Book Description
Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960s up to the present, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism and everyday life in the late twentieth cenlury. Now finally available in a superb English translation approved by the author, Debord's text remains as crucial as ever for understanding the contemporary effects of power, which are increasingly inseparable from the new virtual worlds of our rapidly changing image/information culture.
Customer Reviews:
Bad translation? This isn't readable at all........2007-08-09
I'm not sure if the translation is confusing, or the ideas being presented are confusing, or both. But this philosophical book is a lot of words written without saying much. I'm writing this because I purchased the book after reading the 17 reviewers who rated this book five stars. I was looking forward to an excellent treatise.
But instead I found the ideas confusing and random. It was difficult to
determine exactly was being presented.
I did like the Euclidean/Tractatus numbering system for the propositions.
But the ideas in those propositions weren't clearly written or easily understood by me.
To give you some background on me, I'm no fan of Hegel.
Ernest Becker's works give me a lot of insight, as do Nietzsche's.
I think this book assumes the reader is well-versed in Hegelian thought.
Maybe the reader needs to complete the Phenomenology of Mind before this work is accessible.
One of the most important books of the 20th Century.......2007-02-09
Read it and find out why...
This should be required reading for first years........2006-04-12
I haven't read any of the other translations of this text, however, this one reads quite fluidly.
The scope of the book sets the tone for one's consideration of contemporary events and societal relations. As research for a project on collaboration amongst individuals, the book was helpful in demonstrating that many forces are at work and are behind everything that exists in the world. This relates to collaboration in that each of us in a collaboration brings different histories to the table. The book also helps to illuminate the notion of the impossibility of non-collaboration. Even if the individual is from birth completely independant of others (which of course is quite improbable) their very existance comes into being through the cooperation of at least two separate forces (eg. the parents).
Debord shows us that the (two or more) forces which have led us to this point in history have done so, whether willingly or otherwise, together.
One of the most important and most overlooked philosophical texts of the 20th century.......2006-02-01
My title says it all.
If you have any interest in understanding the modern system (correctly termed the "spectacle-commodity system" by Debord) read this.
Debord's "Comments on the Society of the Spectacle," written 20 years later, is also excellent and might even be a better starting point. It is less dense and more succinct.
essential.......2005-07-15
this book is essential to anyone trying to understand their alienation with consumer capitalism. This book, and the situationalist in general, started a revolt against dogmatic thought and ideolgy and because of them I have realized that we need to go beyong "left" or radical and re think all our ideas on liberation.
Book Description
First published in 1967, Guy Debord's stinging revolutionary critique of contemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired a cult status. Credited by many as being the inspiration for the ideas generated by the events of May 1968 in France, Debord's pitiless attack on commodity fetishism and its incrustation in the practices of everyday life continues to btirn brightly in today's age of satellite television and the soundbite In Comments on the Society of the Spectacle published twenty years later, Debord returned to the themes of his previous analysis and demonstrated how they were all the more relevant in a period when the 'integrated spectacle' was dominant. Resolutely refusing to be reconciled to the system, Debord trenchantly slices through the doxa and mystification offered tip by journalists and pundits to show how aspects of reality as diverse as terrorism and the environment, the Mafia and the media, were catight tip in the logic of the spectacular society. Pointing the finger clearly at those who benefit from the logic of domination, Debord's Comments convey the revolutionary impulse at the heart of situationism.
Customer Reviews:
The society of the spectacle.......2007-01-03
It was exactly what I expected to see in a book on this subject.
Debord, as always, is brillant. .......2006-02-01
Should be read in conjunction with the Society of the Spectacle for full understanding, but can stand on its own.
Notice how accurately Debord predicts, in the 1980s, the current neverending and unwinnable "war on terrorism" that the spectacle system produced.
Quite Fascinating.......2003-01-22
When I was originally assigned this book in my Western Civ class, I was fully prepared for this to be another uninteresting book that the professor for some reason was going to make us read. My assumption was completely incorrect however. Not only was Debord's book easy to read, but also it was incredibly interesting. His point of view is especially interesting to any American I believe because of his French viewpoint. It is an excellent experience for any American to interact with other countries and their cultures, and though I am not much of a French fan, Debord does it right.
