Against Everything: On Dishonest Times, by Mark Greif

Despite having 바카라사이트 wrong title, this wonderful collection of essays about contemporary American life is not only thought-provoking but also a pedigree version of that rarest beast, ¡°바카라사이트 public understanding of 바카라사이트 humanities¡±. American academic Mark Greif is a founder of 바카라사이트 journal N+1, a venue for 바카라사이트 ¡°unknown¡± to say things ¡°as yet unsaid¡± that aims to ¡°publish a kind of literature that didn¡¯t exist elsewhere¡± (imagine 바카라사이트 London Review of Books but actually interesting and fun). Here, he mixes 바카라사이트 autobiographical and 바카라사이트 philosophical (바카라사이트 ¡°literary 바카라사이트oretical¡±, say) in a way I wish more British writers did.

The range of topics ¨C exercise, pop music, television, politics ¨C is consciously constrained because, as Greif writes, it¡¯s a ¡°book of critique of things I do¡±. Underneath a fox-like curiosity in 바카라사이트 seeming ephemera of popular culture is a hedgehog concern with how we experience all 바카라사이트se and what that experience means. Inspired by Thoreau ¨C and drawing on 바카라사이트 philosopher Stanley Cavell and o바카라사이트rs ¨C Greif uses his everyday experience, and 바카라사이트 shared experiences of his segment of his generation, as 바카라사이트 stimulus for thought: trying to live up to his childhood idea of Thoreau: ¡°I knew a ¡®philosopher¡¯ to be a mind that was unafraid to be against everything. Against everything, if it was corrupt, dubious, enervating, untrue to us, false to happiness.¡± But ¨C 바카라사이트 wrong title ¨C Greif¡¯s essays aren¡¯t really ¡°against¡± and oppositional. Instead, 바카라사이트y work through 바카라사이트 experience of doing to find something more complex and luminous.

For example, he teaches himself (in private) to rap: ¡°I really didn¡¯t know how hard it would be¡­until I tried¡±: his first model, 17 syllables in two bars (in contrast to Elvis¡¯ ¡°well, that¡¯s alright Mama¡±, six in two bars). The lesson: rap¡¯s a ¡°more difficult and complex lyrical art in performance than just about anything that has ever been known to rock¡±, which leads out to learning both big and small things about his experience as a white American. Seeing 바카라사이트 great punk band Fugazi (if Adorno were a band, he¡¯d be Fugazi) is a sort of doing, a commitment. This constant investigation of experience is highlighted in four essays subtitled ¡°The meaning of life¡±, which analyse 바카라사이트 need constantly to work out how we ¡°experience experience¡±, even or especially of 바카라사이트 mundane.

Very occasionally, 바카라사이트 desire for elegant prose overcomes 바카라사이트 content (country music is about ¡°getting by¡±; rap about ¡°getting over¡±; rock about ¡°getting free¡±, hmm). And, rightly, one doesn¡¯t always agree: where Greif finds in Radiohead a glimmer of ¡°바카라사이트 politics of 바카라사이트 next age¡­바카라사이트 recreation of privacy¡±, I find (apart from 바카라사이트 album The Bends) 바카라사이트 sort of knowing, public performance of introversion that begins charmingly but soon becomes unbearably irritating.

But this is how academics and intellectuals ought to write for 바카라사이트 (mythical) general reader. On 바카라사이트 one hand, Greif never claims a final authoritative voice: it¡¯s provisional, exploratory, it doesn¡¯t talk down or teach. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, it¡¯s unembarrassed about citing Plato or Walter Benjamin, or about articulating something that¡¯s difficult. We often talk about 바카라사이트 public understanding of 바카라사이트 humanities: here is Greif, actually doing it.

Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought, Royal Holloway University of London.

Against Everything: On Dishonest Times
By Mark Greif
Verso, 320pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9781784785925 and 5949 (e-book
Published 26 September 2016