tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post6716078376347872415..comments2024-03-19T04:32:18.795+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Who best understands modern culture? - us now, looking-back, or those of the past, with foresight?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-30565699370313412652014-10-03T18:32:53.933+01:002014-10-03T18:32:53.933+01:00@Jables - I would certainly count some of them - a...@Jables - I would certainly count some of them - although I regard Orwell and Huxley as being very partial prophets (for all their brilliance of insight) compared with the others. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-28045764986707656622014-10-03T18:02:25.567+01:002014-10-03T18:02:25.567+01:00Would you count writers from the twentieth century...Would you count writers from the twentieth century as those of the past who can understand modern society?<br /><br />Because Orwell, Huxley, Lewis, Chesterton, Tolkien, all seem to have understood modern culture and transmitted something of their understanding. So that their works have become paradigms which we now habitually refer to to interpret modern culture.<br /><br />For me Lewis's The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength stand above the rest <i>as prophetic statements about the culture we live in now</i>.J. B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05285490297087135611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-35604513348156381812014-10-02T16:07:04.628+01:002014-10-02T16:07:04.628+01:00*But (according to Wittgenstein) Spengler said alm...*But (according to Wittgenstein) Spengler said almost the opposite - that a civilization can only have its 'epic poets' in advance, with prevision, as prophets; because at the end of a civilization there is nobody capable of understanding it.*<br /><br />Sorta. Spengler would say we don't understand our culture because we are the ending of it. Once it's ended, it would be understandable again, but never quite the same way as it was from the inside when it was young.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.com