroy yourself or those around you.
An interesting insight into the early Nietzsche........2004-01-17
"The Birth of Tragedy" (1872) was Nietzsche's first published work, and what a work it is. Taking as its point of departure the origins and eventual death of tragedy in ancient Greece, this book shouldn't be taken as a literal meditation on Greek tragedy. Instead, Nietzsche uses his discussion of this art form to analyse trends he saw in the Germany of the early-1870s and to examine the similarities between the Hellenic world and the world of Bismarckian Germany.
He begins with an explanation of the dual Apollonian and Dionysian tendencies in art. The Apollonian, based on illusion, form, and restrained aesthetic contemplation, is contrasted with the Dionysian, which is characterized by a visceral, ecstatic, transcendental state. To Nietzsche, Greek tragedy was the only art form which was able to merge these two conflicting aesthetics into a successful union. He likens the operas of his then-hero, Richard Wagner, to the tragic drama of ancient Greece, and suggests that this similarity should be a cause of hope for the renewal of the "German spirit."
Crazy? Of course. Nietzsche was not a man noted for his intellectual restraint, and his associative thinking is never wilder or more disputable than in "The Birth of Tragedy." It is this very wildness which would later lead the philosopher to all but disown this book.
But "The Birth of Tragedy" is more than far-fetched theorizing--it is also a penetrating gaze into the destructive side of pure reason and the sunny optimism of the Enlightenment, which Nietzsche posits as being embodied in ancient Greece in the form of Socrates, whose withering, anti-aesthetic thinking Nietzsche finds deadening and repugnant. In the hyper-rational, heavily bureaucratic world in which he found himself at the dawn of the 1870s, Nietzsche looked to the colossal operas of Wagner to find a counterbalance to the icy skepticism of Socrates (and the Enlightenment) and what he considered to be a fundamental misunderstanding of ancient Greek culture on the part of his contemporaries. In stark contrast to their appraisal of Greek culture as serene and harmonious, Nietzsche located the enduring greatness of the Hellenic world in its brave and fierce pessimism, which he saw best represented in tragedy.
"The Birth of Tragedy," then, is a cry of hope from its author for what he considered a renewal of German myth and unity. It does not make for easy reading, however, and the reader should be prepared for many, many pages of exhausting and often ludicrous "insights," not one of which makes much sense from a logical point of view, but all of which play a vital role in Nietzsche's brilliant and brilliantly original analyses of ancient and modern culture.
Life As Art!!!.......2003-10-10
"The Birth of Tragedy Out Of The Spirit Of Music" is Nietzsche in the raw. This is before the later, "mature" posturing armchair philosopher took over. This is the philologist unearthing a great treasure - the Ancient Greeks REALLY lived, and in their super-abundance of LIFE, they had room for Tragedy/Pessimism! The opposite then, is also true, our modern society that cries out for OPTIMISM and "positive-thinking" is therefore the clearest sign that we are less than alive. This book is Nietzsche seeing in ART, that blazing passion for being ALIVE. This is Nietzsche as the young, unsystematic YEA-SAYER to LIFE. Aesthetics as the true metaphysics - not morality, since LIFE is beyond temporal, earthly taboos. ART-LIFE as the representation of transcending good and evil (later formulated more fully in "Beyond Good And Evil". This is art seen under the lens of life.
Customer Reviews:
Skip the Tintoretto.......2006-03-15
Rather than tackle Being & Nothingness (B&N) straightaway, the curious reader interested in exploring Sartre may find this volume a good introduction and preparation before deciding to take on B&N. In fact the first section of this book is actually taken from B&N. The Citadel Press version of B&N is definitely a more reader-friendly book than the Washington Square Press version: the type is cleaner and bigger; the paper is better quality; and the book is just overall better-looking. Unfortunately, it is an abridged version. One entire beginning section has been excised and placed into this volume as Section I. The rationale for this move (as far as I can tell) was that Sartre had republished this particular section at a later date in another volume of essays, incorporating some minor revisions. It amounts to some 60 or so pages of text. Citadel apparently chose to publish only the later version of the text in this volume of essays and cut it out of their edition of B&N. At any rate, reading this first section will give you a generous foretaste of B&N.
The second section is titled "A Sketch on the Theory of Emotions", an early essay that pre-dates B&N by some ten years. As Robert Solomon has written in his excellent book of essays, "From Hegel to Existentialism", this essay provides a comprehensive introduction to B&N in its own right, and is far clearer than the "oqaque" Introduction of B&N itself. It explains Sartre's theory of emotions, a theory he continued to hold throughout his life, even though he never got around to fleshing it out. (Incidentally, Solomon's book provides a penetrating critique of this essay, and is highly recommended.)