He begins by outlining three basic spectacles that are found and then dives completely into the integrated spectacle, a French/Italian model of ideology that differed from Russian/German and American models. Though not even one hundred pages in length, the pages pack an impressive punch that no reader can deny. In order to understand what I am speaking about, you should do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Debord's work. You do not have to agree with what he is saying to gain from the experience.
Sorry, No Backstage Passes.......2001-09-26
The book at first seems a slip down a few notches from S.O.T.S. because it is shorter and Debord seems a lot less interested in his topic, or getting us interested in his topic. Who can blame him?
But the brevity of the book makes sense when you realize this--RE: the spectacle, 1) see S.O.T.S. 2) take a look around you from your reading chair 3) ask, what are the few changes in 20 years? 4) write a brief and get back to lived experience.
Some highlights:
The integrated spectacle combines the diffuse, subtle domination of that system which goes by the label "liberal democracy" with tactics practiced by the concentrated, dictatorial mode of the spectacle in past communisms and facsisms. Which means: today, the rulers of the integrated spectacle dictate/script the appearance of an ever-unfolding narrative/fantasy of liberal democracy, complete with all the nitty-gritty details, plot twists and turns, shocking surprises, and pleasant mysteries at which to gawk and gasp and coo. Caravaggio would be jealous of such veristic, theatrical bravado! But what is really happening is something else altogether, hidden behind the misinformation and unverifiable information in the spectacle.
Terrorism is the invented enemy of the perfected, integrated, yet fragile spectacle, which needs an external enemy, seemingly worse than itself, in order to look good and survive by comparison.
Secrecy is everywhere and yet we accept it in passing (our state of alienation conditions us to know nothing about too much anyway, so secrecy seems natural, almost a relief from concern). Is anyone asking: Do we need to know anything more than what we are told by the spectacle? Is is even possible to know more?
".....Eddieeeee, anoootherrr drinkkkkk!!!...."
Experts do our thinking for us, or at least we are not given enough information in a condition of generalized secrecy to make up our own minds. Experts are intercessors, like priests of old, who stand between us and the spectacular governments with their ultimate knowledge of what's really up in the universe. And we must respond to their statements, which can be lies or truths (but we'll never know), with FAITH, since government usurps the position formerly held by God.
Finally, the integrated spectacle has made a whole new method of government possible. Debord wonders if the rulers of the spectacle have yet to realize what they can do with their new spectacular tools? Will the possiblilites become apparent in a flash of lightening?
How will we spectators know if and when this has occured?
Book Description
"Cinema brings the industrial revolution to the eye," writes Jonathan Beller, "and engages spectators in increasingly dematerialized processes of social production." In his groundbreaking critical study, cinema is the paradigmatic example of how the act of looking has been construed by capital as "productive labor." Through an examination of cinema over the course of the twentieth century, Beller establishes on both theoretical and historical grounds the process of the emergent capitalization of perception. This process, he says, underpins the current global economy.
By exploring a set of films made since the late 1920s, Beller argues that, through cinema, capital first posits and then presupposes looking as a value-productive activity. He argues that cinema, as the first crystallization of a new order of media, is itself an abstraction of assembly-line processes, and that the contemporary image is a politico-economic interface between the body and capitalized social machinery. Where factory workers first performed sequenced physical operations on moving objects in order to produce a commodity, in the cinema, spectators perform sequenced visual operations on moving montage fragments to produce an image.
Beller develops his argument by highlighting various innovations and film texts of the past century. These innovations include concepts and practices from the revolutionary Soviet cinema, behaviorism, Taylorism, psychoanalysis, and contemporary Hollywood film. He thus develops an analysis of what amounts to the global industrialization of perception that today informs not only the specific social functions of new media, but also sustains a violent and hierarchical global society.
Book Description
More than ever, architectural design is seen as a means to promote commercial goals rather than as an end in itself. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, for example, simply cannot be considered apart from its intended role as a catalyst for the economic revitalization of Bilbao and its ability to attract tourist dollars, regardless of its architectural merits. A built environment intended to seduce consumers is more likely to offer instant gratification than to invite independent thought and reflection. But how harmful, if at all, is this unprecedented commercialization of architecture?
