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Bears witness to Milosz'z lifetime of toil in the fields of memory, faith and art (Bookforum )
[The series] sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries. (Cj Schüler Independent on Sunday )
This [series] is a wonderful idea ... They are absurdist parables, by turns hilarious, unsettling and enigmatic. (Nicholas Lezard Guardian )
I urge you to go and read them. (Adam Thirlwell New Statesman )
This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'. (Stephen Vizinczey Daily Telegraph )
[The series] sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries. (Cj Schüler Independent on Sunday )
This [series] is a wonderful idea ... They are absurdist parables, by turns hilarious, unsettling and enigmatic. (Nicholas Lezard Guardian )
I urge you to go and read them. (Adam Thirlwell New Statesman )
This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'. (Stephen Vizinczey Daily Telegraph )
Product Description
Proud to be a Mammal (1942-97) is Czeslaw Milosz's moving and diverse collection of essays. Among them, he covers his passion for poetry, his love of the Polish language that was so nearly wiped out by the violence of the twentieth century, and his happy childhood. Milosz also includes a letter to his friend in which he voices his concern about the growing indifference to murder and the true value of freedom of thought, as well as a verbal map of Wilno, with each street revealing both a rich local history and intricate, poignant personal memories.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Besides autobiographical notes (flight from Wilno during the war), a portrait of Zygmunt Hertz, superficial comments on Nazism and the cardinal sins and a description of the streets of Wilno, this book is a very dark diatribe against reason, knowledge, science and civilization. It exposes the author's astonishing contradictions, his extremely pessimistic vision on mankind, his staunch defense of fundamental Catholicism, his escapist view on art and his stance as an authoritarian, anti-democratic warmonger.
Civilization, science, knowledge
For C. M., civilization doesn't satisfy man's desire for order and justice. This is due to the Devil (!), an inventive, cold logical mind, the creator of the oppressing technical civilization.
For him, science and the mechanics of cause and effect are synonymous with the evil spirit. Evil resulted from man's reaching for forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Catholicism (indispensable for Polish culture)
`I believe that the four Gospels tell the truth. I believe in an absurdity that Jesus rose from the dead.'
For C. M., by democratizing the unassailable truth of faith, the aggiornamento (in the Church) struck a blow at the `knowing' function of the clergy. The unwritten contract between ordinary mortals and the priests was: we will till the soil and go to war (sic) and you will mutter prayers and preserve in your tomes knowledge about what we must (sic) believe in. What mankind needs is the dignity of man, as expressed by the Vatican, for it backs it with metaphysical essence(sic).
Catholicism seems to him to be the indispensable background for everything that will be truly creative in Polish culture.
Vision on man and blatant contradictions
For C.M., `the proposition that even if some good is attainable by man, that he doesn't deserve it, can be proved by experience.'(!)
`Men have a strong need for authority. Man needs Christianity, because he is enslaved to his own predatory, dominating instincts.' But, in his invective against science, C.M. needs a `natural' man: `For that reason many people side with the instincts and intuition of natural man against the artificial and the collective.' Further, `enmity was established between man and nature', but is man himself not part of nature?
For C.M., `the righteous are those who profess doubt', but he himself has no doubt.
Art
For C.M., gentle verses written in the midst of horror declare themselves for life. They are incantations deployed in order that the horror should disappear for a moment.'
This is pure and simple escapism, a flight from reality.
I cannot recommend this astonishing book by a Nobel Prize winner.
Civilization, science, knowledge
For C. M., civilization doesn't satisfy man's desire for order and justice. This is due to the Devil (!), an inventive, cold logical mind, the creator of the oppressing technical civilization.
For him, science and the mechanics of cause and effect are synonymous with the evil spirit. Evil resulted from man's reaching for forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Catholicism (indispensable for Polish culture)
`I believe that the four Gospels tell the truth. I believe in an absurdity that Jesus rose from the dead.'
For C. M., by democratizing the unassailable truth of faith, the aggiornamento (in the Church) struck a blow at the `knowing' function of the clergy. The unwritten contract between ordinary mortals and the priests was: we will till the soil and go to war (sic) and you will mutter prayers and preserve in your tomes knowledge about what we must (sic) believe in. What mankind needs is the dignity of man, as expressed by the Vatican, for it backs it with metaphysical essence(sic).
Catholicism seems to him to be the indispensable background for everything that will be truly creative in Polish culture.
Vision on man and blatant contradictions
For C.M., `the proposition that even if some good is attainable by man, that he doesn't deserve it, can be proved by experience.'(!)
`Men have a strong need for authority. Man needs Christianity, because he is enslaved to his own predatory, dominating instincts.' But, in his invective against science, C.M. needs a `natural' man: `For that reason many people side with the instincts and intuition of natural man against the artificial and the collective.' Further, `enmity was established between man and nature', but is man himself not part of nature?
For C.M., `the righteous are those who profess doubt', but he himself has no doubt.
Art
For C.M., gentle verses written in the midst of horror declare themselves for life. They are incantations deployed in order that the horror should disappear for a moment.'
