Theodor Adorno was a German marxist cultural critic. Stars Down to Earth is ostensibly about the astrology column for the Los Angeles Times. The interesting part, however, comes from Adorno's insight into human irrationality. He argues that irrationality allows people to keep a narcissistic view of their own worth while simultaneously absolving them of any responsibility to change the world around them. I find myself comparing other well-known social patterns to Adorno's astrology and each one achieves the same end in its own way. I originally thought of Adorno as the stogy, boring alternative to Walter Benjamin's mystical work, which takes a much more optimistic and hopeful view of social patterns. At this point in my life, however, I find Adorno much more convincing.
What are you guys reading?
I mostly only read blogs and news sites these days. I've just not been taking the time for any good stories otherwise. I bought an Anne Rice book a few months back, and even *that* (which I do consider to be mental masturbation) has not been read as yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Fellini: The Artist by Edward Murray, a film-by-film breakdown of the Italian director's ouevre. The author seems to take perverse glee in calling Fellini a complete genius for the first half of his career, and then constantly insulting him as a total failure for the second half of his career. He doesn't offer the most amazing insights but at least he makes me think about why I like (or dislike) each of Fellini's movies, in case I want to write about some of them later. I'm pretty much done; I've skipped over the chapters about the movies I haven't seen yet so I'm about as done as I'm going to be.
ReplyDeleteAs for Adorno, Yoggoth knows that I wrote a very confused paper on Adorno in grad school, and once I got the hell out of grad school I didn't really think much about him anymore. I will say this: as European academics go, he is one of the most readable and least obnoxious. I think he fails to come up with very many useful answers, but at least (unlike most of those other guys) he is definitely is asking the right kinds of questions. Because he comes so much closer to actually getting somewhere, and because he is a good writer, reading him is very frustrating for me, so I don't do it anymore. Ultimately I think he places judgement on things that are neither inherently good or bad. In a way he is too idealistic. He seems to think that there is some kind of moral flaw with the human race, but I think the problem is that he assumes the human race should be "flawless," whatever that may mean. It's not very useful to complain about something that doesn't live up to your standards. I say it's better to live as an example for others and not spend so much time bitching.
I think I remember taking some class in college where I wrote a paper on Adorno. Ugh, I hated that class.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I think I've been reading it since last xmas.
there are nice things too about human irrationality. how would rationality engender humans wanting to change the world around them in a non narcissistic way. err.. I'm interested.
ReplyDeletei am reading Gulliver's Travels and also Sometimes a Great Notion. Please read these books. The tone of my voice changes every time i try to talk about Sometimes a Great Notion . .... but talking doesn't count on blog.
I think the rational way to engender non-narcissistic change would be to convince people that in a world of limited resources the majority of people will be happier with cooperation and respect for others. Enforced cooperation mixed with competition will lead to a more efficient distribution of resources than pure competition. Put another way, there will always be something stronger and bigger than you coming along, why rush to replace yourself?
ReplyDeleteOf course this is a simplification. In reality, irrationality is always intertwined with rationality and vice versa. But there is something a bit suspect about social movements that seem to be have no relationship to physical causality. All responsibility for human action disappears. It is not you who are hurting those around you, it's just the way the solar system is.
Rationality can lead to malicious action as well if the mind has no value for the wellbeing of others. And what is the basis for valuing humanity? Instinct inherent to us as social animals. Another word for instinct is, of course, irrationality.