Framed with a provocative introduction by Kenneth Frampton, the contributions to Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture stake out a variety of positions in the debate over the extent to which it is possible—or desirable—to escape from, resist, or suggest plausible alternatives to the dominant culture of consumer capitalism. Rejecting any dreamy nostalgia for an idealized present or past in which design is completely divorced from commerce—and, in some cases, celebrating the pleasures of spectacle—the individual essays range from indictments of particular architects and critiques of the profession to broader concerns about what the phenomenon of commodification means for the practice of democracy and the health of society.
Bringing together an impressive and varied group of critics and practitioners, Commodification and Spectacle in Architecture will help to sharpen the discussion of how design can respond to our hypercommodified culture.
Contributors: Michael Benedikt, Luis Fernández-Galiano, Thomas Frank, Kevin Ervin Kelley, Daniel Naegele, Rick Poynor, Michael Sorkin, Wouter Vanstiphout.
William S. Saunders is editor of Harvard Design Magazine and assistant dean for external relations at the Harvard Design School. He is the author of Modern Architecture: Photographs by Ezra Stoller.
Kenneth Frampton is Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and author of many books, including Labour, Work, and Architecture.
Book Description
The elaborate and inventive slaughter of humans and animals in the arena fed an insatiable desire for violent spectacle among the Roman people.
Donald G. Kyle combines the words of ancient authors with current scholarly research and cross-cultural perspectives, as he explores
* the origins and historical development of the games
* who the victims were and why they were chosen
* how the Romans disposed of the thousands of resulting corpses
* the complex religious and ritual aspects of institutionalised violence
* the particularly savage treatment given to defiant Christians.
This lively and original work provides compelling, sometimes controversial, perspectives on the bloody entertainments of ancient Rome, which continue to fascinate us to this day.
Download Description
Spectacles in Death in Ancient Rome is a provocative, detailed and sometimes controversial work which raises fundamental questions about the role of ritualized violence in Roman and other societies.
Customer Reviews:
How the Romans Discarded Their Dead.......2007-08-28
The Romans' violent sports led to countless killings and a myriad of dead bodies as a result. Since no extant source from antiquity specifically addresses the issue of what was done with all these dead bodies, Kyle found it necessary to explore the problem of "the treatment and disposal of the arena's dead victims" (11). In doing so, he exposits the general history of the Roman spectacles, who the victims were, how the Romans typically disposed of the dead, some possible means of disposal for the arena victims, and specifically what the sources say about the disposal of the Christian victims. Since the victims include both animals and humans, Kyle argues that the animal victims were generally distributed as food, while the humans were, in the majority, disposed of by water (e.g., the Tiber River).
In constructing his argument, Kyle guides his readers step by step through a maze of ancient sources. After introducing his topic in the first chapter, He establishes the basic information for his readership in chapters two, three, and four. The second chapter details the evolution and history of the phenomenon of the spectacles, beginning in their Roman and Italian influences, progressing through the years of Rome's Republic, and bringing the study to its culmination through the time of the Empire. Kyle also discusses the various types of spectacles in which the Romans sought entertainment, reenacted great battles and outstanding conquests, and punished criminals in various degrees (including crucifixion, fatal charades, wild-beast exposure, and burning alive). The third chapter divides up the spectacles' victims into two main groups: the gladiators and the noxii (criminals). Kyle reports the distinctions between the victims of various classes and their respective punishments. In the fourth chapter, the author discusses the how the Romans viewed death and disposal within the context of social strata. Burial functioned as a necessary component for the dead, because without it there is no guarantee of a successful afterlife. Though burial was important, the Romans would refrain from employing it as a means of punishment to criminals. Kyle also discusses similar situations in which spectacles occurred--or the dead were disgraced--in non-Roman societies (mainly those of the Assyrians and Amerindians).
