54
PARTISAN REVIEW
today, when it is heightened by the global crisis of a mass-produced and
entangled world. The isolation caused by the daily routine's "horrible
brutality" and "hopeless banality" is no longer a strictly intellectual stance
but a societal condition. Einstein, called a "logical empiricist artist" by
one of his students, claimed that man "in his search for harmony" creates
scientific and artistic works with which to balance the stifling limitations
of daily life. This consolation apparently remains hidden deep within our
crisis. Overwhelmed by "the strange adventure of being human," the
Romanian author M . Blecher (1909-1938), a soulmate of Franz Kafka
and Bruno Schulz, wrote more than fifty years ago: "I pray to be
awakened to another life, to my true life.
It
is certainly broad daylight; I
know exactly where I am and that I am alive. And yet, something is
missing." Today millions of people would probably echo these thoughts.
As "functionaries of mankind," intellectuals are reclaiming Blecher's
words as a reminder of the extreme experiences with which they have
identified themselves in this incomparable, ruined century and as a motto
in which their growing uncertainty and future responsibility is rooted.
Translated from the Gennan
by
Tess Lewis
A Measured Life
Richard Hoggart
"He writes with apassion that is usually well banked, but
which flows now and then with avisionary intensity. It is
a remarkable way of looking at England."
-Philip Oakes,
The Times Uterary Supplement
"The setting of his own life in the context of social history
makes Hoggart the ideal autobiographer."
-Beryl Bainbridge,
New Statesman
This autobiographical account combines Hoggart's
three masterful works,
A Local Habitation, A Sort of
Clowning,
and
An Imagined Ute,
in which he details his
life from 1918 to the present
ISBN:
1~135-6
(cloth) 753
pp.
$39.95
Order from your bookstore or direct from the publisher. Major
credit cards accepted. Call (908) 932-2280.
m
transaction publishers
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Department93PARH2
Rutgers-The State University
tr.......
tion
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
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