Book Description
No judgement of taste is innocent. In a word, we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu brilliantly illuminates this situation of the middle class in the modern world. France's leading sociologist focusses here on the French bourgeoisie, its tastes and preferences. Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind.
In the course of everyday life people constantly choose between what they find aesthetically pleasing and what they consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Bourdicu bases his study on surveys that took into account the multitude of social factors that play a part in a Frenchperson's choice of clothing, furniture, leisure activities, dinner menus for guests, and many other matters of taste. What emerges from his analysis is that social snobbery is everywhere in the bourgeois world. The different aesthetic choices people make are all distinctions-that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu finds a world of social meaning in the decision to order bouillabaisse, in our contemporary cult of thinness, in the "California sports" such as jogging and cross-country skiing. The social world, he argues, functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement.
The topic of Bourdieu's book is a fascinating one: the strategies of social pretension are always curiously engaging. But the book is more than fascinating. It is a major contribution to current debates on the theory of culture and a challenge to the major theoretical schools in contemporary sociology.
Customer Reviews:
Bourdieu.......2007-02-18
I think that if you are interested in this book, then you probably know what you are in for. It's hard going (of course) but worth the effort.
A Must Read!.......2004-04-03
This is a fantastic explication of how social class prearranges our tastes and interests. I disagree with the reader who thinks that it is not applicable to American society--to the contrary. It is true that American culture is not so obviously stratified in the exact same ways as French culture (of the 1960s, I would add, when Bourdieu collected his data). Also, in American culture there is less of a tendency to exploit the social markers (dress, etc.) that one might find in Europe, and it's hip nowadays for the middle-class to adopt the style and dress of the street (e.g., hip-hop); nevertheless, I'd say that this is a veneer of street-cred, and that if you were to look at how the middle-class actually lives compares to those where hip-hop originated, you'd find some pretty significant differences.
However, his basic differentiation between working class/petit bourgeois (small business owners, clerical workers and the like)/grand bourgeois (professionals, executives, and large industrialists) certainly carries over into American society. And most interesting is his claim that the higher up in the food chain one goes, the more one's taste in the "aesthetic" inclines towards Kant's idea of disinterested formalism, while the lower classes tend to want their art to be informed by ethics and morality.
Bourdieu sees these tendencies as "embodied" and largely unconsciously adopted through our upbringing. One only has to watch a television show like "The O.C." and how they cast Ryan's mother in comparison to the trophy wives of Orange County to see that even in America class and taste and body language are still encoded in our body language, choice of dress, manners, and conversational style. The economic reality of America is that a Wal-Mart worker or transcontinental trucker is NOT middle-class in the same way as a doctor, whether in terms of taste or salary. Anyone who thinks so is either deluding themselves or doesn't want to see the truth.
Bourdieu does not neglect to mention sex (although he doesn't have as much to say about race), and has sections on women's body image (the richer, the thinner) and how the different classes deal with food (high-fat, high-carb for lower classes, fresh veggies and lean meats for higher classes). In America, our current epidemic of obesity is not only the result of marketing campaigns, but also (perhaps largely) the result of poor quality food (e.g. fast food, prepared food) being made much more affordable than high quality food (fresh produce, fish, organic). If you can't afford to eat well in America, you probably won't.
Moreover, Bourdieu makes the observation, which holds true in America as much as anywhere else, that formal education (which reinforces "legitimate" taste) can change one's tastes and values, but that one's early social upbringing will lead to a quicker assimilation of "legitimate" culture. As someone who went to bourgeois schools without a bourgeois background, and who has subsequently taught at state universities in poor areas, this truism is so obvious as to hardly need explication. Much of the poor performance of underclass or non-bourgeois students is as much due to lack of early acculturation (by this I mean exposure to "culture" like non-Hollywood films, art museums, etc., but also the habits and customs associated with school learning and higher education) as it is to any basic intelligence.
Finally, it's true that Bourdieu's style is rather ponderous, repetitive, and academic, and the book is very long indeed. Nevertheless, I can't agree that it compares with the difficulty of Derrida, Jameson, Bhabha, or other high theorists. Bourdieu's sentences are sometimes long and have many subordinate clauses, but their basic subjects and verbs are easily identifiable! The Conclusion and Postscript do raise the level of difficulty, but the Introduction and body of the main text are accessible and basically say everything he has to say (many times). Anyone with a basic undergraduate education (one that has done its job properly) should be able to handle Bourdieu's style in this particular book.
read it for the diagrams.......2000-10-29
Distinction is the most cited book from Bourdieu, one of France's most prolific scholars. The book tends to assume that its readers are familiar with his key terms, developed mostly in _Outline of a Theory of Practice_ and _Logic of Practice_. Although it is the most cited, beginning readers of Bourdieu should probably start with _Partical Reason_ to get a handle on these concepts before getting involved in this larger tome.
Word for word, Bourdieu's writing style is not economical, and he is almost as cumbersome as Derrida. He does not approach the overly-complex mode of Deleuze and Guattari. His concepts bear the most resemblance to those of an early Baudrillard or a late Gramsci in terms of their interpretation of the social world, although he will depart into some more Marxist modes of interpretation.
Bourdieu's _Distinction_ is most valuable for his diagrams, as they provide a clear graphic representation of what he is trying to say. If one wants the read Bourdieu for content and/or argument, she would be better directed to one of his other books named above, as his arguments are more on-point and rpecide.
In addition, _Distinction_ is careful to limit itself to a data set collected in the late 60s and early 70s. Although the theory seems to be a sound one, Bourdieu makes claims of greater applicability in his books about the Bayle: _Outline_ and _Logic_. For discussions of modern Europe, his newer _Weight of the World_ provides a better, and more recent, analysis of the same social trends as in _Distinction_.
A brilliant look at the social implications of taste.......2000-09-12
I come back to this book time and again in my own work and see it as one of the most indispensible books today on issues of aesthetics, class distinctions, group identity, and covert social inequality. Bourdieu takes on the Kantian aesthetics of the "subjective universal," showing that the value judgments about things reflect material and social conditions and in fact index social and class differences. The way we classify things (operas, desserts, leisure activities) is inextricably tied up with the way we classify ourselves as social beings and others as members of other social groups.
