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allysonclark's review against another edition
Great book! A difficult but worthwhile read.
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.
rc90041's review against another edition
4.0
Horkheimer's and Adorno's musings from their time hanging out in L.A. during/after the War.
lxmn_s's review against another edition
a/h are such cranky men, and i think this is the very essence of critical theory lol
rcthomas's review against another edition
2.0
Adorno and Horkheimer offer a really interesting look at culture and enlightenment. Most interestingly they talk a lot about how cultural production today is mainly aimed at continuing society's mass self-deception from the conditions of our daily lives and does so by looking at various popular media examples from Disney to Warner Brothers and others.