Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age [Hardcover]

Roger Kimball (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1566633354 | ISBN-13: 978-1566633352 | Publication Date: September 12, 2000

Experiments Against Reality displays the sophistication, breadth of knowledge, and clarity of argument that have made Mr. Kimball one of the most trenchant critics of our contemporary culture. He begins by considering the influential poet and theorist T. E. Hulme, and shows how the work of Eliot, Auden, Wallace Stevens, Robert Musil, Elias Canetti, and others can be seen as efforts to articulate a convincing alternative to the intellectual and spiritual desolations of the age. Turning to the philosophical tradition, Mr. Kimball suggests how figures from Mill and Nietzsche to Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Sartre, Heidegger, Foucault, and Roger Scruton have addressed--or in many cases evaded--the defining moral imperatives of modernity. Finally he steps back to consider more generally the career of contemporary culture--the trivializing nature of the contemporary art world; the academic attack on historical truth and scientific rationality; the fate of the two cultures controversy. Experiments Against Reality offers continuing evidence of Mr. Kimball's stature as one of our most important cultural critics. Named an International Book of the Year by Mary Lefkowitz, Times Literary Supplement. A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified.... His intellectual rigor is refreshing. Experiments Against Reality demonstrates what criticism can be if you take away all the theoretical scaffolding inherent in, say, a deconstructionist, structuralist or feminist reading. --Catherine Saint Louis, New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Like his New Criterion colleague Hilton Kramer, Kimball writes forcefully and fluently about the intellectual currents that affect the arts. Like Kramer, he upholds high modernism, as epitomized by the moral seriousness of T. S. Eliot, subject of the warmest piece in this book. Like Kramer's Twilight of the Intellectuals (1999), this book contains originally freestanding essays that share a common theme. Whereas the theme of Kramer's Twilight was American liberal intellectuals' obstinate tolerance of Communism, Kimball's collection is concerned with various forms of the denial of reality in modern literature and philosophy. Because his subjects are greater artists and intellects than most of Kramer's in Twilight , Kimball's is a more engaging book. Kimball is as keenly gratifying as he is because, though he rues the intellectual and spiritual mistakes of such figures as J. S. Mill and Nietzsche, he grants their personal weaknesses and literary strengths. Even when his subjects have very few redeeming characteristics--Sartre, or Foucault, for instance--Kimball doesn't demonize them as he demolishes their vicious ideas. Superb intellectual journalism. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Will be required reading for those who want a significant perspective on how and why our contemporary culture got to be the way it is. (Frederick Morgan )

Stylish, richly allusive, and immensely readable...an invaluable collection. (John Gross )

One of the most candid and perceptive critics of American culture. (Himmelfarb, Gertrude Times Literary Supplement )

A model of investigative advocacy of argumentation, principles, and responsibility...a superb performance. (Robert McDowell Hudson Review )

A scathing critic but one whose tirades are usually justified...his intellectual rigor is refreshing. (Catherine Saint Louis New York Times Book Review )

His position is conservative but not reactionary, humanistic but not populist, fresh but never trendy. (John Simon )

A book you will relish and applaud. Roger Kimball's essays on recent poets and thinkers...are as wise as they are elegantly written. (Martin Gardner )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (September 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566633354
• ISBN-13: 978-1566633352
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,152,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fairy Tales Don't Come True., February 5, 2001

By 

Joseph Hartmann (naperville, il USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age (Hardcover)

Most critics of American culture are able to see broad causes for contemporary problems. Their insight is almost oversight. Roger Kimball has an amazing ability to see the spawning wisp of the thread that weaves through the matrix of our cultural decline. These series of essays look back over the last century at the critics, novelists, and philosophers who stood on either side of the question, "Is reality real or can I make it what I wish?" Those ascribing to the latter, tended to be cultural heroes for their encouragement of a new kind of freedom which Kimball shows is really a decaying licentiousness. Most of these experimenters against reality were celebrated by the intelligentsia of the time for discovering a new kind of happiness. The only problem, as Kimball points out, is that their suggested liberations have led to misery both personally and culturally. There are also excellent essays describing the stalwarts who stood astride the decline of society yelling "Stop". Primary amongst these is Mr Kimball himself whose essay, "The Trivialization of Outrage" will be a classic as he decries the lack of beauty in today's "art". This is a book that needs to be studied to be appreciated. A little effort brings great rewards. Hopefully we will learn as Kimball so rightly puts it that "the liberations we crave have served chiefly to compound the depth of our loss."

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yet More Brilliance from Kimball., August 31, 2004

By 

Bernard Chapin "Ora Et Labora!" (CHICAGO! USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite books and a person could hardly do better than to purchase the two for one Amazon deal that includes "The Long March." I thought of reviewing "Experiments..." today because upon reading the latest issue of The New Criterion (the journal Kimball edits) the author includes, in an essay concerning shame, a reference to Robert Musil. This reference immediately reminded me of the superlative essay this book contains regarding Musil and his masterpiece, "The Man without Qualities."
"Experiments..." is highly similar to "Lives of the Mind" in its ecletic choice of subject matter. Unlike "The Long March," it is not uniformly guided by a single theme but this does not decrease its educational merit.
I should also state that this is not a partisan book. It's for intellectuals of all stripes but is particularly valuable to those who cherish our culture and western civilization. Enjoy, I wish I could read these essays for the first time all over again.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intellect chained to war, October 16, 2001

By 

"arlodriver" (Dearborn, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age (Hardcover)

Kimball is a very learned voice in the culture wars, an insightful art critic who's breadth of reading harkens to a bygone era. As a matter of fact, the book sometimes feels as though it's from another era celebrating the myriad views of Hulme,T.S. Eliot, Muriel Sparks and once again ravaging the birth and ascent of deconstructionism/moral relativism. All the essays are well written if somewhat unsuprising at this stage, with the real gems being the attack on Cioran and the retrospective view of the novels of Robert Musil. There's also a fun bashing of Foucault who I find to be so tiresome you wouldn't think he'd needed to be bashed again except you'll still find his name in campus catalogs.

On the whole my reading experience was satisfactory, due more to Kimball's style than content. I've been moved to check out anew some of the author's he speaks about in the reviews, and I'm all for supporting an author who's done so much to bring the reading public's attention to David Stove. I might even suggest that someone jump right to Stove's work, especially the stunning volume edited by Kimball.

Contrasting Stove to Kimball is useful in illustrating why Kimball is not quite as enjoyable to read. Both are cultural warriors, with an obvious axe to grind from the right. While Kimball is easier to digest (he never reaches Stove's scathing pitch), you can't help but suspect that's partly because he has more sacred cows to protect. Stove doesn't leave anything worth skewering off the barbecue, not even religious inanery. Interestingly, Kimball liberally utilizes Stove arguments in his attacks, but ignores those that might land unfavorably on his own shoulders.

But very high shoulders they are, the writing is first rate, and his understanding can sometimes awe you. He's a proper heir to much of modernisms archness. If he isn't a British citizen, perhaps he should be made an honorary one.