Distinction is a long and difficult book, but from start to finish it is full of fascinating and original insights. Bourdieu's language is loaded with big words and long sentences, but I find that after I get used to the kinds of words and structures he uses, his language actually becomes pretty clear and straight-forward. It's definitely worth the time and brain-power needed to read it.
Good French ethnography from brilliant intellect.......2000-09-12
Pierre Bourdieu is a tremendous intellect, and has produced far superior work to this book. _Distinction_ is a fascinating book, particularly for those interested in French society. Yet its relevance cannot really extend to America, which has a markedly different system of class. The French have deeply entrenched class consciousness, in both a pragmatic sense and a Marxist sense, whereas 90% of Americans consider themselves "middle class." Bourdieu shows that the French are at pains to symbolically express their class differences, and he does so with aplomb. He compiles statistics and data which show ways in which the French produce their own class position through consumption, education, and taste. But his observations are less applicable to the vast American "middle class." Class mobility, education, and stylistic expression are much more democratically distributed in America. So while many French are content with their class position, vocation, and traditions, most Americans see themselves as "middle class," striving for better, and free from tradition. _Distinction_ is an interesting and accesible book, but those looking for Bourdieu's contributions to social theory will be better served by some of his other works.
Book Description
The most comprehensive book on the market, SIGHT SOUND MOTION/APPLIED MEDIA AESTHETICS describes the major aesthetic image elements--light and color, space, time-motion, and sound--and how they are used in television and film. Zettl's comprehensive coverage of aesthetic theory and how that theory can be successfully applied place this text in a class by itself. This edition is richly illustrated with visuals that often draw on traditional art forms, such as painting, sculpture, and dance.
Customer Reviews:
Inexpensive Textbooks.......2007-10-16
I love that you offer these books so inexpensively. If I went to my universtiy bookstore I would have paid three times as much. I can use my own money without having to use loan money to pay for books!
5 stars.......2005-10-10
The book is totally new and under very good condition, and the dilievery time is much earlier than i expected.
Best in field.......2004-12-28
This text thoroughly explains the intricacies of applied media asthetics in a concise and completely accessible way. It is a well organizied text that ehances its presentation through the use of many illustrations. I believe that this is the best text on the subject and that it has been since its first edtion.
motion graphics professor.......2002-06-04
"Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics explains the WHY of film and video production. If you're looking for HOW then turn to another book."
I would disagree with the above review. Only by learning WHY first, can we learn HOW later. This book is more than a cookie cutter approach to film and video. If you want to "click and drag" your way through an editing program, then true, this book is not for you. Add this to your collection if you want a book that teaches how to see and create film. Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics has staying power.
Fundamental book on the theory of the moving image.......2001-05-20
This was the assigned textbook for my digital video 2 class, and it is simply wonderful. Zettl is a very knowledgable man on the subject of creating images for film, video, and even new media. (Zettl's text Video Basics 3 was used in my digital video 1 class as well) This book lays a solid foundation for the theory behind how and why the viewer perceives the moving image, and how the filmmaker and video producer can create more pleasing and coherent productions.
While the biggest complaint I've heard about this book is it's over-reliance on theory, it still does a good job of contextualizing theory into practical application. Thus the title of the book: APPLIED Media Aesthetics. Although I haven't read any of Eisentien's theories behind filmmaking, I suspect that Zettl's treatment would compete rather well, and is probably more accessible for a modern reader.
This book covers all the bases from color and light, time and space and structuring audio to image. Zettl succintcly deconstructs the intelligent mind behind the images and sound of our cultures film and television productions.
Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics explains the WHY of film and video production. If you're looking for HOW then turn to another book.
Amazon.com
In a country where the average woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs 140 pounds, movies, advertisements, and MTV saturate our lives with unrealistic images of beauty. The tall, nearly emaciated mannequins that push the latest miracle cosmetic make even the most confident woman question her appearance. Feminist Naomi Wolf argues that women's insecurities are heightened by these images, then exploited by the diet, cosmetic, and plastic surgery industries. Every day new products are introduced to "correct" inherently female "flaws," drawing women into an obsessive and hopeless cycle built around the attempt to reach an impossible standard of beauty. Wolf rejects the standard and embraces the naturally distinct beauty of all women.
Book Description
The bestselling classic that redefined our view od the relationship between beauty and female identity.
In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant and life changing.......2007-10-12
I picked up this book by accident and literally every other page am surprised by how many things are relevant in my own life. A fascinating look at our culture, and the many unquestioned "truths" used to place a higher value on female beauty than male beauty. I would be interested in the authors take on the metrosexual movement that has emerged in the 10 years since she has written the book, and how that would fit into her arguments. But this is a book I will be buying for my my Mother, sister, and close girlfriends. An important book for men to read as well.
New revised version supposedly has all the lies removed.......2007-09-05
In a Stalinesque move that would have impressed him, Wolf has quietly edited out all the false statistics and bogus claims of the original book and released the leftovers. No mention of this deception is given anywhere in the book, like when Stalin would remove people from photos and pretend they had never existed in history. Ha Ha! Nice try Wolf. It IS embarrassing being publicly exposed as a liar, isn't it? Maybe stick to facts the next time. Whoever is impressed by this bilge deserves to be misled, and will continue to be misled until they educate themselves with facts, or raise their intellects so as to be able to separate fact from fantasy. It would have won her a doctorate in Creative Statistics if it was an area of academic study. The problem with many of the 5 star voters of this book is that hatred too often leads to outrageous statements that can be accepted as fact only by fellow haters. Hatred distorts one's mental evaluative machinery, which is only too evident when one looks at works by fellow heterophobics Mary Daly, Andrea Dworkin, Susan Faludi, etc. The Germans made use of this principle well in the 1930s and 40s too, and it also worked here for a while.
