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A review by robpalindrome
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Fredric Jameson
2.0
Ugh. Jameson is influential for a reason -- he has some really important thoughts on 'postmodernism' and contemporary society -- but the interesting nuggets of these essays are buried within mounds of awful subclauses, of subclauses, within further subclauses, and relentless 'academese'...
I don't mind if books of 'theory' are hard going, in fact this is often a necessity, but in this case this often appears entirely unnecessary (possibly intentionally so?). Much of this book reads as if it was been written to a tight deadline, without Jameson giving himself time to read his work aloud to himself in order to edit and refine. There is an art to a good essay; Jameson certainly has the ideas, but I would say he lacks the structure or style necessary to properly convey these thoughts to the reader.
Like other reviewers have suggested, use the index to find the passages relevant to your interests/research rather than reading this from cover to cover... I'd recommend sticking to the first few chapters and the conclusion.
I don't mind if books of 'theory' are hard going, in fact this is often a necessity, but in this case this often appears entirely unnecessary (possibly intentionally so?). Much of this book reads as if it was been written to a tight deadline, without Jameson giving himself time to read his work aloud to himself in order to edit and refine. There is an art to a good essay; Jameson certainly has the ideas, but I would say he lacks the structure or style necessary to properly convey these thoughts to the reader.
Like other reviewers have suggested, use the index to find the passages relevant to your interests/research rather than reading this from cover to cover... I'd recommend sticking to the first few chapters and the conclusion.