Look how clever I am
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I am a huge fan of Clive James and wouldn't disagree with a lot of the positive comments made about this book but I do get the uneasy feeling that it is a little too ostentatious in its display of knowledge. I got the same feeling watching some of the programmes in his Interviews from the Library series - some of them became "pissing contests" with James and his interviewee trying to outdo each other with their wideranging and obscure references; well, this is his pissing contest with the world!!
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A rare talent, a cultural genius and an extraordinary thinker...
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Clive James should still be on the small screen, but then again he doesn't fit comfortably on the small screen since he is culturally so far above it. The small screen continues to sink while he continues to rise and astound us with his wit, his genius and his literary brilliance.
I am still reading the book but every time I pick it up and taste the delights inside, I am astonished. Every thinking human being should have this on their bookshelf it is a gem of a book, a treasure trove of genius.
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A Very Personal History
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Somewhere just after half-way through this epic journey through the lives and minds of some of Clive James' heroes and villains of the modern age, we start to -how shall I say it? - get the point; the Nazis and the Stalinists were very bad guys and most of the subjects of this book are to be judged by their response to this basic fact. So far , so good, so humanist. But after, as I said, a certain point the arguments become repetitive, bludgeoning and tired (not to say tiring). Of course the point can never be made often enough, but what is unforgivable for a writer of Clive James' immense erudition and stylistic mastery, is that he ends up making the subject tedious. In contrast, within this book itself, there are wonderful portraits of Camus, Eric Satie and Scott Fitzerald among a few others that shine with clear-eyed craftsmanship and wit.
And for a writer who repeatedly reminds us of his wide knowledge of languages, there are at least two howlers which even a rudimentary acquaintance with Spanish would have prevented: Mario Vargas LLosa's collection of essays is called "Contra Viento y Marea" not "Contro...", and the interview with Fidel Castro is entitled "Nada Podra Detener la Marcha de la Historia" and not the strange pidgin Spanish that appears in the book. (It took me one minute to check these on the Internet). Unfortunately these errors tend to undermine the whole admirable undertaking. What of the errors I didn't spot?
Despite all this, it is a comforting book to treasure and to keep. While there are writers like James who burn with humanistic anger and love, to whom the arts and the liberal voice are still of the utmost urgency, there is hope for us all.
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Surprisingly Cerebral
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A seriously enlightening read: Clive James has opened my eyes and mind to a great many figures of cultural and historical significance that I simply wasn't previously aware of. Anyone reading this who previously assumed Clive James's talents were limited to taking the mick out of Japanese TV game shows will be in for a shock.
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An exhilarating read!
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I was alerted to this book not by reading reviews but by hearing a podcast of an interview with James on the BBC Artsworld programme. The book is long (some 870 pages), broad and deep. It is not an easy read, but since it comprises a set of essays, the difficulties can be taken in digestible chunks. I also found it it instructive to read the book (at least in part) out of sequential order, for example tackling articles on more familiar figures or authors first, or perhaps following up references from one of these to the less familiar, say from Sartre to Revel. Each essay uses the technique of taking an aphorism and then either discussing it, taking it apart, disagreeing with it, using it as a springboard for an intellectual journey, sometimes labyrinthine, or occasionally all of these. However the result is always stimulating. A recurring theme is the opposition of liberal humanitarian democracy and the various forms of totalitarianism in the 20th century. In fact he comes out strongly against ideologies of any kind, that is, preliminary syntheses or simplistic theories of reality, or political doctrines. He reminds us that it was not inevitable that for example the Weimar Republic failed, or that Hitler came to power, and that both of these depended on many things coming together in a particular way. The book thus has powerful messages for us in the 21st century, and indeed we can see mistakes of the 20th Century being repeated today for example in the Neo-Conservative ideologies that led to the Iraq war, Abu-graib, Guantanamo Bay and many thousands of dead. On the so-called war against terror I would particulaly recommend the essay on Virginio Rognoni, which explores the pros and cons of terrorism and leaves the reader to make up his own mind. Particularly interesting is the light he sheds through his readings of literature in the original languages, which include German, French, Spanish and Italian, among others, with handy tips as to which works could be profitably tackled even by beginners in the languages. The occasional original language quotations (with parallel English translations) whet the appetite for further reading , and a quick visit to Amazon.de and Amazon.fr (for example) shows that a significant part of this original language material is available at a reasonable price. I am looking forward to following up the various authors and can thoroughly recommend this excellent book.
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