The Poetry of Thought: From Hellenism to Celan by George Steiner My rating: 4 of 5 stars Why have I become addicted to reading George Steiner? Oblique answers below. This is an essay—and Steiner stresses that it is indeed an “essay,” in the Montaignean sense of “trial”—about the failure of philosophy. Philosophers have longed to … Continue reading George Steiner, The Poetry of Thought
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The Idea of Europe: An Essay by George Steiner My rating: 2 of 5 stars The Goodreads description calls this a "remarkable short book," but maybe it should say "remarkably short." As other reviewers have pointed out, Steiner has said much the same elsewhere, and less invidiously at that, so my criticisms of In Bluebeard's … Continue reading George Steiner, The Idea of Europe
1. My review of William Giraldi's new novel, Hold the Dark, appears at Rain Taxi; it addresses Giraldi's controversial criticism and includes a defense of his somewhat unfashionable aestheticism. 2. I am going to cross-post my Goodreads reviews to this blog from now on, in the interests of disseminating my writing to the largest possible audience. … Continue reading Updates and Goodreads Reviews
In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture by George Steiner My rating: 4 of 5 stars 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 … Continue reading George Steiner, In Bluebeard’s Castle
1. While I don't even really know who Ira Glass is, I thought the response to his anti-Shakespeare tweet was missing a broader perspective, so I wrote an essay for The Millions attempting to provide one, giving some good reasons why people across the ages, from Tolstoy to Wittgenstein to Joyce to Woolf, have criticized … Continue reading Links: Me, Elsewhere
Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism by George Steiner My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a superb book. It abounds in literary-historical insight; it goes to the heart of these authors' achievements. The title is a bit misleading in that it's not really about deciding whether Tolstoy or Dostoevsky is … Continue reading George Steiner, Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism
