The Book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann

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Perhaps it's something in the air, or an ironic additive found exclusively in the Danube, but Central Europe seems to breed a certain kind of mordant and malicious stylist. From Joseph Roth to Robert Musil to Thomas Bernhard, there's a tendency to go straight for society's jugular--without, however, relinquishing an iota of humor. And Ingeborg Bachmann, who perished in a fire in 1973, surely fits into this lineage. A poet, librettist, essayist, and fiction writer, she made postwar Austria the object of her skeptical scrutiny. She saw a nation with blood on its hands and corruption in its heart, not to mention an ongoing gender war between Mann and Madchen. And nowhere did she address these conditions with more passion and penetrating wit than in The Book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann.

Neither work was quite finished at the time of Bachmann's death. But in both cases, translator Peter Filkins has assembled manuscripts and variants into a coherent whole, and turned the author's high-density prose into eminently readable English. The Book of Franza represents a pitched battle between the sexes--or more particularly, between the eponymous heroine and her manipulative psychiatrist of a husband. How could she have overlooked debris of Dr. Leopold Jordan's previous marriages?

Only now do I wonder about the other women and why all of them disappeared without a sound, why one no longer left the house, why another turned on the gas, while I myself am the third who amended herself with this name, becoming the third Frau Jordan.... Yet I hung myself with my immature thinking, with my careless rapture for his charged wire of thought, for had I touched a high-voltage wire, causing electrocution, severe damage, and burns, it would have been faster and gentler, and certainly no worse.

The novella-length Requiem for Fanny Goldmann transposes the same concerns--silence and sex, language and corruption--into a lighter key, with a more satiric touch. But here, too, the heroine is seduced and abandoned. And again the accumulation of bad faith and broken promises seems like a national rather then merely personal affliction. Even Fanny's fading looks are made to sound like a defeat for the body politic: "During this night something happened to her beautiful Goldmann shoulders. They had fallen like the front line of an army laid low by the enemy, and there was no one who could say who this enemy was, by what means he advanced, and what he was planning." Early and late, Bachmann seemed always to survey a defeated world. But her work remained adamantly alive to the end, which is just the sort of victory that every writer (and every reader) desires. --Ingrid Broun

The Book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction

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The Book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Review of Contemporary Fiction
Michael Pinker
Manufacturer: Review of Contemporary Fiction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 1283 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Book of Franza & Requiem for Fanny Goldmann.(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael Pinker
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 20 Issue: 3 Page: 140

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

"Enthralling...gritty, down-to-earth. The best new fantasy I've read in years."-Maggie Furey

"Action fantasy at its best"-SFX

"Barclay...has a great eye for action....A scorching debut."-Time Out

"Full of magic and adventure and immensely enjoyable from start to finish."-John Marco

Six men and an elf make up The Raven, swords for hire in the wars that have torn apart the land of Balaia. For years, they have remained loyal only to themselves and their code. But a secret mission has changed that, and drawn them into a new world of politics and ancient mysteries. Now the band has chosen to fight for the Dark College of Magic. They want the location of Dawnthief, a spell to end the world-a spell The Raven intends to cast...

Customer Reviews:

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

Mercenary bunch battle bad guys, even if there is no money in it.

The Raven are a famous mercenary band, whose training and tactics and wililngness to bail out on a bad situation or broken contract have kept them alive. Along Barclay's writing is rather limited that isn't really the point here, as we have a quest fantasy that is a little closer to the heroic fantasy end than the high, despite an elf and the odd dragon. World shattering spells and events are to be stopped, and the famous band even has a few fatalities.

Excellent Heroic Adventure.......2007-01-23

I'm rather amazed that this books got some so-so reviews... it's great fun. If you enjoy David Gemmel or Steven Erickson, this is a rousing adventure tale you'll enjoy. It's a shame these books don't have a US publisher. I almost put this book down about 1/3 of the way into it, but I stuck with it and was pulled in by it's action and charm. Very satisfying and am ordering more by this author.

Very good.......2006-07-20

In reality, this is not a bad book. It is quite the oposite of books such as Lord of the Rings, and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and their extreme boringness and slow pace and predictable story lines. Dawnthief is good in that it doesn't waste time on pointless things that you could happilly die without knowing. Things aren't repeated over and over and over to the point you throw the book across the room and shout 'get the hell over it already! We know slicing peoples heads off ten times a day isn't making you happy!'

As people have said, the characters are mortal. They can and will die, with a single stroke of a sword, instead of ten arrows in the heart, bursting out with one more triumphant burst of strength to kill one more enemy.

However, just like all books, it is still predictable. Unfortunately, this book may not capture your attention enough to put the book down and think about whats going to happen in the end when you finish it the next day, unless this is one of your first fantasy books.

Summery. Fantastic if you aren't experienced with many other fantasy novels. If you are, then i highly doubt that this will be your favourite book, but still a good read and book to add to your collection.

Very likely the right book for the right reader. I wasn't the right reader........2005-08-15

Dawnthief is likely to appeal to the reader who wants a military fantasy with an emphasis on the bonds of teaming. There is a great deal of action, reasonably complex military thinking, and a focus on brotherhood.

The basic idea behind the notion of the books of the Raven is that there is a mercenary group which has become the best in the land by virtue of the fact that it puts the group above (almost) all other things. In this introductory book, the surviving members of the Raven give up the notion of retirement in order to fight a desperate battle for the higher good of the entire nation.

I am a fantasy reader who enjoys complex politics, detailed descriptions and a great deal of individual character development. (Think George R.R. Martin or Tad Williams as writers). If you are a reader like myself, there is a reasonably good chance that Dawnthief is not going to be your cup of tea. If you are a more Marion Zimmer Bradley or Sheri S. Tepper kind of fantasy reader (priestesses, universal bonds of understanding, etc.) then this is *definitely* not going to be the book for you.

I suspect that the ideal reader of this book is someone who gets bored with all the talkative bits of some of the more drawn out fantasies, and would like more action and military bonding.

The system of magic is well-created and as noted before, Barclay is a skilled writer of action scenes. I found some of the character development truly awful (most notably Erienne, the only significant female character), but then the individual character is not really the point of the reading experience. If you are the right reader for this book, then the minor quarrels should not bother you. If you are the wrong reader, best to give it a miss.

Average first novel.......2004-01-25

I purchased this book on the strength of the reviews on Amazon. Next time I will investigate more thoroughly as I found this novel to be disappointing.

First, the writing style is ordinary. I like, in fantasy, descriptions of the land in which the story is taking place so I can envisage the events taking place in a certain setting. Due to the authors neglect of this feature, I felt I had no compassion for the land nor its people.

Second, there is no development of character. The members of The Raven are typical of mercenaries who are nearing the ends of their careers - only concerned with their individual selves, while the mages all show characteristics of people with power. Every character is stereotypical.

Third, I rarely try to guess what will happen in a book as I like to be suprised. The storyline of Dawnthief is so predictable that I read the second half without any interest at all.

James Barclay has the potential to do much better in the future. He has some good ideas. I will wait a little longer to see if he writes something with more development and feeling. Then I will appreciate his work.

Average customer rating:

Doesn't live up to its promise

Beautiful pics, debatable instructions...

Essential for the Beginner Baker

Delicious recipes with clear instructions

JUST WONDERFUL

Essentials of Baking: Recipes and Techniques for Successful Home Baking (Williams-Sonoma Essentials)
Cathy Burgett , Elinor Klivans , and Lou Seibert Pappas
Manufacturer: Oxmoor House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Desserts | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Williams-Sonoma Collection: Bread

Williams-Sonoma Mastering: Cakes, Frostings & Fillings (Williams Sonoma Mastering)

ASIN: 0848727797

Book Description

Like its cousin, Essentials of Grilling, Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking is the ultimate sourcebook for the modern home baker.Whether creating easy muffins and quickbreads, artisan-style yeast loaves, or special occasion cakes and pastries, the reader will find what they need within the pages of the book.Over 130 recipes for contemporary baked goods will be supplemented with thorough discussions of basic baking equipment, ingredients, fundamental baking techniques, and instructions for preparing dessert sauces, fillings, frostings, glazes and other adornments.

Customer Reviews:

Doesn't live up to its promise.......2007-07-18

Although the pictures in this book are quite beatiful, I find the instructions and recipes a bit vague at times, and down right misleading at others. The croissant recipe was a total failure when I tried it, and I think there was too much liquid in the dough to adequately fold it. I've used other croissant recipes and had great success, so I fault the recipe. In addition, the sour dough bread recipe has an inconsistency about whether or not to use milk or water for the starter, and when I called Williams-Sonoma, they were unable to resolve my question, directing me to contact one of their stores for help. Some of the recipes are in fact quite good, such as the currant scones, and the honey whole wheat bread, but I no longer trust the book, not being sure of a recipe until I've tested it myself. I'd expect to be able to trust that the recipes have been tested and that the text has been reviewed before publishing. In short, I wouldn't recommned this book.

Beautiful pics, debatable instructions..........2007-06-06

I received this cookbook as a gift, and was amazed with its beautiful pictures. Unfortunately, of the three recipes I've tried (profiteroles, ginger cookies, and pizza dough), none came out right. I'm a regular baker so have adjusted them accordingly, but it's still disappointing when you can't trust the written recipe.

Essential for the Beginner Baker.......2006-12-07

For sweet and savory and absolutely YUM recipes, this cookbook is a must! This book does not assume the reader has in depth knowledge of baking and details everything from necessary equipment, ingredients and techniques, all with beautiful photographs!

With recipes from breads, tarts, cookies, cakes and frostings, sauces and toppings, this book includes everything for you to make absolutely delicious treats at home. Highly recommended!

FYI: Since posting this review, I have made banana bread and creme caramel from this book and both turned out very well and were a hit. I used half and half instead of heavy cream in the creme caramel and it did not affect the taste.

Delicious recipes with clear instructions.......2006-11-19

I collect cookbooks and can never resist buying another one that sounds promising. This cookbook is a keeper. I have tried 12 of the recipes so far with perfect results and compliments from the eaters! I like a well-illustrated book with easy-to-read print and clear but not pretentiously over-explained directions. This cookbook meets all my criteria. I am very impressed. The Apple Cake with optional Maple Icing got rave reviews at a recent bake sale, and my grandchildren love it as a snack without the icing. The Vanilla Wafers are tender and delicious. The Lemon Chiffon Cake turned out looking exactly as illustrated. The recipes are all interesting but do not require one to be a professional chef to achieve professional results. Highly recommended.

JUST WONDERFUL.......2006-08-25

From all the Williams and Sonoma books I have, this one is my favourite. Well explained, wonderful pictures and great recipes. The best book I bought last time I was in USA.

Average customer rating:

Not the best dollar ever spent...

Interesting but disapointing

Not helpful, just interesting, unless you have a BullTerrier

Separation Anxiety? Read this book!

Lots of understanding behavior problems, little curing

Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-Z Guide to Understanding and Curing Behavorial Problems in Dogs
Nicholas Dodman
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Training | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553379682
Release Date: 2000-06-06