In what seems to be the second major section of the book (chapters five, six, and seven) Kyle discusses various solutions to the dilemma of the arena disposal. The fifth chapter introduces the spoliarium where the bodies of the arena's deceased are held and verified as dead. The spoliarium, however, only functioned as a temporary holding place, which fails to answer the question as to where the bodies were ultimately disposed. Gladiators who fought well and had secured a certain amount of status were able to enjoy proper burial rites. Those gladiators who were unable to attain status or showed themselves as cowards were ill-treated and given the status of a noxius. It is likely that some of the noxii were buried in great pits like the potter's fields found in biblical and medieval records. One possible location for this is beyond the Esquiline Gate outside the western city limits of Rome. Yet, the shear number of dead and the impracticalities of such a pit as the city expanded forces Kyle to consider other means of disposal. Crucifixion was not an option because it took a great deal of work per noxius and it was itself a means of death, but the noxii from the arena were already dead. Disposal by fire was impractical because it required an excessive amount of effort (the victim had to be burned twice) and was dangerous as it could cause possible fire disasters.
Kyle discusses the idea of consumption as means of disposal in the sixth chapter. For many reasons, it is very unlikely that either humans or beasts consumed the human victims of the arenas, however, Kyle demonstrates that it is probable that the meat of the beasts were distributed to the Roman people for consumption.
Since the previous suggestions for the disposal of the noxii was not satisfactorily solved, Kyle turns to the theory that the mass of bodies were thrown into the Tiber in the seventh chapter. Large numbers of people were thrown into the Tiber through the periods of the Republic and the Empire, with the example of Commodus serving well (he died as one of the noxii and was dragged by the hook and thrown into the Tiber).
Finally, in chapter eight, the author addresses the problem of disposal with specific reference to Christian victims. In doing so, Kyle offers very interesting history regarding Christian martyrology, however, no new methodologies of disposal are discussed (Christians were sometimes buried, sometimes left out to rot, and sometimes disposed by way of water).
The book's conclusion wraps up some of the points alluded to in the former chapters by showing that when the noxii were punished in the arenas, the Roman people acted as witnesses, commentators, and judges, who not only sought the physical punishment of the noxii, but also their spiritual punishment in their means of disposal. Casting the corpses of the noxii into the Tiber was not only an instrument of purification, it also served as a safeguard against the ghosts of the unjust haunting the city.
The book is organized nicely and logically. In dividing the main content into two major categories (background information and possible means of disposal) the author makes the work accessible to both scholar and non-expert alike. To those familiar with the history of the spectacles, Kyle's second and third chapters will be refreshing. Those who are new to this aspect of Roman history will find the same chapters very informative. As far as the sections of the book that deal with the various proposals of disposal, Kyle organizes his research in a classic way (first the non-significant options of disposal, then the solution for the animal corpses, and then the solution for the human corpses).
Kyle's book is an important publication in that it does not consider only the logistical aspect of disposal, but it also takes into account the mindset of the Roman people as they dispose of these bodies. It is likely, as is argued by Kyle, that the bodies were not disposed of in a reconciliatory manner, but they were not buried in order to further punish the criminals. The Romans had in mind something more than punishment in this world, but they found it their duty to punish a man in the world to come as well.
Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome is not a book designed for the student who simply wants to learn some general information about ancient Rome. Since it is so specialized, it serves well as a book used to fill in someone's knowledge in a specific aspect of Roman history. All in all, the book was well written and an important addition to this area of Roman history.
Death and Disposal in Ancient Rome.......2002-12-13
In his most recent work, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome, renowned Roman historian Donald G. Kyle analyzes violence and bloodshed in Roman amphitheaters. However, deviating from traditional gladiatorial surveys, Kyle focuses on the disposal and removal of slaughtered gladiators, Christians and criminal noxii from Roman arenas, for, as Kyle poignantly states, "That we are all equal in death, that death is the great leveler, was a popular idea with the Sceptics and Epicureans; but in Rome individuals were not truly equal in death..." (128). Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome argues that Rome's social pariahs-gladiators, Christians and criminals condemned to death-were not only killed in the arena to feed a general blood craving populace, but the denial of inhumation to damnati corpses reflects the importance of proper burial rites to Rome's worthy citizens: "Just as burial rites and monuments reflected the privileges, pretension, and piety of Romans who died normal deaths, the victims of spectacles at Rome were not equal in life, in death in the arena, or after death beyond the arena" (128).
