virtualmima's review against another edition
3.25
The best chapters in this are "The Culture Industry", which compares Hollywood filmmaking and the entertainment industry to propaganda in Nazi Germany, and "Elements of Anti-Semitism". Both remain relevant today because things haven't really changed. The rest of the book was messy and poorly thought, however, and it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people gave up after the first chapters of free association rambling on Homer and Marquis de Sade. Unfortunately the pseudo-logic in the initial chapters leads a lot of people to misinterpret the rest of the work.
nadiadanielsmoehle's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
cinaedussinister's review against another edition
4.0
A good book by the Frankfurt School! Unimaginable! But here it is! Arguments that are based on reality and then followed through! Watertight theories! Wonderful! My standards have been lowered so much.
casparb's review against another edition
4.0
Ok so I hope we can be a bit more mature than flinging the jazz criticism about. I think we're all a little tired of that.
Some of these essays are very wonderful and The Culture Industry is absolutely one of the best essays of the 20th century. I think I was a little intimidated by this book but its not quite so fearsome as it is sometimes described.
Anyway the first essay - which establishes this principle of the dialectic of Enlightenment - is genuinely very impressive and original. Adorno does pay due deference to Nietzsche but its certainly a meaningful expansion. Adorno/Horkheimer expect the reader to follow the conceptual structures that this essay establishes throughout the book, which is difficult at times, but never is the concept lost.
Second essay is a rather novel reading of the Odyssey. Enjoyed that. Third essay on Juliette/Sade/Nietzsche didn't do an awful lot for me but such is the way. Fourth and fifth are The Culture Industry (fantastic, ever-relevant) and the antisemitism piece which is also very impressive, and manages to broaden itself beyond recognising traits (whether structural or individual) to origins, psychoanalytic, and then circling back to the initial dialectic of Enlightenment itself. Very impressive writing.
Some of these essays are very wonderful and The Culture Industry is absolutely one of the best essays of the 20th century. I think I was a little intimidated by this book but its not quite so fearsome as it is sometimes described.
Anyway the first essay - which establishes this principle of the dialectic of Enlightenment - is genuinely very impressive and original. Adorno does pay due deference to Nietzsche but its certainly a meaningful expansion. Adorno/Horkheimer expect the reader to follow the conceptual structures that this essay establishes throughout the book, which is difficult at times, but never is the concept lost.
Second essay is a rather novel reading of the Odyssey. Enjoyed that. Third essay on Juliette/Sade/Nietzsche didn't do an awful lot for me but such is the way. Fourth and fifth are The Culture Industry (fantastic, ever-relevant) and the antisemitism piece which is also very impressive, and manages to broaden itself beyond recognising traits (whether structural or individual) to origins, psychoanalytic, and then circling back to the initial dialectic of Enlightenment itself. Very impressive writing.
aliciagmoll's review against another edition
4.0
“Myth is already Enlightenment, and Enlightenment reverts to mythology.”