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A bestselling author, practicing veterinarian--director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, no less--and passionate animal advocate, Dr. Nicholas Dodman's pioneering work in the field of animal psychology has made him a favorite with admiring colleagues and "problem" pet owners worldwide. His first two books, The Dog Who Loved Too Much and The Cat Who Cried for Help, presented alternative treatments for undesirable pet behavior that, prior to advancements in animal psychology, were treated with severe training methods or, worst case, euthanasia. Now, in Dogs Behaving Badly, Dodman addresses 26 of the most common canine behavior problems and offers practical treatment plans that focus on understanding what your dog is trying to communicate through his behavior--which, according to Dodman, is the key to effectively treating our pets. Arranged alphabetically and incorporating case studies as well as the most recent discoveries made in animal psychology, this exceptional guide covers a wide range of perplexing problems, including aggression, barking, compulsive behavior, "X-Files" (unexplainable behavior), yawning, and zoonosis (the transmittal of disease from dogs to humans). Also included is a thorough appendix of behavioral modification techniques as well as invaluable information on drug therapy and how to recognize when your dog requires professional help. Informative and extremely practical--right down to the easy-to-use A-to-Z reference format--Dogs Behaving Badly proves that "when it comes to caring for man's best friend, Dr. Dodman is the best friend we have." --Stefanie Hargreaves

Book Description

Written with wit, wisdom, and compassion, this easy--to--use A--to--Z reference is a godsend for dog owners and prospective dog owners.

Dr. Nicholas Dodman, expert animal psychologist and acclaimed author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much, gets us inside the minds of our pets to learn what makes them do the crazy things they do.

From aggression to zoonosis and just about everything in between, Dr. Dodman draws on case histories from his own practice at the prestigious Tufts University Veterinary Center and offers fresh and incredibly useful tips that apply the latest discoveries in canine behaviorism and pharmacology. Here are simple, sensible, step-by-step instructions on diet, exercise, environment, and lifestyle changes that any pet owner can safely implement to effect seemingly miraculous improvement in their dog's behavior. Authoritative, entertaining, and immensely practical, Dr. Dodman proves that when it comes to caring for man's best friend, he's the best friend we have.

Customer Reviews:

Not the best dollar ever spent..........2006-11-10

The book was so general that I found it quite unhelpful, at least for what I thought it would be useful for: helping me find a strategy for curbing excessive dog barking.

Interesting but disapointing.......2006-02-09

This was an intersting book that covers many common behavior problems in dogs. As a strength, I thought it offered insight into why dogs commonly engage in these types of behaviors.

As a weakeness though, the book wasn't organized very helpfully. A better index would be more useful in times of looking for help. In addition there wasn't clear solutions to each of the behavior problems mentioned. He offers ideas of what one could do, but doesn't explain it well.

The main thing I disliked in this book was Dodman's seemingly high use of medications. Not that the use of medications is bad in certain dogs, but Dodman makes it seem like most dogs should be medicated from the get go. I am sure he does not do so in practice, but it comes across as such in his book.

However, this was an interesting reading and one I will keep in my collection.

Not helpful, just interesting, unless you have a BullTerrier.......2004-04-22

While I found the stories and chapters very informative and interesting, this book was almost utterly useless as a tool to help those with the problems. The actual appendix in the back was really short and that's where the solutions were. Bad placement. I found the book hard to use, hard to find your problem, and even harder to figure out what Dodman was "sort of, kind of" recommending. The title was very misleading A-Z, more like alphabet soup see if you can find it...

I found the chapter on prey drive particularly useless. I was so terribly disappointed. This was the one problem for which the author offered absolutely no solutions or recommendations at all. Of course this was my problem.

I loved THE DOG WHO LOVED TOO MUCH, and found it helpful, but this book was not as useful. And a lot of time was spent expounding on Bull Terriers which while very interesting didn't really fit into the title.

I'm glad I read the book, but disappointed that I expected help and didn't get it.

Separation Anxiety? Read this book!.......2004-01-03

I recently adopted a 9 year-old dog from a shelter who would chew my front door trim. I couldn't understand why. I read this book and it really helped, not to mention answered the "why" part of my questions. This book has helped enormously. For people who had a hard time with getting answers from this book, all you have to do is go to the index in the back and look up your topic. It's right there.
If you're having a hard time with a new puppy or a "new" older dog, this book should help you. It helped us.

