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Wednesday, February 15. 2012

Remembering the great Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun, Wisdom and Grace. A quote:



His perspective on cultural history is so wide as to view history as a series of births, flowering, decay and finally decadence. “When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label. A decadent culture offers opportunity mainly to the satirist…”4 which describes our time perfectly. But just as in the natural world, the cultural world holds the seeds of rebirth within.


Posted by Bird Dog in History, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:16 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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Dawn to Decadence is definitely worth the read to me. I particularly enjoyed his justification for using man to refer to mankind or a person without referencing gender. His "digression on a word" in the above book was elegant and logical, two qualities frequently lacking in PC America. Quite an accomplished man.
#1 Gordon on 2012-02-15 17:23 (Reply)
"Dawn to Decadence" is the only book by him I've read; I've been meaning to read more.

Frustratingly, many of my Democrat friends fit his technical definition of "decadent" - they keep voting D even when they acknowledge many (most, these days) D policies are futile and / or achieve the absurd. They don't think anything can be done and they won't vote for any kind of conservative.
#2 T.K. Tortch on 2012-02-15 20:30 (Reply)
The heading sounds almost like an obituary, but Barzun is still with us at age ~105 and living in San Antonio. Pretty amazing, that.
#3 chuck on 2012-02-15 21:49 (Reply)
Culture as compost.
#4 Texan99 (Link) on 2012-02-16 09:34 (Reply)
Dawn to Decadence was a phenomenal book. It helped me understand history as I never had before.
#5 Mark on 2012-02-16 20:50 (Reply)

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