Does Naomi Wolf realize yet that she has done more damage to the women's movement than help it in any way? The ammunition she has provided to men's groups has been like manna from heaven, as it is so easily disproved (see Christina Hoff-Sommers) and her thinking is sadly representative of a generation of women who have grown up with the distorted, 50% view of reality seen through a pair of feminist-colored spectacles. They earnestly believe they can make up statistics and get away with it like they get away with everything else in the society they grew up in. Well, a wake-up call for you, Wolf. Objective truth is no respecter of the hypocrisies of feminism and political correctness. Time will see your drivel condemned to the world's literary garbage bin where it belongs, where it will nestle comfortably with similar drivel from Daly, Dworkin, Steinem, MacKinnon, Faludi and other mysandronists.
Must Read For Feminists.......2007-07-30
From the affluent, white female perspective, but still very relevant. Wolf explains how women adopt a third shift to take care of their beauty. It keeps our minds occupied and our pocketbooks empty so we don't start a revolution. I consider it a must read for feminists and pro-feminists.
This might help.......2007-05-22
I actually wrote this comment as a reaction to one of the posts (under the comments section) but then realized that I meant it as a general comment on the book and people's reactions to it. I was fortunate in that I read this book in an academic setting. It was assigned along with many other supportive books, which together shore up any weakness in each respective argument.
But since that is not possible for everyone, I think that if you read this book along with Susan Faludi's "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women," you might find yourself surprised about the subject of a conscious conspiracy to keep women down. Susan Faludi, as opposed to some of the complaints against Naomi Wolf, actually uses real interviews and facts to back up her arguments about the state of the public sector.
I completely agree with many reviewers that say it is important to read the book and make up your own mind, but you might get a better understanding of the situation, and what Naomi Wolf is trying to say, if you also read Susan Faludi's book. I was shocked and amazed by what I read, and without substantial facts to back up her arguments I'm not sure I would have put as much stock in them.
an oldie, but a goodie.......2007-04-16
Some of the stats and facts contained in this book are a wee bit dated, but that's a small minus in light of the many plusses of this powerful book! I started reading it, hoping I wouldn't like it and could put it aside but from the first opening pages, I was hooked!
On page three, Ms. Wolf writes, "The stronger women were becoming politically, the heavier the ideals of beauty would bear down upon them, mostly in order to distract their energy and undermine their progress."
Wow. So, fiddling around with beauty is something that keeps us distracted and distressed, and inhibits the realization of our full potential! Further, she writes, "The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men's institutions and institutional power" (p. 13).
If you're ready to have you eyes opened to the facts of women's beauty, take a few hours and read this book. You'll never look at a glossy woman's magazine the same way again.
Book Description
Rogues, published in France under the title Voyous, comprises two major lectures that Derrida delivered in 2002 investigating the foundations of the sovereignty of the nation-state. The term “État voyou” is the French equivalent of “rogue state,” and it is this outlaw designation of certain countries by the leading global powers that Derrida rigorously and exhaustively examines.
Derrida examines the history of the concept of sovereignty, engaging with the work of Bodin, Hobbes, Rousseau, Schmitt, and others. Against this background, he delineates his understanding of “democracy to come,” which he distinguishes clearly from any kind of regulating ideal or teleological horizon. The idea that democracy will always remain in the future is not a temporal notion. Rather, the phrase would name the coming of the unforeseeable other, the structure of an event beyond calculation and program. Derrida thus aligns this understanding of democracy with the logic he has worked out elsewhere. But it is not just political philosophy that is brought under deconstructive scrutiny here: Derrida provides unflinching and hard-hitting assessments of current political realities, and these essays are highly engaged with events of the post-9/11 world.
Customer Reviews:
Derrida Deconstructs the notion of "Rouge States".......2006-11-05
If you are in to Derrida, political science, contemporary political philosophy, understanding the contemporary political landscape, and notions of a new Democracy to come - this is a must read.
Average customer rating:
- Nice Intro but incomplete
- Good introduction
- A bit inaccessible for an introduction
- Close to perfection! An absolute must read.
- simple is as simple reads
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The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (Galaxy Book ; Gb450)
J. D. Andrew
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Similar Items:
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Concepts in Film Theory (Galaxy Books)
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Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings
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Theory of Film
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What Is Cinema? Vol. 1
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Film Form: Essays in Film Theory
ASIN: 0195019911 |
Book Description
Both a history of film theory and an introduction to the work of the most important writers in the field, Andrew's volume reveals the bases of thought of such major theorists as Munsterberg, Arnheim, Eisenstein, Balazs, Kracauer, Bazin, Mitry, and Metz.
Customer Reviews:
Nice Intro but incomplete.......2006-03-05
First, the strengths: Andrew gives intelligent summaries and discussion of some major historical film theorists, with chapters on Munsterberg, Arnheim, Eisenstein, Balazs, Kracauer, Bazin, Mitry, Metz, and Ayfre, and Agel. He focuses on the debate between the formalists (who believe film art is defined by its formal properties including editing, framing, mise-en-scene, lighting, and etc.) and the realist tradition (who believe that film art is defined by its basis in photography, a physical impression of its subject). The highlight is undoubtedly Andrew's excellent discussion of the great French critic Andre Bazin, which is not surprising since Andrew's Ph.D thesis was on Bazin. The weaknesses: This was published in 1976, and so it completely ignores the vast body of criticism published since then, especially feminism, and the influence of Lacan and psychoanalytic theory. Still, this is not a bad starting point for students of film theory.
Good introduction.......2006-03-01
Just as the book states, this is an introduction to film theories; and as such it fulfills its promise. The explanations and discussions are almost always clear, at times somewhat rarefied, but overall an authentic book.
A bit inaccessible for an introduction.......2004-01-13
My main issue with this book is that the title ("An Introduction") implies that the book is for anyone with an interest in film theory. However, the author sometimes goes into nearly-impenetrable technical jargon. I would disagree with the assertion that this book is easy to understand.
For instance, from page 57 comes the sentence: "In Piaget's terms, he [Eisenstein] wanted cinema to become or to produce a 'global syncretism of individual transductive inferences.'" And this is supposed to be an introduction? (You may be able to view page 57 through Amazon.com's "Search inside the book" feature.) I found myself re-reading paragraphs a few times to try to comprehend what was being said. I would recommend this book as a good survey of film theory for readers who have already had exposure to film theory and have some background in philosophy, psychology, and linguistics.