Lots of understanding behavior problems, little curing.......2003-08-27

I was quite disappointed in this book. It is full of interesting stories of dogs and their troubles (like Maggie the German short-haired pointer and her false pregnancies), but I was looking for solutions to specific behavior problems. As another reviewer pointed out, some of the topics were quite bizarre and weren't intuitive (X-Files?) so I had to read the entire book to find what I was looking for. Based on the title (A-to-Z Guide), I was expecting quicker look-ups. In fact, the behavior-modification techniques are actually in the appendix, which is less than 20 pages long.

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Not just odd calculations but how to combine chances

An excellent book about bridge odds

Bridge Odds for Practical Players (Master Bridge)
Hugh Walter Kelsey , and Michael Glauert
Manufacturer: Cassell P L C
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bridge | Card Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Book Description

Few players have any idea how to make use of the odds to solve problems at the bridge table. Here, keeping theory to a minimum, the authors clearly show, through many practical examples, how to calculate the odds for improved play.

Customer Reviews:

Not just odd calculations but how to combine chances.......2006-10-20

While the calculation of the odds is interesting this is a practical book as well as a methematical one. Theer are numerous problems where teh reader needs to improve their chances by combining plays. Such as playing AK of a long suit to see if the Q drops before taking a finesse.

Not only is the information useful, its well presented adn enjoyable to read.

The math is not especially dificult and if you want to become a good player you should be aware of this. I put it under "knowing your fundamentals"

I liked this a lot more than the Vivaldi book. The Terence Reese book "Master the Odds" was ok, this was better.

An excellent book about bridge odds.......2005-07-17

I've read several of Kelsey's books, and the problems he gives are often rather difficult. Those in this book are usually easy, however. And that is how it should be. Most decisions at the bridge table are pretty easy. You just need to make the right ones consistently.

After a brief introduction to basic probability theory, Kelsey tells us about the odds for distributions of missing cards. The next chapter is on how to play various card combinations in a suit.

After that, we practice combining chances as a declarer. We learn to play for a drop in one suit before taking a risky finesse in another, and so on.

Next is a chapter on care of options. Sometimes, the opponents will remove one of your options. Sometimes, you will remove one of theirs. We learn to make some straightforward plays that take all this into account.

Of course, one elementary aspect of bridge is that the odds change as the hand is played. If an opponent shows out of a suit, or gives you other information about the distribution of cards, the odds can change. And Kelsey expresses the change in odds by the number of "vacant places" that remain undetermined.

The final elementary concept in bridge odds is generally referred to as "restricted choice." Kelsey finds this term confusing, so he calls it "freedom of choice." A simple example is when you have nine trumps, missing the Queen, Jack, five, and four. With the Ace and King in your hand, you try the Ace. Your left-hand opponent drops an honor! Before that happened, you would have played for the suit to split 2-2. But you now realize that there are only two kinds of hands your opponent could have started with: a singleton honor or both honors. There are two hands where your opponent has a singleton (singleton Queen and singleton Jack). And only one hand where your opponent has both honors. So the odds are nearly 2 to 1 in favor of finessing on the next round of trumps. That's a basic concept one has to know in bridge, and Kelsey gives some more examples of it.

This book is easy to read but teaches some valuable lessons. There is only one statement I seriously disagree with in it, and naturally, it is not about bridge. Near the start of the book, Kelsey asks about the probability of a "tossed coin" to come down tails if it has come down heads nine times running.

Kelsey is trying to explain that the chance of tails is not greater than 50%. After all, the coin has no memory. It is not going to come down tails just to even the odds! Kelsey says that each toss of the coin is a separate 50% chance.

Well, that's not quite true. The chance of it coming down tails is not 50%. After all, there is only one chance in 512 of a fair coin coming down heads nine times running. The chance may be considerably greater if the coin (or the toss) is not fair. If the coin is two-headed, the chance of nine straight heads is 100%.

