Janus: A Summing Up (Picador Books) [Paperback]

Arthur Koestler

Product Details

• Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Picador (September 7, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330258427
• ISBN-13: 978-0330258425
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,749,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Budapest in 1905, educated in Vienna, Arthur Koestler immersed himself in the major ideological and social conflicts of his time. A communist during the 1930s, and visitor for a time in the Soviet Union, he became disillusioned with the Party and left it in 1938. Later that year in Spain, he was captured by the Fascist forces under Franco, and sentenced to death. Released through the last-minute intervention of the British government, he went to France where, the following year, he again was arrested for his political views. Released in 1940, he went to England, where he made his home. His novels, reportage, autobiographical works, and political and cultural writings established him as an important commentator on the dilemmas of the 20th century. He died in 1983.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original and difficult consideration of the human situation, September 28, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Janus: Summing Up (Paperback)

Koestler is a true original, and a thinker who makes a real effort to integrate many different worlds of experience. In this work he is obsessed with the turning point event which is the use of nuclear weapons. As he understands it Mankind lived throughout its history with threats to individual life, but nuclear weapons have brought a new kind of collective threat, a threat that Mankind will completely destroy itself.
Koestler's concern here connects with his perception of Mankind as a kind of defective product of Evolution. He especially focuses on the conflict between our reptilian brain , our lower mammal brain and the brain of reason our neocortex. He too sees the human propensity for violent conflict as something which relates to our being controlled by the emotional lower brain. But he too singles out our propensity for 'loyalty' for collective bonding as source of violence. And his claim is that the kind of individual criminal act people often focus on when talking about the defects of Mankind, is secondary to the evils we do out of loyalty to the Collective.
Koestler in analyzing the human situation also makes an effort to supply an overall theory of the organization of reality. He speaks of a heirarchal principle in which things are organized in all realms in two directions. The Janus- like character of reality is that each thing is organized as independent and autonomous on one level, and as a part of a higher whole on another. This dual aspect character in which the ' wholes' or as he calls them 'holons ' are greater than the parts he seems as integrating all realms of experience.
Koestler writes a chapter on Humor and on the Act of Creation. He sees humor as operating by what he calls 'biassociation' which involves bringing two different frameworks into connection. He provides many examples. But I do not feel myself capable of adequately assessing his theories here , though I do have a basic feeling that ' comprehensive and all - inclusive explanations' cannot really cover the various kinds of creative activity there are.
This is an ambitious, challenging work. I must admit his pessimistic evaluation of human character and nature set me back a bit. The horrifying possibility that Disaster is the Ultimate end of us all does not warm the heart.
Again I do not feel I can properly evaluate Koestler's theories but I do appreciate his capacity to arouse interest and curiosity.
A truly outstanding work.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paranoiod interpretation of socio-human"pathology"., December 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Janus: Summing Up (Paperback)

Demonstrating with pissimism, "vision" and deep paranoia about the fatal schiz-phrenic human behaviour. For Koestler, the new Calendar has started since August 6,1945 with the Hiroshima bomb. Atomic bombs cannot be "uninvented", therefore they will be evantually used by man to destroy life on earth, unless we find a new injection or prescribtion to enhance the schiz contradictory social behaviour of the human race. Language is the source of human "unity", nobelity, and yet is the main source of dividing and isolating man.Since alwyas, the human history has been a continuous series of words and wars, and it will not get any better with the atomic and mass distruction weapons. It is all laid in the schizic human brain. For Koestler,it seems that through human evolution, a biological explosion has occured in the human brain,creating the new cortex, the new brain, that has the language, religion centers, etc, on top of the archaic brain, where greed, jealousy,lust are centered.A very informative book that is worth reading. It shows a great deal of unbelievably simple visionary observations.

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong effect on your reader soul, October 18, 2007

By 

Mauricio M. Costa "Mauricio Costa" (Sao Paulo, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Janus: A Summing Up (Picador Books) (Paperback)

Kevin Kelly (Wired) recommended this book - indeed a very good starting point. He's right about how Koestler compels you to his ideas, no matter if you agree with them. But believe me, if you like me is always thirsty for a text that awes you, here is one of them. Koestler writes very, very well and he entertains and disturbs you from the first to the final page. I concede that I am vulnerable to dense statements at the bottom of a chapter, but this gentleman does know how to do that. Read it, and save some time afterwards to savor the effects on your soul. Simply amazing.