The third section is on mental imaging. I found this particular essay to be fascinating reading. It is an exploration of how the mind grapples with difficult concepts by creating mental images of them to help it conceptualize and assimilate them.
The final section of essays is on aesthetics, and was for me the most tedious and uninteresting of the lot. In particular the essay on the Renaissance painter Tintoretto was an absolute chore to read. Sartre psychoanalyses Tintoretto, and really seems to go over the top in analyzing his mind and historical situation. The essay seems to go on forever, is repetitious, and drifts aimlessly.
Jean Wahl's Introduction to Existentialism appears at the beginning of this volume. It was an address which he delivered to various professors in 1946. It is a gentle, sympathetic, non-rigorous introduction, covering all the major figures and themes. Wahl does an excellent job of explaining just what existentialism is. You will, for example, learn exactly what is meant by the phrase "existence precedes essence."
All in all, this book provides a great introduction to Sartre's writing.
Don't miss this book, it will change your life!!!.......1999-03-11
The scientific study of human nature is primarily a semantic one. This book is a wonderful analysis of consciousness and existence. Check this one out. To Sarte, tally hoe!!!!!!
Average customer rating:
- Rodin and the Fragmented Form
- Superb collection of photographs
- Good descriptions of Rodin's pieces
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Rodin: A Passion for Movement
Dominique Jarrasse , and
Jean-Marie Clarke
Manufacturer: Vilo International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Rodin, Auguste
| ( P-R )
| Artists, A-Z
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Artists, A-Z
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sculpture
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 2879390842 |
Customer Reviews:
Rodin and the Fragmented Form.......2000-12-04
"Rodin: A Passion for Movement" by Dominique Jarrasse is an objective exploration of Rodin's major works based on three dimensions; movement, (as the title suggests), light and shade and the fragmented figure. These elements are explored through articulate text and beautiful, high-resolution photographs and drawings. The focus of the book is on Rodin's motivation and his alchemist method of modeling his figures to achieve the exact postures, which would give the sculpture a sense of movement. He paid an enormous amount of attention to the interplay between light and shade, taking from the masters, most notably Michelangelo. However, a great deal of controvesy surrounded Rodin's work based on his constant rejection from the academic community. In spite of his mastery, Rodin wasn't accepted because of his affinity for the fragmented figure, which he saw as a finished piece of work. This notion was affirmed by his quote, "I will never again make anything complete. I will make only antiques."(P. 46) The book begins with an analysis of "The Burghers of Calais", a monument to the six martyrs who surrendered the keys to the city of Calais to King Edward III during the Hundred Years War. The author explores the psychological undertones of each of the six men and Rodin's efforts to exact the pain and distress felt by these heroic men. Rodin paid close attention to the facial expressions of each of these figures in an effort to personify the different emotions these men and this monument symbolize. He chose a circular composition to depict the moment where these men were walking to the town hall, to meet King Edward and to meet death, creating a sense of eternal movement. Rodin established himself in the art world at the age of forty with a commission for the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. He found inspiration for this grandiose work from Dante's "Inferno", which he titled "The Gates of Hell." This work became "essentially an ode to sculpture" (p. 53) and took over twenty years for him to create. He reused fragments from other works that he created and many of his more famous works are found in this sculpture. At the top sits "The Thinker", which was Rodin's depiction of Dante. Rodin said, "His head on his fist, he wonders. Fertile thoughts slowly rise in his mind. He is not a dreamer. He is a creator." (p.90) Rodin was constantly studying and revising his fragmented forms. In Rodin's opinion these fragments were the essence to his work. Gustave Kahn explained, "The fragment is beautiful in itself, and the study of the fragment, a useful and legitimate thing." (p. 210) Throughout the book, the author includes a variety of photographs, however it would have been more informative had the author included many more of these studies and variations on each work.
Superb collection of photographs.......2000-08-06
This large-format book really does justice to Rodin's work, with a very large number of photographs covering all his major works, often from several perspectives.
Good descriptions of Rodin's pieces.......2000-04-23
This book depicts most of his major works with many color photographs. Likewise, a short narrative accompanies each photo describing the artist's inspiration, background and overall effect of each piece. A good book to accompany any novice wanting to learn more on Rodin.
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