Clearly, the chance of tails on the tenth throw is less than 50%.

I recommend this book.

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MASTER THE ODDS IN BRIDGE
Terence and Trezel, Roger Reese
Manufacturer: Frederick Fell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TCY5AA

Master the Odds in Bridge (Master Bridge)

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Master the Odds in Bridge (Master Bridge)
Terence Reese
Manufacturer: Victor Gollancz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0575025972

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Typically one third of the energy used in many buildings may be consumed by electric lighting. Good daylighting design can reduce electricity consumption for lighting and improve standards of visual comfort, health and amenity for the occupants.

As the only comprehensive text on the subject written in the last decade, the book will be welcomed by all architects and building services engineers interested in good daylighting design.

TOPICS include:
* daylighting evaluation and analysis
* light and human requirements
* daylight data
* photometry of materials
* daylighting components
* electric lighting
* control systems
* daylight and energy modeling
* case studies
* glossary

The book is based on the work of 25 experts from all parts of Europe who have collected, evaluated and developed the material under the auspices of the European Commissionâ€™s Solar Energy and Energy Conservation R&D Programs.

Book Description

Whereas previous eras had celebrated beauty as the central aim of art, the modernist avant-garde were deeply suspicious of beauty and its perennial symbols, woman and ornament, preferring instead the thrill and alienation of the sublime. They rejected harmony, empathy, and femininity in a denial still reverberating through art and social relations today. Exploring this casting of Venus, with all her charms, into exile, Wendy Steiner's brilliant, ambitious, and provocative analysis explores the twentieth century's troubled relationship with beauty.

Tracing this strange and damaging history, starting from Kant's aesthetics and Mary Shelley's horrified response in Frankenstein, Steiner untangles the complex attitudes of modernists toward both beauty and the female subject in art. She argues that the avant-garde set out to replace the impurity of woman and ornament with form -- the new arch-symbol of artistic beauty. However, in the process of controlling desire and pleasure in this way, artists admitted the exotic fetish objects of "primitive" cultures -- someone else's power and allure that surely would not overmaster the sophisticated modernist. A century of pornography, shock, and alienation followed, and this rejection of feminine and bourgeois values -- domesticity, intimacy, charm -- kept the female subject an impossible and remote symbol. Ironically, as Steiner reveals, the feminist hostility to the "beauty myth" had a parallel result, leaving Western society alienated from desire and pleasure on all sides.

In the course of this elegantly constructed and accessibly written argument, Steiner explores the cultural history of the century just ended, from Dada to Futurism, T. S. Eliot's Wasteland and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to Pumping Iron II: The Women and Deep Throat, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Outsider Art, Naomi Wolf and Cindy Sherman, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, ranging across art and architecture, poetry and the novel, feminist writing and pornography.

Only in recent years, Steiner demonstrates, has our culture begun to see a way out of this damaging impasse, revising the reputations of neglected artists such as Pierre Bonnard, and celebrating pleasure and charm in the arts of the present. By disentangling beauty from a misogynistic view of femininity -- as passive, narcissistic, sentimental, inefficacious -- Western culture now seems ready to return to the female subject and ornament in art, and to accept male beauty as a possibility to explore and celebrate as well. Steiner finds hints of these developments in the work of figures as varied as the painter Marlene Dumas, the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald, and the choreographer Mark Morris as she leads us to a rediscovery and a reclamation of beauty in the Western world.

From one of our most thoughtful and ambitious cultural critics, this important and thought-provoking work not only provides us with a searching analysis of where we have been in the last century but reveals the promise of where we might be going in the coming one.

Download Description

The author of "The Scandal of Pleasure: Art in an Age of Fundamentalism" now takes an ambitious and provocative new look at the evolving definition of "beauty" in our culture, from Manet to Mapplethorpe, Mary Shelley to Martha Stewart.

