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georginabrooke's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was a thought provoking read, although at times quite dense (very long sentences and paragraphs).
**on culture**
It's relevant to me as I work in the cultural sector, so Williams’s reflections on e.g. p.16 on the plurality of meanings of culture we have today was interesting, particularly that there is a problem with using the same word for [[personal striving / excellence]] and a sense of collective health / fittingness is a problem as it hides our need to embrace a common good
This feeds through into some interesting analysis of how can we within a democratic environment found a society that reinvests the importance of common cause from where we are now
**on how it reflects on today**
I also thought there was lots in here in his analysis of the Industrial revolution and the priority of profit over human happiness, in making machines primary over human dignity in social media companies, we create all this content to make the companies richer and feed the algorithm that sends us ever more novel ways to appeal to our vanity, but not in a way that makes us happier.
**interesting methodological approach of using word usage to trace change in collective meaning**
I also really like Williams’s methodological approach of using word etymologies, it was interesting to be his (via Arnold’s) analysis of the greek word arete / agathos / aristos and Williams equating that with culture, and tracing how the word culture changes in different thinkers writings across the period he’s looking at
**things that didn't work for me**
For me it fell down a bit more in that a lot of it was really looking at political states and industry, which may be an important part of the puzzle (how work intersects with culture) but it seems to shy away from analysing culture itself beyond thinkers statements - there was very little on theatre, museums, art, television etc, there was much more of this in Williams's Communications, there was a lot on reading books but this is not the only form of culture!
I also thought his final summary was a little naive in that it states working class culture is to be applauded for creating institutions like trade unions “primarily social rather than individual”, I don’t know if that was true in the time he was writing but I’m pretty sure it’s not now. If we look at something like The Wire we see people intrinsically motivated or selfishly motivated regardless of class. That felt a bit more realistic to me.
**Empathy**
The best content for me was some of the sections on Lawrence and thinking about human relationships as primary seeing others as neither equal or unequal but simply other and intrinsic merit in welcoming that otherness.
When I stand in the presence of a man, who is himself, and when I am truly myself, then I am only aware of a Presence, and the strange reality of Otherness...comparison enters only when one of us departs from his own integral being and enters the material mechanical world
**on culture**
It's relevant to me as I work in the cultural sector, so Williams’s reflections on e.g. p.16 on the plurality of meanings of culture we have today was interesting, particularly that there is a problem with using the same word for [[personal striving / excellence]] and a sense of collective health / fittingness is a problem as it hides our need to embrace a common good
This feeds through into some interesting analysis of how can we within a democratic environment found a society that reinvests the importance of common cause from where we are now
**on how it reflects on today**
I also thought there was lots in here in his analysis of the Industrial revolution and the priority of profit over human happiness, in making machines primary over human dignity in social media companies, we create all this content to make the companies richer and feed the algorithm that sends us ever more novel ways to appeal to our vanity, but not in a way that makes us happier.
**interesting methodological approach of using word usage to trace change in collective meaning**
I also really like Williams’s methodological approach of using word etymologies, it was interesting to be his (via Arnold’s) analysis of the greek word arete / agathos / aristos and Williams equating that with culture, and tracing how the word culture changes in different thinkers writings across the period he’s looking at
**things that didn't work for me**
For me it fell down a bit more in that a lot of it was really looking at political states and industry, which may be an important part of the puzzle (how work intersects with culture) but it seems to shy away from analysing culture itself beyond thinkers statements - there was very little on theatre, museums, art, television etc, there was much more of this in Williams's Communications, there was a lot on reading books but this is not the only form of culture!
I also thought his final summary was a little naive in that it states working class culture is to be applauded for creating institutions like trade unions “primarily social rather than individual”, I don’t know if that was true in the time he was writing but I’m pretty sure it’s not now. If we look at something like The Wire we see people intrinsically motivated or selfishly motivated regardless of class. That felt a bit more realistic to me.
**Empathy**
The best content for me was some of the sections on Lawrence and thinking about human relationships as primary seeing others as neither equal or unequal but simply other and intrinsic merit in welcoming that otherness.
When I stand in the presence of a man, who is himself, and when I am truly myself, then I am only aware of a Presence, and the strange reality of Otherness...comparison enters only when one of us departs from his own integral being and enters the material mechanical world
nick_jenkins's review against another edition
5.0
The whole conclusion is among the strongest, most eloquent moral statements of the twentieth century and unrivaled, I think, in the entire Marxist tradition.
nick_jenkins's review
5.0
The whole conclusion is among the strongest, most eloquent moral statements of the twentieth century and unrivaled, I think, in the entire Marxist tradition.
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