This is pure and simple escapism, a flight from reality.
I cannot recommend this astonishing book by a Nobel Prize winner.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Milosz writes beautifully; He has strong, clear theses. But I feel his answers to (still-open, although transposed) questions are a bit off.
In short, I feel that the catholic faith (and church), was very successful a weapon during the cold war, but is the wrong answer to the evils of our world.
Another political litterature Nobel (after Churchill(!!), Solzhenitsyn, ...)
If you want to read Milosz, better read his poems (which I have not done yet :))
The editing of this volume is also horrible; It seems like the first typing has not ever been re-read by an editor.
In short, I feel that the catholic faith (and church), was very successful a weapon during the cold war, but is the wrong answer to the evils of our world.
Another political litterature Nobel (after Churchill(!!), Solzhenitsyn, ...)
If you want to read Milosz, better read his poems (which I have not done yet :))
The editing of this volume is also horrible; It seems like the first typing has not ever been re-read by an editor.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
For a Catholic fundamentalist, Reason is the Devil
12 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback
Besides autobiographical notes (flight from Wilno during the war), a portrait of Zygmunt Hertz, superficial comments on Nazism and the cardinal sins and a description of the streets of Wilno, this book is a very dark diatribe against reason, knowledge, science and civilization. It exposes the author's astonishing contradictions, his extremely pessimistic vision on mankind, his staunch defense of fundamental Catholicism, his escapist view on art and his stance as an authoritarian, anti-democratic warmonger.
Civilization, science, knowledge
For C. M., civilization doesn't satisfy man's desire for order and justice. This is due to the Devil (!), an inventive, cold logical mind, the creator of the oppressing technical civilization.
For him, science and the mechanics of cause and effect are synonymous with the evil spirit. Evil resulted from man's reaching for forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Catholicism (indispensable for Polish culture)
`I believe that the four Gospels tell the truth. I believe in an absurdity that Jesus rose from the dead.'
For C. M., by democratizing the unassailable truth of faith, the aggiornamento (in the Church) struck a blow at the `knowing' function of the clergy. The unwritten contract between ordinary mortals and the priests was: we will till the soil and go to war (sic) and you will mutter prayers and preserve in your tomes knowledge about what we must (sic) believe in. What mankind needs is the dignity of man, as expressed by the Vatican, for it backs it with metaphysical essence(sic).
Catholicism seems to him to be the indispensable background for everything that will be truly creative in Polish culture.
Vision on man and blatant contradictions
For C.M., `the proposition that even if some good is attainable by man, that he doesn't deserve it, can be proved by experience.'(!)
`Men have a strong need for authority. Man needs Christianity, because he is enslaved to his own predatory, dominating instincts.' But, in his invective against science, C.M. needs a `natural' man: `For that reason many people side with the instincts and intuition of natural man against the artificial and the collective.' Further, `enmity was established between man and nature', but is man himself not part of nature?
For C.M., `the righteous are those who profess doubt', but he himself has no doubt.
Art
For C.M., gentle verses written in the midst of horror declare themselves for life. They are incantations deployed in order that the horror should disappear for a moment.'
This is pure and simple escapism, a flight from reality.
I cannot recommend this astonishing book by a Nobel Prize winner.
Civilization, science, knowledge
For C. M., civilization doesn't satisfy man's desire for order and justice. This is due to the Devil (!), an inventive, cold logical mind, the creator of the oppressing technical civilization.
For him, science and the mechanics of cause and effect are synonymous with the evil spirit. Evil resulted from man's reaching for forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Catholicism (indispensable for Polish culture)
`I believe that the four Gospels tell the truth. I believe in an absurdity that Jesus rose from the dead.'
For C. M., by democratizing the unassailable truth of faith, the aggiornamento (in the Church) struck a blow at the `knowing' function of the clergy. The unwritten contract between ordinary mortals and the priests was: we will till the soil and go to war (sic) and you will mutter prayers and preserve in your tomes knowledge about what we must (sic) believe in. What mankind needs is the dignity of man, as expressed by the Vatican, for it backs it with metaphysical essence(sic).
Catholicism seems to him to be the indispensable background for everything that will be truly creative in Polish culture.
Vision on man and blatant contradictions
For C.M., `the proposition that even if some good is attainable by man, that he doesn't deserve it, can be proved by experience.'(!)
`Men have a strong need for authority. Man needs Christianity, because he is enslaved to his own predatory, dominating instincts.' But, in his invective against science, C.M. needs a `natural' man: `For that reason many people side with the instincts and intuition of natural man against the artificial and the collective.' Further, `enmity was established between man and nature', but is man himself not part of nature?
For C.M., `the righteous are those who profess doubt', but he himself has no doubt.
Art
For C.M., gentle verses written in the midst of horror declare themselves for life. They are incantations deployed in order that the horror should disappear for a moment.'
This is pure and simple escapism, a flight from reality.
I cannot recommend this astonishing book by a Nobel Prize winner.
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