Agony of Flies: Notes and Notations [Paperback]

Elias Canetti (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

From his early novel, Auto da fe (1935), to his work in social theory, Crowds and Power (1960); his writings on Kafka; and his autobiographies, Canetti, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize for literature, has been concerned with the themes of solitude, power, and language. These themes remain central to this German/English bilingual edition of The Agony of Flies, a collection of epigrams, aphorisms, and apercus. Many of these writings are aphoristic sketches and memoranda for stories or characters, while others are autobiographical notes, and all are linked by Canetti's profound awareness of the power of language. Like the Confucian Analects, which deeply influenced Canetti, these are the fragments of a wise teacher in exile. An important and provoking book.
T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

This collection of fragments by Nobel Prizewinner Canetti raises the vexing question: Is an aphorism merely the printed analogue of a sound bite? Canetti, who won the prize on the strength of his novel, Auto-da-F‚ (not reviewed), and his sociological study, Crowds and Power (not reviewed), has since then written in ever smaller portions. Much of this has to do with Canetti's intense distrust of systematic thought, which makes sense in a man who witnessed the ideological excesses of 20th-century Europe. Most of the shards collected here read like diary entries ripped prematurely from their notebooks: ``A man one knows only at daybreak''; ``He hearkens in cosmic space to ultimate thoughts.'' Perhaps there is a monkish purity in such brevity--an old man shedding useless trappings as he approaches a knowledge of what does and doesn't matter. Or, maybe, like most diaries and notebooks, this is just one writer's chaff and should be treated as such. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Bilingual edition (August 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374524106
• ISBN-13: 978-0374524104
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,464,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mostly short thoughts, August 26, 2009

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agony of Flies: Notes and Notations (Paperback)

The book was a bit strange for me at first. I do not think of creating a large number of characters and animals to populate imiginary situations, and it is more absurd to think along the lines of a death trip which gets stuck in reverse, so nothing ever dies, and the greatest soul wishes to be many animals all at once instead of being reincarnated as steps in experiencing all existence. Nietzsche finally got dragged into the picture on page 79 in opposition to the sanctity of every life, but Nietzsche is hardly getting blamed for "All the dying up to the present was nothing but judicial murder, carried out thousands and thousands of times and for which I cannot find any legalization. What do I care about the multitude of precedents, what do I care that not one single being has stayed alive since the very beginning! Nietzsche's attacks are like a gust of poisonous air, but one which cannot harm me: I inhale it with pride and exhale it with disdain, and I pity him for the immortality which awaits him." (p. 81).