In the opening chapters of his work, Kyle elucidates the meaning of blood sports in ancient Rome at the imperial level-a modus operandi for the state to exemplify and demonstrate its power, leadership and domain. Yet, as Kyle maintains, to each individual Roman who attended the games "the `blood sports' did not have same, singular meaning...Romans were drawn to the arena by the allure of violence, by the exotic and erotic sights, and by an appreciation of the skill and courage of some participants or by the anticipation of the harsh but necessary punishment of others" (3). Hence, when Rome executed social outcasts via gladiatorial combats, mauling by beasts or any other form of spectacular killing, the rationalization was simply to protect and purify Rome, thereby ensuring the safety of the state (265).
Further, Kyle observes that the manner in which Rome disposed the corpses of those killed in the arena is highly significant. Although gladiators were seen as pollutants to Roman society, for those whom were extremely well-trained and talented they often received proper burials and, in some cases, commemorative epitaphs. However, for the vast majority of gladiators and noxii criminals, their corpses were thrown into the Tiber River, effectively ridding Rome of the pariahs and symbolically cleansing the state of those despised socially through the primordial waters of purification. Lamentably, an egregious exception to this standard was the disposal of Christians.
Seen as a collective enemy to the state, Christians were viewed through a lens of disloyalty and hostility by pagan Rome. "Christian abstention (e.g. from the games, sacrifices, and the emperor cult) was seen as a hostility to Rome, as religious treason threatening the pax deorum, and as insolence against the majesty and divinity of emperors" (243). With the Christians' exclusivist convictions, treason and sacrilege overlapped, allowing the masses to demand the most heinous punishments be delivered to the Christians. "They died in the arena," writes Kyle "but not as gladiators; they were thrown to the beasts, but not as bestiarii. As cheap, non-bellicose noxii, they suffered the worst atrocities of summa supplicia" (244).
Additionally, with Christian dogma proclaiming a resurrection, many Romans decided to add further insult by activity seeking to destroy and disperse the remains of martyrs. Kyle, quoting Eusebius, records, "And so the bodies of the martyrs, exposed in every possible way and left unburied for six days, were then burned and reduced to ashes by these vicious men and swept into the river Rhone which flows hard by, so that not a single relic of their bodies might be left on earth" (251).
In our current world, filled with devastating civil wars, savage conflicts between nations, and atrocities committed, it is extremely important that we examine our own past of human brutality. To Kyle, introspection to our own "violent nature drives us back further and deeper into our past, with a mandatory stop at Rome along the way" (265).
Adding his pebble into the large bedrock of Roman historiography, Kyle's Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome uses the texts of ancient authors as well as current research and modern archeological findings to guide and sculpt his thesis. Further, Kyle writes in outstanding prose, thereby fulfilling his desire to create a text that is "reasonably accessible to students and non-experts interested in the history of Rome, violence, and death" (xi). By letting historical evidence be his jury and offering a novel perspective on a thoroughly researched subject, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome will give readers new vistas to ponder and will serve as a useful instrument in analyzing the past of Rome.
Book Description
This richly textured cultural history of Italian fascism traces the narrative path that accompanied the making of the regime and the construction of Mussolini's power. Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi reads fascist myths, rituals, images, and speeches as texts that tell the story of fascism. Linking Mussolini's elaboration of a new ruling style to the shaping of the regime's identity, she finds that in searching for symbolic means and forms that would represent its political novelty, fascism in fact brought itself into being, creating its own power and history.
Falasca-Zamponi argues that an aesthetically founded notion of politics guided fascist power's historical unfolding and determined the fascist regime's violent understanding of social relations, its desensitized and dehumanized claims to creation, its privileging of form over ethical norms, and ultimately its truly totalitarian nature.
Average customer rating:
- A tremendous contribution to the historical bookshelf
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The Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle, and Tourism in Fascist Italy (Buildings, Landscapes, and Societies)
D. Medina Lasansky
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
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ASIN: 027102366X |
Book Description
Mussolini's bold claims upon the monuments and rhetoric of ancient Rome have been the subject of a number of recent books. D. Medina Lasansky shows us a much less familiar side of the cultural politics of Italian Fascism, tracing its wide-ranging efforts to adapt the nation's medieval and Renaissance heritage to satisfy the regime's programs of national regeneration.
