A Brain - the Size of a Planet
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: "A book for the stalwart who love learning and intellectual gymnastics. A brain workout."
I have to agree with one of my book club members who reviewed as follows:
"A very deep read. One of those that, to really enjoy, takes more time than just the reading time. It isn't a book to read, it is a book to experience. A book that, when you are done, you feel you know less than you thought you knew when you started. Overall, absolutely amazing."
Of course she is entirely correct.
For those of you not familiar with the author, Jacques Barzun is extremely well respected and won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for this epic. For those folks who devote the time and the energy into actually reading and studying the book; this book is like a college program in cultural history. You will learn that much.
There are so many sidebar discussions and detours that one can take reading this book. I marveled at the knowledge and the breadth of Mr. Barzun's intellect. Yes, he did have a few opinions; but that made the reading that much more personal and sometimes controversial.
This bears a careful, slow and thoughtful reading. Those folks who want a quick mystery or want to be entertained by a book will not enjoy this work at all. If you give up on things easily, you will not have the stamina to complete this opus. This is not a Patterson or a Grafton novel.
If you love to be tested, be prodded into exploring ideas and different ways of thinking, you will love From Dawn to Decadence.
I found in our group discussions that those folks who just did not want to dive in and challenge themselves and/or had fitful starts and finishes as they read the book will not get anything out of the book at all; in fact those folks could not finish it and if they somehow finally held their nose and stuck it out...they did not enjoy the experience.
The book has to be read continuously so that all of the pieces fit together and the reader sees their dependencies; otherwise you will be totally lost and not see the causal relationships.
The book is really a marvel and easily 100 years of a lifelong love of learning is poured into this cultural history masterpiece by Barzun - this is really his life's work and all of his learning along with the touch of a brilliant mind really inspired me.
You may not always agree with some of his opinions and statements. I found more than a few of these (smile).
But what is even more remarkable is that Barzun, himself, would be happy that you challenged him or his ideas...that was the kind of professor he once was. So for those who do not give up easily and can persevere and accept challenges in learning and in life, this is the book for you.
If you want to be entertained, you will never finish this book or like it one iota...so be forewarned. It is a little like undertaking War and Peace without those beloved characters; it is more like reading a college text.
I was in awe of the book; but I can understand that it is not for everyone
Bentley 1/10/10
Rating: B
Are we really as decadent as Barzun claims?
Jacques Barzun is clearly very well-read and knowledgeable, no doubt about that. Despite its somewhat soporific writing, the book is very rich with information, and is a good addition to an otherwise complete history bookshelf. However, it contains two significant flaws: pedantry and tendentiousness.
First, Barzun can be a quite bit pedantic (and verbose) when he repeatedly informs the reader that "utopia" ought to be "eutopia"; technology should be called "techne"; we say democratic when we mean "demotic"; abstract art isn't really abstract; pointillists applied dashes, not dots; Louis XIV never said "L'état, c'est moi"; Rousseau never actually urged anybody to go "back to nature"; Darwin was not the first to think up evolution; and Jeanne (Joan) was called Darc, not d'Arc. On and on. Yet he loves to point out when others are pedantic. If it were not for all these "corrections," which are actually hypercorrections in many cases, the book would probably be a bit shorter and more interesting. This is reminiscent of the olden days in which authors were paid by the word. In fact, he sometimes even gets the facts wrong (or questionable) in his zeal to "correct" them!
The book was also somewhat tendentious to say the least. While the first 90% or so of the book is not bad, it really begins to coast by the final chapters. As you guessed it, those chapters concern the late 20th century, and upon reading them his rather conservative biases are finally revealed. When he talks about how decadent we (the West) are now, he uses subjective things like not wearing ties to the opera, and not holding doors open for women, as evidence. This is pure hand-waving. As far as "amoral art," that is NOT a new phenomenon. Nudity was ubiqutious in the Renaissance art. And while decrying the violence of our times (and yes, there's plenty), he forgets that the past was often much more violent than today. The soil of Europe was soaked in blood for centuries, often due to religious wars. Then there were people burned at the stake for "heresy." Violent entertainment? Unlike today's "virtual" violence, "cat-burning" (yes, that's what it sounds like) was a popular diversion on the streets of France in the 1600s. Badger-baiting was big in England in the 1800s. Many of America's founding fathers engaged in cockfighting. And let's not forget slavery, racism, domestic violence, child abuse, rape, etc. In fact, in many ways, we are much better off today than the past few centuries.
So yeah, read it if you wish, but take it with a grain of salt, as well as a bit of laughter.
Leonardo was no Renaissance man
Jacques Barzun taught me the man behind the name of one of St. Louis' most well-known streets: Pestalozzi.
Until now, I associated it with beer. As, Pestalozzi street in St. Louis is tied to Anheuser-Busch.
I'm now on notice: Johann Pestalozzi was an education reformer who had a major role in changing the way we learn. But that is such a small part of the twists and turns of our culture, from dawn to decadence.
Barzun chronicles the rise of western culture beginning with Michelangelo (about 1500) and ending with ICE-T (about 1995).
The book is worth owning, whether it be for reference or recreation. The profiles on Erasmus, Mozart, Dickens, Cromwell, Byron, and countless other figures are worth even a tacit glance.
You'll learn about the rise of parliaments, and why Leonardo da Vinci wasn't really a so-called Renaissance man. (The book writes: "He cared nothing about Latin and Greek. He never wrote poems or orations. He had little to say about philosophy and theology. He took no interest in history...Nor was he an architect or a sculptor. Worst of all, he had no use for music...")
The books finest passage comes late in this big book. On page 727, Barzun tells us: "The arts of Modernism have...played a part in the general relaxation of conduct so widely complained of since the mid-century. The attack on authority, the ridicule of anything established, the distortions of language and objects, the indifference to clear meaning, the violence to the human form, the return to primitive elements of sensation, the growing list of genres called Anti-, of which the root principle is "Except nothing," have made Modernism at once the mirror of disintegration and an incitement to extending it. And all this was going on long before the moral, sexual, and political rebellions that shook the western world in the 1960s."
That alone is worth the cover price.
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