Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus To Pornography [Paperback]

Roger Shattuck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1996

Examining the meaning of moral responsibility in literature and in our everyday lives, Shattuck also suggests that we live in a violated world that dismisses taboos and fails to heed the wisdom of that which is sacred. Forbidden Knowledge is a scintillating work that does nothing less than trace the tragic arc of Western literatue and culture, exploring the notion of forbidden knowledge from the sexual innocence of Adam and Eve to the sexual excesses of the Marquis de Sade and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An intellectual tour-de-force, Forbidden Knowledge is a study of the ethics of literary and scientific inquiry. Shattuck first approaches his subject indirectly, conducting an engaging tour of Western literature: Adam and Eve, Prometheus, Milton's Paradise Lost, Goethe's Faust, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He then uses these tales to address the moral questions raised by mankind's tendency to search for dangerous knowledge. He contrasts J. Robert Oppenheimer's acceptance of guilt for the atomic bombings with Edward Teller's dismissal of the same. In his own field of literary criticism he argues against the neutral analysis of immoral works as "pure literature," illustrating his point with a critique of the Marquis de Sade. Forbidden Knowledge is a stimulating and forceful intellectual argument against moral relativism, as well as a practical approach to difficult ethical problems, from genetic engineering to pornography.

From Publishers Weekly

In this scholarly, provocative and gracefully written study, Shattuck?a distinguished critic (The Banqueting Years) and translator (of Apollinaire)?argues that there are moral taboos (even if they are sometimes unclearly defined) that we dare violate at our peril, that there are indeed limits?both philosophical and physical?to what humankind is meant to know and experience and that from the very beginnings of civilization, a central theme in our thought and literature has been the struggle to understand what those limits are. The book begins in theory and moves to more concrete examples of "forbidden knowledge," from discussions of myths (Prometheus, Orpheus, Adam and Eve), through the Victorians' perplexity over Darwin, to an examination of works of literature (Faust, Paradise Lost, Billy Budd, Frankenstein, Emily Dickinson's poetry, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Stranger) that indicate a fascination or concern with those limits. The second half of this study focuses on what Shattuck calls case histories of what can happen when those limits are pushed and include discussions of the Manhattan Project, DNA research, genetic engineering, serial killers (Ted Bundy; the so-called Moors Murderer) and finally?and at great length?the Marquis de Sade. The book might seem but a thoughtful warning about the destructive power of de Sade and what Shattuck considers sadistic pornography, but a concluding essay makes it clear that his subject is really the history of human curiosity and of the glories and dangers inherent in trying to learn more than one is prepared for. First serial to the New York Times Book Review; Reader's Subscription Book Club main selection; BOMC and History Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312146027
• ISBN-13: 978-0312146023
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,159,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ad Hominem Per Astra, July 14, 2002

By 

Roger Lathbury (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus To Pornography (Paperback)

A rare and wonderful argument, written with verve and considerable moral urgency, Forbidden Knowledge frames the question of whether there are some things we should not know. The subtitle "From Prometheus to Pornography" points to the middle ground Shattuck ultimately takes.

The first half of the book sets up the opposition in literary terms. Untrammeled exploration is the taking of what cultural institutions say must not be taken; Shattuck traces this exploration from the myth of the fire stealer Prometheus, through Eve's eating of the interdicted apple in the Bible and Paradise Lost, Ulysses' illicit voyage (Book XXVI, Dante's Inferno), and many other literary representations. The opposing way of approaching prohibitions is found in two instances (both written by women, a point Shattuck could make more of) of liberation that comes through self-limitation: La Princesse de Cleves and the poetry of Emily Dickinson. The second half of Forbidden Knowledge applies these oppositions to life, as in the social consequences of violent pornography (e. g., De Sade's influence on Ted Bundy) and scientific exploration (the human genome project) that seems to promise complete control over human existence. Shattuck's range of literary reference is divertingly breathtaking: Socrates and rap, Aeschylus and Woody Allen, Goethe, Ghandi, Melville, Maimonides, Walter Pater, Democritus, Roland Barthes, Perrault--aw, hell, everything: if you've taken Western Literature at any quarter-baked college or university, you'll come upon something you've read. And Shattuck will illuminate it from the alternative perspectives of pleonexia vs. portee.

