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Boadicea's Reviews > Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts
Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts
by
by
Boadicea's review
bookshelves: 21st-century, biography, crap, did-not-finish, smarmy-bastards
Jan 22, 2020
bookshelves: 21st-century, biography, crap, did-not-finish, smarmy-bastards
Shocking sophistry
Masterclass in arrogance
(Ph)allacies abound.
An original haiku to commemorate my inability to complete this irritating tome. I had earnestly embarked on the promised 'crash course in civilization' as advised by J.M.Coetzee, or as 'Notes in the margin of my time' as my second edition offers, not 'Necessary Memories....' together with the same lightbulb picture.
I had known Clive James as a TV & media pundit, lugubrious celebrator of the weird & wonderful, and master of the witty putdown.
So, I was interested in his thoughts on an encyclopedic array of cultural icons of the 20th century. But no, there are interlopers from both before and after; weirdly, the majority of the references stem from the early third of the century and are skewed particularly to a specific part of Western Europe, namely, Austria.The other lack of balance is more defined, related to gender with fewer than 10% female.
However, having stated this, the idea of utilising certain personalities is actually a false illusion as to what the vignette is about: a scatter gun approach that is rarely illuminating about said individual, more reflective of the writer's modus operandi of confusion and chaos to progress his digressive account.
Several philosophers appear but their remit is so illogical as to the reference point that their ideologies disappear in a smog of erudite speciosity.
Whilst there are, undoubtedly, some gems among the dross, the fallacies of illicit transference are so commonplace to make me plot this book's demise within a week of commencement! I struggled through it to conquer a third all told.
But, as other reviewers indicate, it's like 'Marmite', you'll either love it, or hate it...
Still, spluttering spleen.
Revolting, ending refined.
Amnesia awaits!
Masterclass in arrogance
(Ph)allacies abound.
An original haiku to commemorate my inability to complete this irritating tome. I had earnestly embarked on the promised 'crash course in civilization' as advised by J.M.Coetzee, or as 'Notes in the margin of my time' as my second edition offers, not 'Necessary Memories....' together with the same lightbulb picture.
I had known Clive James as a TV & media pundit, lugubrious celebrator of the weird & wonderful, and master of the witty putdown.
So, I was interested in his thoughts on an encyclopedic array of cultural icons of the 20th century. But no, there are interlopers from both before and after; weirdly, the majority of the references stem from the early third of the century and are skewed particularly to a specific part of Western Europe, namely, Austria.The other lack of balance is more defined, related to gender with fewer than 10% female.
However, having stated this, the idea of utilising certain personalities is actually a false illusion as to what the vignette is about: a scatter gun approach that is rarely illuminating about said individual, more reflective of the writer's modus operandi of confusion and chaos to progress his digressive account.
Several philosophers appear but their remit is so illogical as to the reference point that their ideologies disappear in a smog of erudite speciosity.
Whilst there are, undoubtedly, some gems among the dross, the fallacies of illicit transference are so commonplace to make me plot this book's demise within a week of commencement! I struggled through it to conquer a third all told.
But, as other reviewers indicate, it's like 'Marmite', you'll either love it, or hate it...
Still, spluttering spleen.
Revolting, ending refined.
Amnesia awaits!
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Reading Progress
November 13, 2019
–
Started Reading
November 13, 2019
– Shelved
November 13, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
November 20, 2019
–
15.0%
January 22, 2020
–
Finished Reading
February 2, 2020
– Shelved as:
biography
February 2, 2020
– Shelved as:
21st-century
February 2, 2020
– Shelved as:
smarmy-bastards
February 2, 2020
– Shelved as:
did-not-finish
February 2, 2020
– Shelved as:
crap
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
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by
Jay
(new)
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rated it 1 star
Jan 23, 2020 12:36AM
Great review, Katie. More reading pleasure to be found in your haikus than in the book, IMHO!
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Cheers Jay, my first attempts! Plotting for some time as I snarled at it lurking beside my bedside each evening defying displacement by better reading material! Would have liked to do a riff on his poem regarding his rival's remaindered book but I thought it would get me banned from GR! Also,& I'm no poet
"(Ph)allacies"....i think will be using this fine neologism / Himbo variation. i thoroughly enjoyed this review!
Good to hear, it felt somewhat snarky at the time but the book was so pretentious! I needed a good smackdown phrase and that seemed to offer itself up!
