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A review by niconorico
Aesthetics and Politics by Ernst Bloch, Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin
3.0
I learned a lot here, as someone with no scholarship in aesthetics and art movements it was a pleasant 'sink or swim' kind of read.
That being said the composition is messy. As a comrade of mine pointed out, having the one Walter Benjamin piece be from his diary was an odd choice. Bloch is set up as a kind of stepping stone for Lukacs here, with the discussion on Surrealism feeling like a setup for the meat of the book: a discussion on competing forms of Realism.
Adorno's pieces are highly polemical. I think it was a strong choice to include them, but ending with his unopposed polemics—though we are primed with the knowledge of CIA funding—is another strange choice.
Still, its a good read and I appreciate the knowledge.
That being said the composition is messy. As a comrade of mine pointed out, having the one Walter Benjamin piece be from his diary was an odd choice. Bloch is set up as a kind of stepping stone for Lukacs here, with the discussion on Surrealism feeling like a setup for the meat of the book: a discussion on competing forms of Realism.
Adorno's pieces are highly polemical. I think it was a strong choice to include them, but ending with his unopposed polemics—though we are primed with the knowledge of CIA funding—is another strange choice.
Still, its a good read and I appreciate the knowledge.