Customer Reviews:

Venus Come Forth!.......2004-03-15

I bought this book and was thoroughly pleased. Steiner is a great writer and has consistently written good work. I do agree that her agenda is a little heavy, but if you care to read her other work you will see that she is qualified in making the pronouncements she does. It is the privilege of anyone who has worked this long in the field. I would recommend reading her "Pictures of Romance" for a deeper treatment of aesthetics. It is a great book as well. This book however, is correct in the thesis it sets out to trace. Steiner locates the demise of the concept of beauty in Kantian aesthetics, specifically the "Critique of Judgment". I especially appreciate the way she makes Kant's arguments come alive by comparing them to Shelley's Frankenstein. In the end Kant trades places with Frankenstein...the doctor and the monster. Steiner works out her feminism by removing the locus of intellectual value from Kant, and placing it with Mary Shelley. That's good feminism, subtle and unmistakeable. Some people may not like Steiner because her feminism is not of the usual kind. I mean, she is not a "beauty myth" kind of feminist. Don't think she's not a feminist though, her message is loud and clear. I recommend this book strongly.

The Sublime Gone Wrong.......2001-12-23

Steiner recasts the thread of 20th century art as the search for the sublime gone wrong. The Kantian definition of the sublime as that which inspires awe and disinterested interest has lead to a dehumanization of art. According to her,this has come about because in the search for the eternal values that are associated with the sublime, the merely lovely has come to be associated with transience. Beauty has also been implicated, certainly as it applies to female subjects in art, since human beauty fades and turns to its opposite, it cannot be a fit subject for the search for the sublime. The process has led to a sterility driven by the replacement of life perpetuating emotions with formal issues. The course of art in the past century has thus followed a path through ever greater alienation. Artists have felt compelled to tackle ever more emotion laden and controversial subjects, confronting and challenging the public to see beyond the shock value to the formal issues that the artist purports to be elevating to the level of sublime.

As an artist who has been wrestling with these issues for over a quarter century, I really enjoyed Steiner's lucid exposition of the Zeitgeist which forms the backdrop for most thinking artist's work. Artist and public both, I believe dance rather unconsciously around the issues she is writing about. We know on an instinctual level what is going on, but it is really enlightening to read someone's thoughtful analysis. I found her writing enjoyable to read and quite accessible.

Her focus is primarily on the depiction of women in art as subjects for the contemplation of beauty. She shows how the images of women in the last 100 years or so have reflected the rejection of life perpetuating human emotions as unfit for high art. She sees signs of change. We are no longer requiring a sacrifice of what makes us human in the name of art. She sees a time "when beauty, pleasure, and freedom again become the domain of aesthetic experience and art offers a worthy ideal for life."

I highly recommend this book to artist and art appreciator alike, anyone who has wondered why avant garde art always seems so ugly.

The Good, the Bad, and the Whiner.......2001-11-28

In a sense, Wendy Steiner finds little to distinguish appearance from reality. In Venus in Exile, The rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art, for example, Steiner equates the 'beauty' of a woman as person with the 'beauty' of that woman's depiction. Ironically, Steiner borrows this universalizing view from the same philosopher that she identifies as anathema to beauty. Following Kant, Steiner links natural to artistic beauty, and, hence, holds an aesthetic view that overrides ontological categories. Thus, in the world according to Stiener Beauty equals Woman equals Art. The snake in the garden, however, is Kant's idea of the sublime. The sublime appeals, she claims, to the self-erasing thrill of a brush with death. In contrast, the allure of beauty promotes interest in life. In fact, Steiner recommends that viewers and artwork interact after the model of Cupid and Psyche. (Imagine, for example, a chummy interaction of diner and bed with Notre Dame or a piano concerto.) Moreover, the desire to experience the thrill of the sublime explains the denial of Beauty/Woman that characterizes the art of the 20th century. In addition to the distortions (i.e. pornographic imagery) or avoidance (i.e. non-representational shapes) of female figuration, 20t-century art also excludes or diminishes domestic subjects. Together the exclusions of beauty and woman and the 'good' or the non-aesthetic value of domesticity show, Steiner argues, the misogyny of the artists and, thereby, their hatred of life, love, and so on.