Anyone acquainted with the beauties of Tuscany will be surprised to learn that architects, planners, and administrators working within Fascist programs fabricated much of what today's tourists admire as authentic. Public squares, town halls, palaces, gardens, and civic rituals (including the famed palio of Siena) were all "restored" to suit a vision of the past shaped by Fascist notions of virile power, social order, and national achievement in the arts. Ultimately, Lasansky forces readers to question long-standing assumptions about the Renaissance even as she expands the parameters of what constitutes Fascist culture.The arguments in The Renaissance Perfected are based in fresh archival evidence and a rich collection of illustrations, many reproduced for the first time, ranging from photographs and architectural drawings to tourist posters and film stills. Lasansky's groundbreaking book will be essential reading for students of medieval, Renaissance, and twentieth-century Italy as well as all those concerned with visual culture, architectural preservation, heritage studies, and tourism studies.
Customer Reviews:
A tremendous contribution to the historical bookshelf.......2006-04-27
This is a thoroughly amazing, informative and very well illustrated narrative of a most unusual and little-known Fascist re-building effort which was carried out in grand scale to help increase tourism in Italy and to spread the political influence and recognition of the Fascists in Mussolini's Italy between 1922 and 1945.
Entire plazas and piazzas were rebuilt, giving them a medieval flair, with stone turrets, parapets, towers, massive cobblestone streets. Entire village squares were rebuilt to look as though they had been designed in medieval times. The results were quite pleasing, imposing and not only were definitely attractive to tourists, but were also a source of pride for the local community, and the setting for many impressive local festivals. These imposing structures, continued tourist attractions, still stand today and are often mistaken as being of medieval origin and construction.
Copiously illustrated (color and black and white) throughout the book (including "before and after" photographs) as well as with drawings of modern origin and from antiquity, and with fifty-four pages of well-researched and very informative notes, as well as a substantial Bibliography and a copious index, this book stands alone as a notable monument in itself. As well as being a tremendous tool for researchers, it is also a fascinating voyage into a little known civic enterprise carried out in the midst of some very troubling times.
Dr. Lasansky has, with this book, made a valuable and beautiful contribution to history -- with her painstaking and thorough research and with the exquisite layout of this book.
Average customer rating:
- Beginners Guide to the Corrida
- if you like arrogance
- if you like arrogance
- Toreo arrogance
- Snobish
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Bullfighting: Art, Technique, and Spanish Society
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0765806576 |
Book Description
Ernest Hemingway, is best-known to layman and aficionado alike for his fiction and related prose accounts of bullfighting (toreo) as a cross between romantic risk and a drunken party. He sees it as an elaborate substitute for war, ending in wounds or death. Although Hemingway's descriptions of the "beauty" in toreo are lyrical, they are short on imaginative creation of how such beauty, through technique and discipline, comes about. John McCormick sorts through the complexities of toreo, to suggest the aesthetic, social, and moral dimensions of an art that is geographically limited, but universal when seen in round.
While attracted to Hemingway's approach, McCormick knew that he was being seduced by elements that had little to do with toreo. To try to right Hemingway's distortions, he named the first edition of this book The Complete Aficionado, but then realized that the volume was directed at a wider readership. Bullfighting is written from the point of view of the torero, as opposed to the usual spectator's impressions and enthusiasm. With the help of a retired matador de toros, Mario Sevilla Mascareas, who taught McCormick the rudiments of toreo as well as the emotions and discipline essential to survival, the author rescues toreo from romantic clichs. He probes the anatomy of the matador's training and technique, provides a past-and-present survey of the traditions of the corrida, and furnishes dramatic portraits of such famous figures as Manolete, Joselito, Belmonte, and Ordez. Here is an informed analysis and critique of the origins and myths of toreo and a survey of the literature it has inspired. Defending the faith in a lively as well as clear and discerning manner, this volume provides a committed and vivid approach to the rich history, ritual, and symbolism of the bullfight. This edition includes a new introduction by the author.