Another problem is that the book was published in 1976, so roughly 25% of film theory history is missing. An updated or revised edition is needed. It would be interesting to see if/how the recent Dogme 95 movement fits into film theory history.
This book might be valuable to film students or film geeks who've read other books about film theory, but for the average reader, this isn't the best "introduction" on the subject.
Close to perfection! An absolute must read........2003-07-25
For people interested in the theory and psychology of cinema, this is a great starting point and is a must have in any collection. J. Dudley Andrew breaks down the theories of Mitry, Metz, Arheim, and Bazin, among others, into easy to understand chapters without losing the essense of the theories. This book and the material are both so interesting that this will have you hooked on film theory. Instead of purchasing the individual books by each theorist, Andrew's book is the way to go in more ways than one. It is very easy to understand, which some books on film theory aren't, and he uses great quotes from each of the theorists. Andrew followed this up with "Concepts in Film Theory" which is the opposite of this book. It is much more difficult to understand and follow so beware.
simple is as simple reads.......2002-08-21
A great book, does exactly what it says on the cover, admittedly thirty years or so old, it still grapples sipmly with the theorie's you'd want to be introduced to if you've no idea what you're doing by looking at different theorists' views and counterviews. This book won't tell you what to think, it'll give you a set of arguments and let you decide where you go with it . . . in my humble opinion . . .
Book Description
Why did almost one thousand highly educated "student soldiers" volunteer to serve in Japan's tokkotai (kamikaze) operations near the end of World War II, even though Japan was losing the war? In this fascinating study of the role of symbolism and aesthetics in totalitarian ideology, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney shows how the state manipulated the time-honored Japanese symbol of the cherry blossom to convince people that it was their honor to "die like beautiful falling cherry petals" for the emperor.
Drawing on diaries never before published in English, Ohnuki-Tierney describes these young men's agonies and even defiance against the imperial ideology. Passionately devoted to cosmopolitan intellectual traditions, the pilots saw the cherry blossom not in militaristic terms, but as a symbol of the painful beauty and unresolved ambiguities of their tragically brief lives. Using Japan as an example, the author breaks new ground in the understanding of symbolic communication, nationalism, and totalitarian ideologies and their execution.
Customer Reviews:
"Many people would sooner die than think -.......2006-06-24
- in fact, they do so"
--Bertrand Russell
So it turns out that these were good guys after all, were they?
Right on.
If only the (not so?) Yamato People had prevailed.
Peace and harmony, and rule by "fluency in Marxism
and Western Philosophy" might have reigned throughout
Asia, the Pacific, portions of Oregon, The Bay Area,
Southern California, and the Near West Side of Madison, WI.
I dare say that there might have been, and still even remain,
some benighted line of resistance from Tacoma to Anchorage.
College sophomores from D.C. and Oconomowoc might
have, in bashful but bold transgression, held hands
with Kamikaze pilots at coffee shops on State Street,
and rest assured, 'pro rege et patria NON mori' on the
part of Japanese Imperial Forces would have most certainly
been immediately, decisively, and finally demonstrated,
'Primus Post Laurus.'
I might be impressed if these nutters had been reading
The Federalist Papers, James Joyce, or Freud.
But Nietszche and Marx? Sounds like a more or less
predictable fixation with the concerns of The Third
Reich to me. At least the Nazis made a few good movies.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ev-ver learn.
La la.
Japan was and remains, in some ways, a catalog of caricatures --
this perhaps owing to its remarkably unique historical circumstances.
It can be sometimes mesmerizing and sometimes unsettling
in its general intensity and amplitude. Every imaginable
quality of human nature and creativity are brilliantly displayed.
Barring, that is, just those that are taken most for
granted in the West: unfettered individuality and the
casual exercise of personal judgment in the public realm.
One must keep this in mind in order to take in its
extraordinary tapestry without becoming overly
charmed by any of it in its details or particulars.
The contemporary wish, where sincere, to extend the
principles and values of democracy to the sphere of
international relations is to be encouraged.
The attempt to wish any such attributes onto a past
that simply was not so, is suspect.
Call it 'The Cosmopolitical Fallacy,'
or, maybe, 'Fantasy.'
Historical parallels to current events
must, as a rule, be made and taken with
all care and judiciousness.
Excellent Book.......2005-12-01
From my experiences in reading historical non-fiction, there are generally two types of books. One of these simply tells you what happend, while the others, while also accomplishing the recount, also provide an analysis of perhaps why soemthing happend.
This is a must-read and an incredible in depth look at the japanese culture and the pride they have for their country and history.
Excellent.......2005-04-27
I read this book this semester in Professor Ohnuki-Tierney's class on Political and Cultural Symbolism. A must for any undergraduate student of symbolic or political anthropology. The book traces the use of the cherry blossom as a symbol throughout history, eventually arriving at the tokkotai (kamikaze) pilots of WWII.
EOT does a great job dispelling the myth that tokkotai pilots died for the emperor and committed suicide. Instead, she shows the lives of five young men, all highly intelligent university students fluent in Marxism and Western philosophy. These young men joined the Navy to herald a new age for Japan, they did not believe in the pro rege et patria mori ideology American media has assumed.
Don't watch the History Channel specials on tokkotai pilots. Read this book and learn about the harsh reality of war, the cruelty of government manipulation of symbol, and the brilliance of the Japanese men who lost their lives in WWII.
Highly Recommended.......2005-03-08
Exceptional book, I took a class with this professor. The western conception of "suicide pilots" is completly wrong.
Book Description
The work of Giorgio Agamben, one of Italy’s most important and original philosophers, has been based on an uncommon erudition in classical traditions of philosophy and rhetoric, the grammarians of late antiquity, Christian theology, and modern philosophy. Recently, Agamben has begun to direct his thinking to the constitution of the social and to some concrete, ethico-political conclusions concerning the state of society today, and the place of the individual within it.
