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 | | Thinking in Time: An Introduction to Henri Bergson by Suzanne Guerlac ISBN-10: 9780801473005 ISBN-10: 0-8014-7300-4 ISBN-13: 9780801473005 ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-7300-5 Paperback 2006-04-06 Cornell University Press Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description "In recent years, we have grown accustomed to philosophical language that is intensely self-conscious and rhetorically thick, often tragic in tone. It is enlivening to read Bergson, who exerts so little rhetorical pressure while exacting such a substantial effort of thought. . . . Bergson’s texts teach the reader to let go of entrenched intellectual habits and to begin to think differently—to think in time. . . . Too much and too little have been said about Bergson. Too much, because of the various appropriations of his thought. Too little, because the work itself has not been carefully studied in recent decades."—from Thinking in Time Henri Bergson (1859–1941), whose philosophical works emphasized motion, time, and change, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. His work remains influential, particularly in the realms of philosophy, cultural studies, and new media studies. In Thinking in Time, Suzanne Guerlac provides readers with the conceptual and contextual tools necessary for informed appreciation of Bergson’s work. Guerlac’s straightforward philosophical expositions of two Bergson texts, Time and Free Will (1888) and Matter and Memory (1896), focus on the notions of duration and memory—concepts that are central to the philosopher’s work. Thinking in Time makes plain that it is well worth learning how to read Bergson effectively: his era and our own share important concerns. Bergson’s insistence on the opposition between the automatic and the voluntary and his engagement with the notions of "the living," affect, and embodiment are especially germane to discussions of electronic culture. | ||
Reviews | ||
Read the original(s) A introductory book on the philosophy of Bergson, which ends with two (short) chapters discussing the recent "return to Bergson." Guerlac's monograph reads as though it were rather hastily put together, as though she ran out of time to properly develop the material. An example: chapter 5 (Channels of Contemporary Reception) is a particularly useful subject and the chapter begins well, but it swiftly descends to uselessness, stitched together by a series of quotes and paraphrases from various theorists, as well as endless footnotes which include further quotes and paraphrases (there are 97 footnotes for a chapter 23 pages long). (It doesn't help either that Guerlac moves much too quickly through the Bergsonian influence on Deleuze's Cinema books - relying, it seems to me, too heavily on Mark Hansen's commentary - as well as Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "the machinic.") Worse is the treatment of Bergson's texts, but for a different reason. The majority of Guerlac's book is an explication of two Bergson works: Time and Free Will and Matter and Memory. (Why Creative Evolution is not given the same treatment is a mystery to me.) Having just re-read Matter and Memory, I have to say that I found Guerlac's chapter on this great work completely without point: she simply repeats his argument but in her own words (except when she is directly quoting the original). Why not read the original instead, which is exquisitely written and endlessly fascinating? The purpose of such an introductory work should be to clarify and contextualize; to give a student some footholds as they explore the difficult (but richly rewarding) original texts. What is the purpose of a 67-page paraphrase of Matter and Memory except to discourage the student from reading the original (by having the student believe they have somehow already done so - and not by reading the 200 page original but the 67 page copy)? The book is not without some merit, but it needed several more rewrites and some judicious pruning. (And instead of 2 LONG chapters on Bergson's first two philosophical texts, it should have had 4 shorter chapters on ALL of his major philosophical works: Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, Creative Evolution, and Two Sources of Morality and Religion.) I'd give the book 2 1/2 stars, if it were possible, but since it is not I will go for the lower rating, because it is closer to 2 stars than 3. | ||