It would have been simple-minded, easy, and instantly suspect to compose a polemic for intellectual freedom. This Shattuck does not do. He argues instead that philosophical and scientific thought--the law of infinite regress, for instance--affirms the impossibility of complete knowledge. Although human nature is such that exploration cannot be stopped, the ways in which knowledge is applied can be controlled. Incompleteness is inevitable--and humanizing. "Be lowly wise" (Paradise Lost, Book VIII).

I summarize shamelessly because I am confident that anyone who reads this will want the book. It is learned, original, many-sided, allusive without crowing, invigorating, earnest yet sophisticated, written with humor and grace. In our age, when science and art have displaced religion, only scientific and aesthetic arguments can hold weight. Forbidden Knowledge is the largest and most valuable contemporary book I have read to address in large, relevant compass the question of moral responsibility. And it is the only one to do so convincingly.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare book that makes one question the unquestionable., December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus To Pornography (Paperback)

I was intrigued by the title of Shattucks book, the issue of biological engineering bieng in the news at the time, and the ethical questions it brings up being on my mind. What I liked most about it is that it is one of those rare books that make you (or at least made ME) change your mind about what was previously an unquestionable belief: in this case, that censorship is always bad. Two points made by the book stand out in my mind. One is that censorship never blocked creativity but if anything has, throughout history, called forth greater creativity. (The example comes to mind of Rushdie's description of a love scene in the highly censored Indian cinema where men and women can't even touch: the woman sensuously kisses a mango and takes a bite of it, passing it on to her lover. He does the same, with great intensity. The scene is long and extremely sensuous. In our uncensored cinema the two would already be in bed, but the filmmaker would have lost an occasion to put his creative talents to work. Amnother example is that Brecht was able to put on "Threepenny Opera" despite Nazi censorship, kicking the Nazis in the ***'s without them even realizing it. Even the Czech writers and artists that were persecuted by the government have said that then, at least, you knew who was a real artist and who was just in it for the money.) The book, of course, is not in favor of persecution! The point is that even in the most repressive of governments, censorship can't be said to BLOCK the artist. The book also made me reconsider pornography. I had always just gone along with the general opinion of our era that all censorship is bad. But because of this attitude, explicit images of sex, violence, violent sex etc are not hard to find. Once, I remember boys getting a big thrill out of the chaste manniquins in store windows when they were being dressed. Now, it would take alot more than that I think to excite even the youngest pubertal boy. One might at least wonder if this banalization of sex, this over-exposure that we have had in the past decades, has not raised out thresholds for sexual excitement. What once would have been extremely exciting seems like nothing. Could this not be a contributing factor, (along with the prime culprit, in my opinion: the violence in the family and other sources of social distress) to the diffusion of the extreme of violent pornography, where women and children are raped and killed on screen, because some people are so deadened within themselves, and so saturated with images of sex that they can only be stimulated with such horrors? I highly recommend the book, and it is well worth going through the lengthy sections of literary criticism, though it is also a book that can be read in patches, skipping what might not be of partiucular interest to the reader.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Scary to Sacred to Secret--Essential Insights, April 7, 2000

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography (Paperback)

Beyond the mundane discussions about secrecy versus openness, or privacy versus transparency, there is a much higher level of discussion, one about the nature, limits, and morality of knowledge. As I read this book, originally obtained to put secrecy into perspective, I suddenly grasped and appreciated two of the author's central thoughts: knowing too much too fast can be dangerous; and yes, there are things we should not know or be exposed to. Who decides? Or How do we the people decide? are questions that must be factored into any national knowledge policy or any national information strategy. This book left me with a sense of both the sacred and the scary sides of unfettered knowledge. This is less about morality and more about focus, intention, and social outcomes. It is about the convergence of power, knowledge, and love to achieve an enlightened intelligence network of self-governing moral people who are able to defend themselves against evil knowledge and prosper by sharing good knowledge.