In Homo Sacer, Agamben aims to connect the problem of pure possibility, potentiality, and power with the problem of political and social ethics in a context where the latter has lost its previous religious, metaphysical, and cultural grounding. Taking his cue from Foucault’s fragmentary analysis of biopolitics, Agamben probes with great breadth, intensity, and acuteness the covert or implicit presence of an idea of biopolitics in the history of traditional political theory. He argues that from the earliest treatises of political theory, notably in Aristotle’s notion of man as a political animal, and throughout the history of Western thinking about sovereignty (whether of the king or the state), a notion of sovereignty as power over “life” is implicit.
The reason it remains merely implicit has to do, according to Agamben, with the way the sacred, or the idea of sacrality, becomes indissociable from the idea of sovereignty. Drawing upon Carl Schmitt’s idea of the sovereign’s status as the exception to the rules he safeguards, and on anthropological research that reveals the close interlinking of the sacred and the taboo, Agamben defines the sacred person as one who can be killed and yet not sacrificed—a paradox he sees as operative in the status of the modern individual living in a system that exerts control over the collective “naked life” of all individuals.
Customer Reviews:
The Body = The Nation.......2006-12-13
I was first introduced to this text in one of my college courses. I'm not quite familiar with all of Agamben's theory on power, but I have read portions of, "The Camp as Biopolitical Paradigm of the Modern." This text I found to be weighty and at times difficult to read, but it sparked an interest in me to read more. I would like to contribute to the reviews with a simple interpretation of a few things that I read.
I'm intrigued with Agamben's idea of how society creates the category of the devalued through the category of the valued. An example of this categorical sorting is how the Nazis created this category of the devalued with the Jewish people, thus raising their own status of the valued. The Nazis were able to gain control/domination through the use of their concentration camps. By labeling others in society as lower than oneself, one can easily determine whether one's life is worth keeping around.
Another interesting point is how one's body/identity doesn't belong to that person, but rather the government and society owns that body. An example is of the creation of our American society, which came about through the killing of the Native Americans and bringing in of Slaves to further gain land and power. By controlling and taking over the body, the new America was created. It's fascinating to think of one's identity and body as one with the nation/government through citizenship, yet there are many examples within our own American society. America has taken citizenship away and than contradicted itself to ask the non-citizen to contribute to our causes (i.e. "war" or "economy"). An example of this control over citizenship is related to the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII. Once in these camps, Japanese-Americans' rights as a citizen were taken, than the government asked if they would fight for America. Thus the Japanese-Americans would have to prove themselves worthy of being a citizen/body of the United States of America.
Homo Sacer is a must read........2006-06-06
Agamben's best known work lives up to the hype. One of the most powerful aspects of this book is its shocking predictions about the world to come. Published many years before the initiation of the war on terror, Agamben signals the beginning the of a style of governance built on permanent exception. He insists that the extermination of the Jewx by the Nazis was not simply a horrible enigma that should never return, rather biopolitical atrocities have continued to intensify. This book is a must read for any person interested in understanding how the deep seated structure of sovereignty and its spatio-temporal course through power relations have brought us to the seeming limit poit of exception become rule. A handbook for contemporary politics. This is a great book.
Political Ontology and Bio-Politics.......2005-11-29
Agamben begins his inquiry into sovereignty in the light of the problematic left to contemporary political ontology via Hobbes, Schmitt, and up to Heidegger (Dasein being that being who's very being is always at stake for that being, and ontological difference), post Heideggerian political thought (Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Derrida) and finally Foucault's bio-politics. While Agamben's criticisms of these thinkers is brief (and somewhat reductive) it does serve the importance of situating his own conception of bio-politics, sovereignty and life as a radicalized "state of exception".
The Logic of Sovereignty is not one of a mere inclusion of beings into a political sphere or form of life specific to it (bios) which emerges or is transformed from an originary bare life (zoe). Rather Sovereignty establishes itself as "sacred" or "set apart" from the polis. There is nothing legal about law, in that the very founding moment of political ontology is apolitical and extra-juridical (because there is no normative law that has been set up yet). Benjamin distinguishes between two forms of violence (constituting and constituted). However, while the Sovereign constituting power of law must claim to be wholly outside the law in order to have created it, it must also regulate and constitute its power through law itself, thus including itself within the law. The Paradox of Sovereignty then is that its life is an "inclusion through exclusion". The signifier of law is absent (or non-signifying form) but is signified through this very non-signification of absence.
Homo Sacer then is the non-criminal criminal , the "extra-juridical" exception that is designated by the sovereign. The homo sacer can be legally killed by any person but is not a juridical killing. That is to say, killing the sacred human is not homicide nor is it sacrifice. The norm of political subjects are set against the exception of the homo sacer, but also included in the norm in its very opposition and ability to exile homo sacer. Agamben sees homo sacer and the sovereign to have this very inclusion by exception in common. Both the Sovereign and homo sacer can be killed but not sacrificed. (It is not a legal issue to kill a King but rather a heretical or anti-juridical one in this account). The Werewolf (half man and wolf inside the city and outside of it, man and animal, political and non-political) and the Sovereign, the inside and outside become an "indistinction" which no longer holds up for modern politics.
The Camp is the modern political space or "coming to light" of this "indistinction" between nature and law in the form of bio-politics. Modern politics as bio-politics takes life as what is at stake for its own life. Bare life as the state of exception, or the sacred, now becomes the rule. As for homo sacer everyone was sovereign, for the sovereign everyone is homo sacer. "The Enemy" as constitutive outside to the norm of civil society now becomes the inside in a society as war carried out by other means (politics). Society as life itself is the `enemy outside which is inside'. In fact, it was the rule from the inception of western politics. The camp then refers to the Nazi bio-political movement where law and fact are indistigusihable. The "suspension of law" and "states of emergency" are not purely juridical, and the holocaust cannot be understood in terms of law alone, but can only be understood as the indefinite suspension necessary for sovereign power to kill without crime, and without sacrifice.
