A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

George Steiner
at The New yorker
George steiner
(edited and with an introduction
by Robert Boyers)
Gradiva, Lisbon, 2010. 1
80
The Horn
of Plenty
By cArLos Leone
Though it has been bandied about, the
“death of the intellectual” remains to be
proved. A bit like the previously also widely-discussed
“treason,” the public figure
known as the “intellectual,” so typical of
modernity, has persisted amid the general
decline of the conditions that brought him
to the fore and gave him the chance to exist.
With the demise of Enlightenment optimism,
the end of widespread belief in the
neutrality of science, the death of literate
culture of a universal bent, and at a time
when even the civilizational principles that
the West has taken for granted are being
placed in jeopardy (e.g., human rights), the
time-honored, ambiguous, polymorphic
figure of the intellectual persists. It has generally
been a tough row to hoe, but quite a
few have become veritable darlings of the
media such as Umberto Eco, Fernando
Savater, Jürgen Habermas, Allan Bloom, and,
cutting the list short (thus preventing some
thinkers from getting their due), George
Steiner. Not unexpectedly, there has been
criticism that Steiner has been “over-exposed,”
given the plethora of publications he
has in print – many of which have been
translated for distribution in smaller markets
such as Portugal: from the occasional lecture
(“The Idea of Europe”), to the scholarly
essay (Antígones), and collections such as the
one put together by Robert Boyers, which
taps material that Steiner wrote during his
decades-long collaboration with America’s
distinguished magazine, the New Yorker.
Interestingly, the editor himself broaches the
criticism that has often been leveled at
BooK revieWs
Steiner (and others like him): that he dabbles
in fields he has no mastery of, especially
when it comes to his alleged over-exposure
in publishing and media circles. But when
you read him, even if you are at odds with
his ideas (which would not be surprising,
given their striking singularity), the sensation
you get is one that can be described in
totally different terms: over-abundance.
Steiner was born in Paris in 1929 and was
educated in the United States (a fact he discusses
in the book, in the final essay, which
is not autobiographical). He is currently a
professor in Oxbridge, literally dividing his
time between Oxford and Cambridge. He
‘ it seemed to exemplify
nietzsche’s insight that there is
in men and women a motivation
stronger even than love
or hatred or fear. it is that of
being interested – in a body
of knowledge, in a problem,
in a hobby, in tomorrow’s
news-paper.”
steiner
’ George
has both studied and taught at a host of
prestigious US and European universities
and, in addition to the books he has published,
has written for a number of distinguished
English-language publications. This
particular anthology of New Yorker essays is
illustrative of how editorial choices can
effectively be based on quality and the
strengths of the readership, rather than character
counts and the attempt to reduce
everything to the level of the “average reader,”
who, by the way, does not exist. That
is why this collection is eye-opening for the
Portuguese reader in that it leads one to
think about what Portuguese magazine or
newspaper could possibly be the source of
a treasure trove like this one. The fact that
there is, in Portugal, no match for the New
Yorker is symptomatic of deep-seated cultural
differences that go deeper than the dichotomy
posed by “American speed” and
“European lenteur;” that is, even if we take
for granted our “Europeanness” which, judging
by the Steiner’s lack of reference to
Portugal and Portuguese authors, is also
questionable (when he spoke at FLAD in
2002 in Lisbon, he was loud and clear on
his views regarding this issue). What Steiner’s
unrestrained writing produces is a diversity
of subject matters and a prodigality of viewpoints
that go into creating an over-exposure
– or over-abundance – that Steiner
himself powerfully addresses when he writes
about Koestler who, he states, “seemed
to exemplify Nietzsche’s insight that there
is in men and women a motivation stronger
even than love or hatred or fear. It is that of
being interested – in a body of knowledge,
in a problem, in a hobby, in tomorrow’s
news paper.” This partial quote from one of
the best essays in the book, “La Morte
d’Arthur,” not only describes Steiner at his
best, but the matrix of his texts: that constantly
renewed link between the philosophical,
the literary, the political and the
historical, always graced by a personal perspective
that (as in Koestler’s case) is often
anchored in the personal relationship he has
with the topic of each essay.
However, there are limitations to be
found in most of his essays: the fact that
he focuses primarily on the West and reduces
the contemporary to haute culture (television
and advertising are the subjects of
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011