Customer Reviews

Modern Times. Modern Places

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is exactly what those studying modernity needed--a thoughtful, unpretentious look at art and culture from the turn of the century through the present. Extremely accessible and highly supplementary to art and lit classes, Modern Times, Modern Places does an excellent job at orienting and contextualizing what has come to be called "modern art." 5 stars to Peter Conrad for accomplishing such an ambitious project with aplomb.

Other reviewers of this book have missed the point completely. A survey must do two things for the reader: (1) Be entertaining; and (2) Introduce the reader to original sources he or she may have missed along the way.

On both points Conrad hits the target with near perfection. He has written a survey that not only is impossible to put down, but also does a splendid job of steering the reader to those original works that comprise the background for the survey.

Conrad uses a unique approach in viewing Modernism through the prism of art, rather than taking the standard approach via science or history, giving his book a novelty missing in many others of its kind. It is also refreshing to note that he does not take the obligatory Post-Modern stand in relation to his material that now seems de rigeur among the squirrels of Academia.

The only reason I cannot give the book a fifth star is dur to Conrad's omission of one of the most important American cartographers of Modernism and its roots in Technology: Lewis Mumford. The inclusion of Mumford would have given Conrad's book the continuity it needs with the previous centuries rather than seeing the 20th century as a break with the past.

By the way, as with most survey books, wait for the paperback, because if my experience with this tome is any indication, you'll be buying plenty of original sources you missed before.

Mr. Conrad takes on quite a task here: commenting on every aspect of what is called modern life and how it is reflected in this century's art. He does as good a job as anyone could, I think. I'm particularly glad that his analyses are relatively uncontaminated by the silly notions of Deconstructionism. Also, as some of the professional critics have said, he leaves out most of the silly, self-important, esoteric lingo of the current academic scene.

Even allowing for the encyclopedic reach of this book, one can't help feeling Conrad is saying, 'Aren't I just the smartest guy you know?' And I disagree that his prose is fluid, stylish. I find it dense, frustratingly convoluted, and often needlessly elliptical as well.

An extremely disappointing book. Sentences with no logical sense at all are fine in poetry but in a book that purports to explain the phenomenon of modernism nothing but ridiculous. Conrad's grasp of science is very bad but he doesn't care about that and has quite a few inaccurate things to say about it. Avoid!

To be avoided unless you expect to live forever. Mr. Conrad piles up references from all the books he has (supposedly) read, namedropping furiously along the way. There is however no central idea, no real understanding of the perod he is writing about, he just rants on and on. Also the prose is stuck in a quagmire of cliches, very pretentious stuff - to clever by half, some would say, but not clever at all in my mind. You won't get anywhere with this volume of 750 pages.