One of the strengths of Homo Sacer is that it is able to weave the problems of political ontology together with the historico-political configurations and aporias of Nazism/mythology/capitalism/ and statism. In a subtle way Agamben is challenging the whole of contemporary political ontology to begin to rethink politics in terms of (actual)potentiality: (Life). Bio-politics as the state of exception (as rule) is no longer oriented toward the impossibility of the law (as form of the law without signification) but is rather concerned with the form-of-life (as indistinction/exception). A political ontology that is not concerned with the impossibility of laying claim to bare life as such, or the fascist mobilization of its totality and implementation, but rather with the practical creation and proliferation of non-statist, non-hierarchical experimentations in political practices that would create new ways of living and maximize the diversity of lives that would decide these ways. Life as potentiality (never reducible to any given definition or determination (totalitarianism) always calls for the emergence of a new politics of the actual, pointing always to the inexustablity/infinity of Life itself.
Critique of Agamben's somewhat reductive (although appropriate) critique of Heidigger, Battaille, Nancy, Derrida etc. aside for a moment, what remains a gapping hole in this work is the complete lack of eco-critical perspective on life. Almost every time Agamben speaks of life it is always in terms of a human life (a human political refugee, a proletariat, the life of a human political body, or a human sovereign king or people). It is his call for the creation of a people (resonances with Deleuze here) that he seems to close up his work on life. His very inquiry into the `open' of Bare Life (potentiality) as always political (indistinction) is closed up through the work in his neglect of animal, plant, and non-organic life, and hierarchical (statist?) (almost humanist) privileging of the bios politicos of the human.
Interesting but Problematic.......2005-05-23
Agamben's sets up his work in the left-open space of Foucault's work, the void in which "subjectivization" (the internalization of the order into the individual psyche)and police/political strategies might intersect. It is this void that Agamben desires to write, a (non)place in which "life" is incorporated into the political order. Agamben goes about this by beginning with a reading of Greek and Roman philosophical and poetic texts and weaving a continuity from these early works through the works of Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, and Jacques Derrida. The continuity he describes is that of sovereignty founded upon the "suspension" of "bare life." "Life," here, is "natural life," natural being that element (like the referent in language) that is the always already included absence (or as Agamben calls it the "exclusive inclusion"). This relation of suspension also creates the possibility of the "state of exception," a space in which the force of law is exerted outside of law.
This state in which the law is outside of itself allows for a renewal of the force of law, it transforms the law through its absence. Such a process involves the creation of sacred life, the life that can be killed without sacrifice and without guilt. It is from here that Agamben takes a look at the concentration camp and comes to the conclusion that this exceptional state of political life is in fact the norm of our contemporary reality: the exception has become the rule. "Life" in modern times is the life in the camp, whether it be in a totalitarian regime or one of mass democracy.
The strengths and faults of Agamben's lie in this continuity of sovereingty. On the one hand, it provides a discourse (indeed, a kind of meta-discourse) for placing philosophy and politics in relation to each other. It makes a poignant argument for the politicization of life as not merely a modern affair (as Foucault largely situates it) but, in fact, the founding moment of Western civilization, of the civis and the polis. However, this poignancy is also the achilles heel of Agamben's argument. Agamben's argument accounts for modernity as a "coming into light" of life's incorporation in politics. This subordination of modernity to a realization of what was already there is reductive to the point of excluding some of Foucault's most interesting insights into the diagramming (or beuraucratization) of life. In other words, much of Agamben's argument seems to derive its powers from excluding particularities. (This exclusion of particularities extends to a reductive reading of Derrida's "The Force of Law.")
Don't get me wrong, Agamben's work is important, especially his considerations of Walter Benjamin and Aristotle. Like Benjamin, he raises the stakes. Revolution becomes not merely the transition of one state to another but an eradication of the state that must also involve a revolution of language. Like, Benjamin in his "Critique of Violence," this transformation is ambiguous. Agamben locates it in the sphere of ontology's limits: the revolution will deconstruct the difference of world and person and of pure being and being. It will heal the fissure of life and politics that captures life in politics. Though this is a noble cause, it could certainly use elaboration, an elaboration that may not be possible within the reductive limits of Agamben's historicizing.
Well, there are some problems..........2005-05-23
WOW! Agamben's work continues to become more accepted and it continues to get shorter and shorter; his texts these days seem more like pamphlets than anything else. While Homo Sacer is the exception to this, it is perhaps the one text where Agamben's brevity lends him to making some theoretical blunders.
First, many people believe Agamben is the new Foucault. This simply is not true. There are no new "X's"; each thinker is who her or she is and not another. Yet, Agamben does make the move early in Homo Sacer to read Foucault and Arendt together on the question of totalitarianism. Well, this could be a problem since Foucault believes that the Holocaust has no ideological underpinning, while for Arendt it is the ideology of national socialism that constitutes the Holocaust. Seems like an irreconcilable difference that he not only does not mention but does not overcome.
Second, his notion of biopolitics, well, is hardly Foucauldian. So, are we operating with a new conception of the biopolitical? I think Agamben needs to be more clear about this. Agamben thinks the origins of biopolitics is contained within the difference between zoe and bios and does not understand, as Foucault articulates, the transformation of the sovereign right to kill to to sovereign's necessity for creating and enhancing the social body, which understands the human being as a species and not as an individual or citizen in Foucault's reading of the emergence of the state. Now, with the specialization of the human it becomes necessary that the biological existence of the human being become what is at stake for the state; however, it is this move to the biological existence of the human that it can become specialized.
All of this work by Foucault, which is more nuanced than what I have put forward in this review...but its a review so I chose to leave it brief, is missing in Agamben's work and as I stand on the Foucauldian side of the fence and find his work more compelling and thorough, I really find Agamben's notion of the biopolitical theoretically problematic
Amazon.com
Intellectuals are often accused of viewing mass entertainment with contempt, fear, or condescension. The rise of cultural-studies programs in prestigious universities, however, reveals that this perception couldn't be further from the truth. In American Culture, American Tastes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Michael G. Kammen explores the origins and implications of this new way that academics and critics celebrate, rather than condemn, popular tastes.
