Overview

In Only a Voice, George Scialabba examines the chasm between modernity's promise of progress and the sobering reality of our present day through studies of the most influential public intellectuals of our time. In Scialabba's hands, literary criticism becomes a powerful tool for expressing political passion and demonstrating the generative power of argument and an inquisitive mind. Drawing together a diverse group of thinkers, artists, activists, and philosophers-including Edward Said, D. H. Lawrence, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ellen Willis, and Noam Chomsky-Scialabba tours western intellectual history to find that no matter the stakes, critical thought remains a necessary precondition for politics. Every writer, Scialabba writes, faces the choice of whether ""to tilt at the state and capital or ignore them"" - and the world now is too dire not to choose the former.

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9781804292006

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Reviews

I am one of many readers who stay on the lookout for George Scialabba's byline. His reviews and essays are models of moral inquiry. He cuts to the core of the ethical and political dilemmas he discusses. Scialabba reads very widely and very carefully; he is as illuminating about Nietzsche and Ortega as about Orwell and Trilling. -- Richard Rorty, author of <i>Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism</i> George Scialabba is one of a handful of public intellectuals who are keeping the critical spirit alive in a time of stupefying complacency. His essays are unfailingly fresh, provocative, and pleasurable. -- Jackson Lears, author of <i>Rebirth of a Nation</i> George Scialabba belongs to an endangered species, the independent writer and reviewer. In an era of literary razzle-dazzle, he is easily overlooked. Neither portentous nor ponderous nor pretentious, without a university or think tank imprimatur, he simply gives us what he has: crystalline prose and a supple intelligence unafraid to criticize heroes of either left or right. His writings are a priceless guide to contemporary intellectual life. Read them and know that when the party is over, his work will remain. -- Russell Jacoby, author of <i>On Diversity</i> A gifted critic who restores to authority an idea of the public intellectual as one whose prose itself - lucid, ardent, immensely thoughtful - makes educated citizens of us all. -- Vivian Gornick, author of <i>Taking a Long Look</i> One of America's best all-round intellects. -- James Wood, author of <i>Serious Noticing</i> Scialabba is that rare social and literary critic who manages to be at once erudite, unpretentious, engaging, and wise. -- Katha Pollitt, author of <i>Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights</i> In the tradition of a George Orwell or a Nicola Chiaromonte, George Scialabba, one of the best commentators of his generation, refines common sense into a kind of art. -- Jonathan Schell, author of <i>The Seventh Decade</i> George Scialabba is a keeper of the conscience of American radicalism. Patient, exacting, and concise, his reviews of contemporary journalists and historians have a sharp eye for logical jumps and rhetorical dodges, and a generous power of admiration. -- David Bromwich, author of <i>American Breakdown</i> A national treasure of long standing, George Scialabba has been our preeminent chronicler of American public intellectuals. From left to right and in all of his engagements with others, Scialabba retains a recalcitrant independence, for the sake of a guarded hope. -- Samuel Moyn, author of <i>Humane</i>

This bracing compendium by essayist Scialabba (How to Be Depressed) brings together meditations on novelist Wendell Berry, Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich, Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and other major figures of the 'antimodernist left,'....The erudite sketches of iconoclastic thinkers highlight the heterogeneity of leftist thought, and Scialabba has a knack for teasing out the provocative implications of his subjects' ideas. This stimulates. * Publishers Weekly * I am one of many readers who stay on the lookout for George Scialabba's byline. His reviews and essays are models of moral inquiry. He cuts to the core of the ethical and political dilemmas he discusses. Scialabba reads very widely and very carefully; he is as illuminating about Nietzsche and Ortega as about Orwell and Trilling. -- Richard Rorty, author of <i>Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism</i> George Scialabba is one of a handful of public intellectuals who are keeping the critical spirit alive in a time of stupefying complacency. His essays are unfailingly fresh, provocative, and pleasurable. -- Jackson Lears, author of <i>Rebirth of a Nation</i> George Scialabba belongs to an endangered species, the independent writer and reviewer. In an era of literary razzle-dazzle, he is easily overlooked. Neither portentous nor ponderous nor pretentious, without a university or think tank imprimatur, he simply gives us what he has: crystalline prose and a supple intelligence unafraid to criticize heroes of either left or right. His writings are a priceless guide to contemporary intellectual life. Read them and know that when the party is over, his work will remain. -- Russell Jacoby, author of <i>On Diversity</i> A gifted critic who restores to authority an idea of the public intellectual as one whose prose itself - lucid, ardent, immensely thoughtful - makes educated citizens of us all. -- Vivian Gornick, author of <i>Taking a Long Look</i> One of America's best all-round intellects. -- James Wood, author of <i>Serious Noticing</i> Scialabba is that rare social and literary critic who manages to be at once erudite, unpretentious, engaging, and wise. -- Katha Pollitt, author of <i>Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights</i> In the tradition of a George Orwell or a Nicola Chiaromonte, George Scialabba, one of the best commentators of his generation, refines common sense into a kind of art. -- Jonathan Schell, author of <i>The Seventh Decade</i> George Scialabba is a keeper of the conscience of American radicalism. Patient, exacting, and concise, his reviews of contemporary journalists and historians have a sharp eye for logical jumps and rhetorical dodges, and a generous power of admiration. -- David Bromwich, author of <i>American Breakdown</i> A national treasure of long standing, George Scialabba has been our preeminent chronicler of American public intellectuals. From left to right and in all of his engagements with others, Scialabba retains a recalcitrant independence, for the sake of a guarded hope. -- Samuel Moyn, author of <i>Humane</i>

Essays from across the storied career of 'critic's critic' George Scialabba. Forthright yet charitable, Scialabba gleans his greatest insights from those he disagrees with and is a model for the practice of independent criticism. -- Ryan Ruby * The Millions * Never has a writer of such enviable talents displayed such evident and unpretentious pleasure in good prose. -- Sam Adler-Bell * Commonweal * Scialabba is as lively as ever...Only a Voice is filled with provocative arguments that make the reader want to argue right back. -- Daniel Lazare * Arts Fuse * A celebrated critic and essayist * New York Times *

Author Information

George Scialabba is an award-winning critic and essayist whose writing has appeared in the Nation, Dissent, Bookforum, Raritan, n+1, and the Boston Review, among many others. He is a contributing editor of The Baffler and the author of five previous essay collections and a memoir, How to Be Depressed.

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