Customer Reviews:
Beginners Guide to the Corrida.......2002-11-19
Mr McCormick has updated his classic guide to bullfighting from the 1960's. As a beginner's guide it is indispensible, giving a full history of the corrida, and putting the traditions in their true social perspective, which will probably come as a shock to the animal rights people. The author collaborated with a celebrated matador in compiling the book, and even learned toreo, so there is great authority behind what he says. The illustrations, by a talented Colombian artist, are clear, and all the terms are explained. There is surely no better introduction to this noble art.
if you like arrogance.......2002-05-10
i bought this book to learn a little more about bullfighting. you get that but you have to wade through the author's view of the world to get to it. for every sentence that will help you understand the toreo you have to read 5 pages of the author's view on life, art and other. i don't really care about his views and wanted more professional insight. their is no glossary to help with the hundreds of terms. he defines the word one time and if you get confused on the word later, you have to flip back to find the definition. he gives the reason for this by saying he is writing for an educated audience. he then proceeds through the rest of the book to look down his nose at the reader as though their is no way the reader is as smart as him. he bashes Hemingway which i did not like. to hear him tell it he is smarter and a better writer than Hemingway. i am more interested in this subject as a hobby right now than any other and i had to force my way through this one. still looking for a good one
if you like arrogance.......2002-05-10
i bought this book to learn a little more about bullfighting. you get that but you have to wade through the author's view of the world to get to it. for every sentence that will help you understand the toreo you have to read 5 pages of the author's view on life, art and other. i don't really care about his views and wanted more professional insight. their is no glossary to help with the hundreds of terms. he defines the word one time and if you get confused on the word later, you have to flip back to find the definition. he gives the reason for this by saying he is writing for an educated audience. he then proceeds through the rest of the book to look down his nose at the reader as though their is no way the reader is as smart as him. he bashes Hemingway which i did not like. to hear him tell it he is smarter and a better writer than Hemingway. i am more interested in this subject as a hobby right now than any other and i had to force my way through this one. still looking for a good one
Toreo arrogance.......2001-07-04
This book was written because the author wanted a book credit to his name, not to inform the public. There is a lot of valuable information that one has to dig for among the literary mish mash.
Snobish.......2001-03-17
There are two major flaws that make this book at times unreadable, and at times unbearable. The first problem is a conscious decision by the author not to include a glossary of terms in the back. The word is defined only once, "From that point on, we use that phrase in Spanish in a missionary effort to encourage the non-Spanish speaker to associate the word with the concept." In other words, the author is going to make the reader learn Spanish bullfight terms. But oh so many terms, every possible term ever that ever applied to the bullfight, a staggering number of terms. The first 180 pages is a minefield of Spanish terms. What is so maddening, is that if you find a term on page 60 that hasn't been used since page 20, you look up the term in the index, find it is referenced to page 20, turn to page 20, and maybe it is defined in the footnote, or maybe you have to reread the entire page to find the definition, or maybe you find that, as I did several times, that although page 20 is the first use of the term, it is not defined anywhere. The author is not so much trying to teach as he is trying to show off, and the author's ego is the real theme of this book.
That covers the first 180 pages; the last 90 pages are worse, because of the second major flaw in the book: The author's snobish and elitsit attitude that no one can enjoy a bullfigt unless they know as much as he does, and anyone enjoying a bullfight who does not know as much is a simple peon or one of the easily duped masses; furthermore just about everybody who ever wrote anything about bullfighting was wrong. McCormick tries to list every book and author and what was wrong and how it could have been better if they had only known as much as McCormick.
If you notice the book review section above, the name Hemingway is mentioned is mentioned 4 times. That is because McCormick has an obsession to prove that Hemingway's work about bullfighting was not really that good after all. It is apparent that McCormick wants to be the new Boss of Bullfighting, it becomes comical how he goes out of is way to knock down Hemingway in this book constantly.
If you see at least 4 or 5 bullfights a year, this book may have some value to you. There is technical information on bulls and bull breading, the exact names of passes and styles, but it is buried far below the authors ego; you'll have to work to make it useful. I have read Hemingway's Death In The Afternoon, it's the best book so far for understanding bullfighting; unless you live in Spain or Mexico, don't bother with this one.
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