In principle, Kammen supports recent scholarly forays into the effects of mass production and consumerism on Americans' leisure time. He is concerned, however, that the audience's relationship to contemporary media is greatly underappreciated. In attempting to distinguish "popular" from "mass" culture, Kammen argues that with films, music, radio, and popular fiction, certain "highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow" levels emerged, targeting specific social classes or communities. These levels were quite permeable, however, and certain works, such as Shakespeare's plays and Charlie Chaplin's slapstick comedies, allowed audiences to transcend rigid categories of taste. In the television era, Kammen believes, leisure has become more passive and homogenized, however, and the era of democratic consumption that many modern intellectuals champion may be near an end.
To combat this trend, Kammen, like Russell Jacoby, longs to resurrect "public intellectuals," such as H.L. Mencken and Dwight Macdonald, who pointedly combined a learned appreciation of popular culture with a genuine concern for preserving the vivacity of public life. In a field dominated by Marxists and feminists, this call for liberal cultural "authority" will raise some hackles in academe, but praise among general audiences. --John M. Anderson
Book Description
Americans have a long history of public arguments about taste, the uses of leisure, and what is culturally appropriate in a democracy that has a strong work ethic. Michael Kammen surveys these debates as well as our changing taste preferences, especially in the past century, and the shifting perceptions that have accompanied them.
Professor Kammen shows how the post-traditional popular culture that flourished after the 1880s became full-blown mass culture after World War II, in an era of unprecedented affluence and travel. He charts the influence of advertising and opinion polling; the development of standardized products, shopping centers, and mass-marketing; the separation of youth and adult culture; the gradual repudiation of the genteel tradition; and the commercialization of organized entertainment. He stresses the significance of television in the shaping of mass culture, and of consumerism in its reconfiguration over the past two decades.
Focusing on our own time, Kammen discusses the use of the fluid nature of cultural taste to enlarge audiences and increase revenues, and reveals how the public role of intellectuals and cultural critics has declined as the power of corporate sponsors and promoters has risen. As a result of this diminution of cultural authority, he says, definitive pronouncements have been replaced by divergent points of view, and there is, as well, a tendency to blur fact and fiction, reality and illusion.
An important commentary on the often conflicting ways Americans have understood, defined, and talked about their changing culture in the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
If you enjoyed this book, try Also "From Lowbrow to Nobrow".......2007-05-18
If you enjoyed this book, try also a recent hit, "From Lowbrow to Nobrow," which provides a state of the art and revolutionary analysis of popular fiction (sort of a la Herbert Gans), and does it in an engaging, colourful and witty way. Peter Swirski, the author, is a literature specialist but his also ranges into sociology, leisure studies, aesthetics, economics, and many other aspects of the socio-cultural function of popular fiction, as well as a new socio-aesthetic category which he dubs "nobrow."
An excellent read!.......2000-09-03
I picked this book up on a whim, and found it an interesting mix; a somewhat anti-academic treatise written by a flourishing academic, filled with tremendous flashes of genuine insight into the perennial American ethos as it sifts out in our culture. Written in an engaging style, Kammen is clearly devoted to his own intellectual gifts but not overcome by them. His dissection of the impact of television on modern culture is particularly adept, if only the creators of TV programming possessed this much understanding of the medium in which they work! The pace of the book is invitingly brisk, and while it is thick going in a few places, it's mostly quite readable and makes its arguments in a manner that is concise, cogent, and to-the-point. Despite the somewhat dry title (although the Reginald Marsh painting on the cover really cinched my purchase of the book!), this is a penetrating and important look at the direction of American culture. Kammen's take on multi-culturalism in America seems somewhat bleached, and his occasional ruminations on cultural life played out vis-a-vis the increasingly virulent class war that rumbles just under the surface of American life seem conservative and not always informed, perhaps closeted a bit by his academic background. One other thing- the illustrations in the book are beautifully chosen, including Rockwell, Benton, and a positively magical drawing of Warhol by Jamie Wyeth. I'd never seen it before and it alone is worth the price of the book!
Well-Researched Look At American Leisure Preferences.......2000-08-16
Historian/author Michael Kammen's "American Culture, American Taste" exhaustively, deliberately examines 120 years of American leisure preferences: their classification, exploration, homogonization, and finally, exploitation. He recalls, charts, and deconstructs lines of "high," "low," and "middlebrow" taste (defined over time by everything from furniture choice to favorite "Simpsons" character). He also strengthens the divide between "popular" culture (often regional and participatory) over "mass" culture (homogoneous and sedentary), criticizing their interchangability in American society.
Kammen doesn't adhere to timeline (although he includes one to start the book) prefering to make points era to era, country to city, weaving critical opinions often 50 years apart. He cites the years 1880-1930 as when popular culture gained its footing (with increased leisure time) and inspired some of its finest (often bristling) national conversation from journalists such as Walter Lippmann. He finds unique angles in cultural hegemony (sports equipment and rule books, Walt Disney's and Charlie Chaplin's films, radio's "Amos n'Andy", and syndicated newspaper features all preceding television's ultimate conquest). Then again, Kammen also includes Timothy O'Leary's dimbulb quote that the Nintendo phenomenon is "about equal to that of the Gutenberg printing press." Uh huh.
Kammen reveals, then bemoans, the gradual shift from active to passive, social to private amusement, from reliance on cultural leadership ("tastemakers") to public opinion easily manipulated by advertising and slavishly served by mass media. Kammen also praises disparate artists like Andy Warhol and Ken Burns for their fresh, interpretive approaches to popular art, history, and their ultimate meld, acknowledging criticism of Burns in a chapter among the book's best.
Kammen writes like a professor: dryly, relying on self-reference and prepositional pile-up (ending Chapter 8, for example, with a huge excerpt from social critic Morag Shiach followed by his own terse, "I concur." Yet the sheer weight of his research, opinion collected and examples rendered make "American Culture" a fine companion piece to studying American fad, fashion, and leisure preference, a part of daily American life few scholars have seriously studied. Recommended.
Another Kammen Hit!.......2000-05-18
Kammen once again delivers the goods in this well-researched and timely discussion of how American popular culture has changed over the past century into mass culture. Popular and mass culture are terms often mis-used, so he starts with a discussion of their differences and how their meaning has changed. Kammen's range is broad and his commentary sharp. Enjoy! (I've read the library's copy, now I'm buying something I can mark on.)