Given Steiner's credentials, the intellectual sloppiness that informs Venus in Exile is disappointing. In addition to her uncritical acceptance of art defined as aesthetic effect, her opinions betray Freud -images in art as in dream point to external causes-as the father of her psycho - utopian love child called Venus in Exile. Moreover, why the sudden, slap dash treatment of modern dance and the tiresome swipe at ballet in the last three pages of the book? That addition did little more than demean the art forms. Art forms, moreover, dominated by women. Finally, the hyperbole that demonized Kant and reduced the artwork of an entire century to the status of thrill distracted from rather than expanded on the topics of art, aesthetics, and woman as subject.

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Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art. (Books: beauty myths).(Review): An article from: American Scholar
Evelyn Toynton
Manufacturer: Phi Beta Kappa Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008IE48S
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 1467 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art. (Books: beauty myths).(Review)
Author: Evelyn Toynton
Publication: American Scholar (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 70 Issue: 4 Page: 143(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Venus in Exile The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art

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Venus in Exile The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art
Wendy Steiner
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ5M6W

Book Description

With a booming economy that afforded numerous opportunities for immigrants throughout the 1990s, the Twin Cities area has attracted people of African descent from throughout the United States and the world and is fast becoming a transnational metropolis. Minnesota's largest urban area, the region now also has the country's most diverse black population. A closely drawn ethnography, Creating Africa in America: Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City seeks to understand and evaluate the process of identity formation in the context of globalization in a way that is also site specific.

Bringing to this study a rich and interesting professional history and expertise, Jacqueline Copeland-Carson focuses on a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, the Cultural Wellness Center, which combines different ethnic approaches to bodily health and community well-being as the basis for a shared, translocal "African" culture. The book explores how the body can become a surrogate locus for identity, thus displacing territory as the key referent for organizing and experiencing African diasporan diversity. Showing how alternatives are created to mainstream majority and Afrocentric approaches to identity, she addresses the way that bridges can be built in the African diaspora among different African immigrant, African American, and other groups.

As this thoughtful and compassionate ethnographic study shows, the fact that there is no simple and concrete way to define how one can be African in contemporary America reflects the tangled nature of cultural processes and social relations at large. Copeland-Carson demonstrates the cultural creativity and social dexterity of people living in an urban setting, and suggests that anthropologists give more attention to the role of the nonprofit sector as a forum for creating community and identity throughout African diasporan history in the United States.

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Thought Provoking.......2005-11-02

In the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul their is an emerging community of African, Hmong, and Native American populations unparalled to none in this country. This seminal discussion of multi-culturalism, health and wellness really helped me to understand the universality of our indigenous cultures. These cultures were brought together by an inner city non-profit that uses an African traditional practices to bring all cultures into one; connecting the disconnected in the healing process. Despite troubles of the author/researcher Copeland-Carson of being accepted as a researcher, she was not only able to be objective but became emerged in the synergy of giving and receiving, and was eventually fully accepted in the process. The process of self-discovery, that is, how do you determine your identity, added profound dignity to all people's around the world. The discussions groups were lively, spirited, brutally honest, and thought provoking. Indeed the non-profit sector may become the leadership of the 21st century that paves the way toward "unleashing" the power within to heal oneself through traditional cultures by way of Body/Mind/Spirit. This serious academic assessment of the Cultural Wellness Center seemed to be quite a struggle for Copeland-Carson as she was challenged by the wholistic approach of the Center and her sometimes linear Anthropological background. Thus the author was "betwixt and between," pulling together information that cannot always be measured. This book is certainly not for bedside reading unless you are serious about academic research in ethnography, identity formation, anthropology, and translocalism. Copeland-Carson was able to conclude that indeed although most people focus on the social ills of the inner city, the glass is "half full" and filling up fast!

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