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The Unnamable Present
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Description
A concise, yet wide-ranging inquiry into the roots of modernity and the turmoil of the present day.
Tourists, terrorists, secularists, hackers, fundamentalists, transhumanists, algorithmicians—in this book, Roberto Calasso considers the tribes that inhabit and inform the world today. A world that feels more elusive than ever before.
Yet once contrasted with the period between 1933 and 1945, when the world made a partially successful attempt at self-annihilation, the new millennium begins to take on an unprecedented form. What emerges is something illusory, ever-shifting, and occasionally murderous—the unnamable present.
The Unnamable Present, the ninth part of a work in progress, is a meditation on the obscure and ubiquitous process of transformation happening in societies today, where distant echoes of Auden's The Age of Anxiety give way to something altogether more unsettling.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Roberto Calasso's The Unnamable Present is a thought-provoking exploration of the spiritual and intellectual underpinnings of 20th-century Europe, framed through a modern lens. The book is part of a series examining the secular West, delving into themes such as democracy, nationalism, and race theory, with a style that blends the reverence of a priest and the vivid narrative of a public intellectual. Critics praise Calasso's erudition for its rigorous and expansive qualities, although they note his conclusions about contemporary issues are both inevitable and unsettling.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780141988016
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 23 April 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 11.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 159g
Pages: 208
About the Author
Roberto Calasso was born in Florence in 1941. An author and publisher, he began working at Adelphi Edizioni from its founding in 1962 and continued as director for fifty years. The Book of All Books is the tenth part of a series that began with The Ruin of Kasch and includes the international bestseller The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony as well as Ka, K., Tiepolo Pink, La Folie Baudelaire, Ardor, The Celestial Hunter and The Unnamable Present. He died in Milan in 2021.
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K.
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Ka
A remarkable retelling of Hindu mythology, from one of Europe's greatest literary figures. In Ka, Roberto Calasso delves into the corpus of classical Sanskrit literature, recreating and re-imagining the enchanting world of ancient India. Beginning with the Rig-Veda, Ka weaves together myths from the Upanishad, the Mahabharata, and the stories of the Buddha, all of which pose questions that have...Paperback$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Ruin of Kasch
A brilliant new translation of a classic work on violence and revolution as seen through mythology and art. The Ruin of Kasch takes up two subjects—"the first is Talleyrand, and the second is everything else," wrote Italo Calvino when the book first appeared in 1983. Hailed as one of those rare books that persuade us to see our entire civilization...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
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Tiepolo Pink
New to Penguin Modern Classics, a captivating exploration of the work of one of Italy's most influential - and least understood - painters. Throughout his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time, Proust repeatedly refers to colours as Tiepolo Pink or Tiepolo Red. Who exactly was the artist that he so memorably transformed into colour? The eighteenth-century Venetian painter Giambattista Tiepolo...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Celestial Hunter
An extraordinary tale of transformation from the renowned Italian writer, thinker and publisher. The Celestial Hunter begins with: 'When hunting began, it was not a man who chased an animal. It was a being that chased another being. No one could say with certainty who each of them were.' Connecting Greek and Egyptian myth, the stories of poets, shamans and...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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