Average customer rating:
- Excellent and Insightful
- Shows how mathematics intertwines with the arts and biology
- Lacking depth in analysis
- A good book focused on Phi
- Accessible and Fascinating
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The Geometry of Art and Life
Matila Ghyka
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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The Curves of Life (Dover Books Explaining Science)
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The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number
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Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice (Art and Imagination)
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A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science
ASIN: 0486235424 |
Book Description
This classic study probes the geometric interrelationships between art and life in discussions that range from Plato, Pythagoras, and Archimedes to modern architecture and art. Other topics include the Golden Section, geometrical shapes on the plane, geometrical shapes in space, crystal lattices, and many other fascinating subjects. Includes 80 plates and 64 figures.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent and Insightful.......2007-05-08
This short paperback is a hidden gem. It contains so many insightful pithy clues about life, along with easy to understand mathematical paradigms. Every item will have you saying is this math, is it philosophy, is it religion, or is just true in many, many ways.
Shows how mathematics intertwines with the arts and biology.......2006-12-23
This book is a unique one that combines mathematics with art and somewhat quantifies that which we call beauty. The mathematical concepts presented are not difficult. If you've been exposed to algebra and geometry you should have no trouble. What will definitely help is having studied art, and in particular, art appreciation. With no real feeling for symmetry or form you might not appreciate this book as much as you could.
The book's central focus is to show that patterns, themes of symmetry, and spirals discovered in living forms and living growth are the same themes of proportion that were used by Greek and Gothic architects. It also shows that the proportion known as "The Golden Section" appears to be the principle invariant. The Golden Section's algebraic and geometric properties are discussed, as are its role in biology and in aesthetics.
This book is very accessible, but it is not something you will want to read quickly cover to cover. Instead, the best way to read this book is to read a short section, make sure you understand the underlying mathematics, and then think about what that particular section of the book says about the application of that mathematics to the arts or biology before returning to the book for further reading.
Lacking depth in analysis.......2006-06-15
Ghyka attempts to show the objects in nature are not randomly formed; he begins the with the concept of ratio and proportion in the plane; the golden section; and then to the regular polygons and geometric shapes in 3 dimensions. Then he rambles onto hypothesizing why an architecture design may seem striking. In doing so he makes gross assumptions which are to the point of being forced to fit his theories. The basic concepts that he delves; one can familiarize oneself with by a quick reference on the internet. Hence I do not recommend spending the time and money to read this book.
A good book focused on Phi.......2003-04-22
I'm not a mathematician, but I still found this book to be readable. It is largely focused on the Golden Section (Phi) and related proportions, including Fibonacci numbers, sqrt(Phi), etc. The explanation of how to derive this number is clearly explained in the first few chapters. The following chapters show how Phi is related to most things we see everyday, including architecture, 5-point animals, crystal latticies, art, and music. This book is quite old, so the illustrations seem rather antiquated. Nonetheless, the quantity and clarity of these illustrations are impressive.
The writing was clear, but the concepts were occasionally difficult to understand. The author made mention of "gnomic" growth a number of times without really giving a single clear definition. Also, I felt that a number of the tie-ins between Phi and architecture were a bit of a stretch. Most likely you could overlay any graph over a blueprint and see any proportion you'd want to see. At any rate, this book has gotten me interested in this subject, and I will be looking for more books on Phi.
Accessible and Fascinating.......2001-12-28
This excellent book, written in 1946, still remains in print, and for good reason. Ghyka shows mathematically that objects in nature are not randomly formed, but all have regularity and harmony.
Beginning with the concepts of ratio and proportion in the plane, the Golden Section, and then to regular polygons and geometric shapes in 3 dimensions, Ghyka demonstrates these patterns with simple algebra and geometry, and plenty of diagrams.
He explains the logarithmic spiral and its role in harmonious growth in nature, with photographs and diagrams. He shows how ancient builders used the Golden Section in their architecture and in their art. This book is a wonderful weaving of philosophy, mathematics and science, covering a lot of ground, and is very well-written. It is nothing like trying to wade through H.M.S. Coxeter! This book would be a fine companion to Cook's "The Curves of Life," fleshing out the concepts presented there.
This little book is a gem -- there is a tremendous amount of information packed into its 174 pages, yet it is understandable to the layperson. And it is aptly titled. It truly is about "The Geometry of Art and Life."
If you are one of those observant persons who is looking for a more detailed understanding of the underlying patterns in nature, art and architecture, and you don't mind spending a little time going through some simple algebra and geometry, this is the book for you.
Book Description
Based on John Dewey's lectures on esthetics, delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience has grown to be considered internationally as the most distinguished work ever written by an American on the formal structure and characteristic effects of all the arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Theorizing On Art.......2003-05-05
As a reviewer below stated, this is a very interesting book that treats art as a means of recapturing the experience of life and trasmitting that experience to the audience. He captures a number of concepts established earlier by Leo Tolstoy in his "What is Art?" and delves deeper into them, expounding on their more practical and less esoteric uses.
Dewey, however, certainly earns his title as a pragmatist. His wording is complicated and, at times, careful. It is difficult to pin specific sayings or doctrines to him. However, once the task is completed, he has a great deal of important things to say about art and artistic experience.
this book is kickin!.......2000-08-29
if you are an artist this book will blow your mind.
it is pretty theoretical, but if you can get through the first 20 pages.. and get into his vibe.. it's BEAUTIFUL.. (yum).
This is probably the most important book i've ever read. You trust katie, you! you buy! you buy!!
One of the great books on art theory........2000-04-07
Although somewhat dated in that what Dewey novelly stated long ago, we now accept as obvious, this is a great book to gain an understanding of art both as a producer and as a spectator.
The central theme is that life is an experience, and that the goal of art is to recapture that experience. Hence, a painting of a flower is only valuable in the way that it captures the essence of a flower, or the experience of viewing a flower. The viewing of a painting must also provide some of the experience of making that painting ( its process ).
If you can manage to finish the book ( the style is a bit archaic ), the experience is worth the effort.
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