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Magazine Subscriptions Editorial Reviews Norman Stone There is so much learning and unconventional wisdom in it that you want to make the reading last. Denis Dutton, editor Arts & Letters Daily The brutal, penetrating honesty of his thinking and the vividness of his prose make Dalrymple the Orwell of our time.
See all Editorial Reviews Product Details * Hardcover: 341 pages * Publisher: Ivan R Dee Publisher (May 30, 2005) * Language: English * ISBN: 1566636434 * Product Dimensions: 90 x 61 x 13 inches * Shipping Weight: 13 pounds.
Anyone interested in thoughtful ana lysis of cultural decline should take a look; Some of his comments are so pithy they made me laugh out loud (even wh en they weren't supposed to be funny). This is a book written by a man who spent many, many years working in the "trenches", so to speak. He is not a detached philosopher, but rather a n individual who is deeply concerned with the consciousness and morality of man. Addendum: Athough I cannot do it here on Amazon, I now give this book 5 s tars instead of 4 These social essays are as trenchant as any I've read .
See all my reviews It is difficult to write a review of this book without appearing ridiculo usly gushing. It contains some of the most profound literary, cultural a nd political comment that exists, and is rooted in extensive experience as a prison doctor in the UK and elsewhere which most left liberal pundi ts would avoid like the plague. Extreme independence of mind, sharp obse rvation and deep humanity all combine to produce a truly indispensable b ook. Addendum: Mr Bourne in his review grabs the wrong end of many sticks. Per haps he should play fewer computer games (see his other reviews) and get out more often. He claims that "penury and depredation" existed before the welfare state: so what? Contrary to what Bourne says, Dalrymple does not blame modern art for the failure of civilization. However, he does link the nihilism of Brit Art with the dominant cultural ethos of modern Britain, which is hardly con troversial, an ethos which is apparent throughout popular culture, all t he universities and even the dumbed down BBC. Dalrymple is criticised for relying on "personal experience" with little data. This criticism is often made of Dalrymple by people who have no or little experience of anything, and therefore do not value experience. I t is also made by people who seem to think that only pseudo-scientific s ociologists wearing white coats and armed with meaningless charts and gr aphs, can offer an "objective" view of society. Presumably they think that Sebastian Haffner's memoir of the early years of Nazism, in which he described the mass yob bishness and dumbed down idiocy engulfing large sections of German socie ty, is "scientifically" worthless because not backed up by "data" but is only based on "personal experience". Further addendum: Wudhi states that "a strain of sexual disgust or at lea st extreme discomfort" is to be found in Dalrymple's writings. In "Sex a nd the Shakespeare Reader" it is clear that Dalrymple doesn't object to human sexuality per se. It is, rather the "All sex, all the time" attitu de that he rightly finds disturbing. One need only see very young girls being sexualised, in their dress and attitudes, to agree -- provided one actually cares for their welfare. The phenomenon of premature sexualisa tion is the result of the kind of psychobabble that Wadhu clearly finds very profound, the view that one must "express oneself" no matter what. As a widely accepted theory of the good life, this leads to a race to th e bottom, to the violence and pre-mature sexual activity that is an all- prevasive feature of life in large section of British society. If Wadhu doesn't find this disturbing he is either innocent of the ways of the wo rld, or just stupid.
See all my rev iews Let's face it: most essay collections suck. Dalrymple's "Our Culture, What's Left of It" is the exception. Dalyrmple worked as a British physician in prisons and hospitals in the poorest pa rts of England. He knows the underclass well, and has not one politicall y correct word to say about their problems. A perfect example would be the 25 year old man Dalyrmple treated for swal lowing packets of cocaine. This man had just abandoned his latest girlfr iend, who had recently given birth to his chilld. He had produced a grand total of five, none of whom he saw or took care of financially. Don't tell me" (p 12) was his response to Dalyrmple's disapproval. Yet somehow the establishment doesn't seem to make the connection. Dalyrm ple knows he's the sole voice of sanity in a society gone mad. As recent ly as fifty years ago the country had little crime and one of the best e ducational systems in the world. And the school system is so awful a vast chunk of the population can't read--in Shakespeare's gre en land. You need to buy this book for the essay on Virginia Woolf alone. An d then there's this: "Her lack of recognition that anything had ever bee n achieved or created before her advent that was worthy of protection an d preservation is all but absolute, along with her egotism" (P 70). Stud ents trapped in feminist courses all over the world must be weeping at h earing the truth for once.
See all my reviews On p 64, the author refers to Virginia Woolf as a "thoroughgoing philist ine of the most revolutionary and destructive type, quite prepared to br ing the temple crashing down about her ears that her grudges might be pa id back. This probably captures better than any review his relationship with and u nderstanding of our culture. Later, in pointing out the undeniable shortcomings of Lady Chatterley's l over he is on common and well-trod ground. When he dismisses Lawrence as a writer on the basis of these faults, and completely ignoring works su ch as "Sons and Lovers" and "Women in Love", his credibility disappears. Even with Kinsey, who can be legitimately criticised for many faults, to dismiss him as one who discovered that "all orgasms were created equal a nd endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights" is to trivi alise what might have been valuable commentary with a cheap gibe. Through much of his writing a strain of sexual disgust or at least extrem e discomfort persists, as when he likens the legalisation of marijuana t o legalising public displays of necrophilia, on the grounds that neither harms anybody. When, too, he characterises John Money, a defender of pedophilia, as the multiculturalist of sex, I have to presume there is an assumed sexual mo noculturalism which is not perverted. Does he in fact believe there is only one "right" way: say, uncontracepte d, heterosexual, missionary-position sex, carried out by white couples, quite literally, in the dark. His essay on Macbeth, however, and his image of the line of evil drawn, n ot between races or peoples or neighbourhoods, but through the centre of every individual, was by a long way the most powerful of the collection , and his choice of telling anecdote throughout is often brilliant, but the overall impression I have of the author is something of a cross betw een Cassandra and Curmudgeon, with a strong admixture of Chicken Licken.
The subtitle of the book suggests that its overar ching theme is the relationship between well-meaning theory and disastro us real-world results. Since this is a collection of discrete essays the 'theme' is much more a leitmotif. The essays themselves are superb, but they are ultimately freestanding. What links the pieces and unifies the book is (as always) the personal vision and deep experience of the essa yist. This particular essayist happens also to be very well read and a h ighly-skilled writer. Five stars for the essays qua essays, but don't ta ke up the book expecting a rigorous, detailed argument on the relationsh ip between cultural theory and cultural catastrophe (though Dalrymple is doubtless capable of writing such a book).
T heodore Dalrymple is not indifferent to the economic underpinnings of ou r cultural divide, but he concentrates on the cultural gap dividing peop le, many of whom come from the same economic class or ethnic group. This book sha...
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