Nel castello di Barbablù

Intellect and feeling were, literally, fascinated by the prospect of a purging fire. Steiner gives us a rhapsody on decline and the perils of relativism. He delivers such in a series of lectures, all culled from the classic Steiner template. People are no longer literate, they are surrounded by loud Leggi tutto

If, due to the changing role of politics in the body collective, Christianity can no longer serve as the focus for the definition of culture, then, contrary to T.S. Eliot, ideological viewpoints such as the one George Steiner advocates in this book are inevitable; they come to resemble a literature- Leggi tutto

George Steiner, the polysyllabic polymath, is easy to make fun of — and I have to confess, I can hardly read him any more. But for at least 20 years I bought everything he wrote, immersed myself in his Deep Thoughts (always expressed in his over-determined, comically qualified, trademark apocalyptic Leggi tutto

Steiner is a wonderful writer; his prose is rich with allusion, concisely learned, grave in its movements. It does sometimes approach a self-serving melodrama, as James Wood once famously noted; it could stand to be aerated by some humor--even, in keeping with its classical bearings, if only of high Leggi tutto

I found this book to be similar in content to Two Cultures by C.P. Snow except for it was published later. Perhaps I'm missing a good deal of Steiner's point but it seems to me to be merely a slightly revised version of of Snow's text except it deals with a wider (Western European rather than only B Leggi tutto

Reading this essay by George Steiner gave me a persistent sensation that he wanted to prove that no matter what, I'm not as intelligent, cultivated or well-read as he is! And it's probably true, but I console myself with the fact that it's, most likely, the case for most of the people that have ever Leggi tutto

Multe din ideile lui Steiner au fost realizate deja și depășite de evoluția continuă și de neoprit a societății (vorba gînditorului: "evoluția" odată începută e de neoprit), dar faptul că au fost premeditate sau precedate aceste realități merită toată admirația. Însă alte gânduri și subiecte bine tă Leggi tutto

The blind spot which motivates the argument in this book is so extreme that one might suspect the author of dishonesty. I was actually with him at the beginning as he described how a disillusionment swept Europe after the French Revolution. Great hopes were placed in a total reorganization of society Leggi tutto

Leer a Steiner siempre será un desafío crítico, estilístico e ideológico. Decidí empezar con este libro ya que fue lo que encontré en el mercado y es uno de sus textos iniciales que cimenta su idea de decadencia y pesimismo cultural. Antes de atacarlo con fiereza recordemos que es un texto de 1971 q Leggi tutto