1）安娜·阿赫玛托娃 Anna Akhmatova：如果没有革命，阿赫玛托娃本可以把她魅力四射的天性加工为创作主题，就如埃德娜·圣文森·米莱一般，而且效果会更好。但历史没有给她升华柔情的机会。历史反而让她成了女英雄。|| 对俄罗斯人来说，阿赫玛托娃的象征意义不仅仅在于她做了什么，更在于所有那些她无法去做的事情，令人唏嘘惊叹。

2）皮特·阿尔滕伯格 Peter Altenberg：一个男人最初受到一个女人的吸引，一定伴随着某种清晰的启示般的力量，这一点是毋庸置疑的，除了那些从没有这种感觉的人。|| 他会因为年轻女伴的美貌而赋予她们其实并不具有的优点：这是一种很寻常的反应，情感本身丰富到了一定程度，想象力便会被调动起来丰富情感的对象。

3）路易·阿姆斯特朗 Louis Armstrong：美的诞生是为了慰藉无可弥补的痛。

4）雷蒙·阿隆 Raymond Aron：大谈自由民主的好处，却对它的力量缺乏信心，这样的知识分子大有人在。|| 他本人就是自由主义的模范，而那些坚持相信自由民主本身是意识形态的左派则注定会鄙视他，因为正是他证明了自由民主并非意识形态。它过去是现实，如今亦然。

5）瓦尔特·本雅明 Walter Benjamin：当一个人的接受能力到达一定水准，他从肥皂广告中学到的东西不会比从帕斯卡的《思想录》中来得少。|| 他的结论总是脱不开那一套形而上学词汇，这对他的名声是好事，对这个世界整体的大脑健康来说却是不幸的。|| 本雅明有着一项令人羡慕的天赋，便是揣摩其他人早就明白的东西，然后扩写为冗长的思辨，令所有人望尘莫及。|| 本雅明的文章里，能穿透迷雾的真知灼见实在不多。有些观点确实独树一帜，但它们全都需要透透气。|| 本雅明对巴黎的爱真切动人，但是他关于巴黎所说的一切，与新闻记者雅内·弗兰纳在一篇新闻报道中所做的丰富观察相比，与历史学家理查德·科布某篇文章中的一个段落相比，难道不显得单薄吗？

6）马克·布洛赫 Marc Bloch：有一句不无道理的老生常谈说道：那些最初想改变世界的年轻人后来学会了心怀感激，因为世界并没有变得更糟糕；但如果他们过早地相信这一点，我们就会失去他们的批判力，世界就会变得更糟。|| 当我们将平生所学提炼为通往新视野的原理，知识也随之隐去；但如果最初没有足够的知识积淀，原理便失去了源泉。|| 知识必须是真正的知识，也就是说，理解必须从一开始就与知识携手并进。

7）豪尔赫·路易斯·博尔赫斯 Jorge Luis Borges：博尔赫斯和萨瓦托的命运彼此联结，精神却南辕北辙：从萨瓦托上面这句话便可见一斑，这是一条真实的鸿沟。博尔赫斯确实恐惧现实的悲苦，他也确实在一个虚构的世界中寻求庇护。|| 在阿根廷国内，这位从永恒的视角来说最伟大的作家，很多文化名流却感到很难对他的怯懦视而不见，就像很难对他的异人天赋视而不见一样。

8）罗伯特·布拉西亚克 Robert Brasillach：文学本应教会他们更多的东西。但这些小人物们所犯的真正的背叛罪一直就是：他们自以为学识授予他们高于凡人的权柄，而不是向他们揭示自己不过一介凡人。

9）托马斯·布朗爵士 Sir Thomas Browne：《天人五衰》（The Decay of the Angel）是我最喜欢的书名之一：荒芜与丰盛共生，就像克利奥帕特拉的大船停在拆船厂一样。

10）保罗·策兰 Paul Celan：他的诗本是对现实的深入挖掘，却似乎在晦涩当中寻求庇护。|| 即便在这同一个人身上，也可以存在看到世界最具毁灭性的一面，同时继续进行创造的能力。|| 他深奥的诗作无疑反映了他的精神痛苦，或许也控制了这种痛苦。|| 对于任何有像策兰这样的经历的人来说，超脱自我都是不太恰当的建议。但令人着迷的是，就在《死亡赋格》这首诗中他做到了。

11）可可·香奈儿 Coco Chanel：比较是真实的。每一天、每一周、每个月、每年、整个虚度的人生都充斥着比较的念头。|| 没有一个外交官回国不带几瓶香奈儿五号香水。所以，可可·香奈儿，这个曾经屈服于纳粹的人，终究是为击垮另一种苦难做出了贡献。

12）查尔斯·卓别林 Charles Chaplin：两千年的时间并没有使往昔认不出当下，也没有让当下认不出往昔。然而，科学却可以让自己的未来在几十年里面目全非。

13）G. K.切斯特顿 G. K. Chesterton：褒与贬本为一体，只是表现方式不同。批评的能力即为从中获得愉悦的能力。

14）詹弗兰科·孔蒂尼 Gianfranco Contini：孔蒂尼说过，背但丁的作品，最重要的不是摁一下按钮就可以开启滔滔不绝背诵的洪流，而是把诗句放在脑子里，每天发生的每件寻常事都能去诗里找到注解。|| 一人引用奥登、燕卜荪、华莱士·史蒂文斯，另一人总能接上下一句。这一代人正是通过这些共同的记忆，建起属于他们的典故世界。|| 他们也许无法记住到底谁曾经说了哪句话。但他们会记住这句话的节奏与语调：他们获得了韵律的感觉，而非可转述的表达。一个诗人可以借用这种方式，像学习外语一样学习他自己的语言。

15）恩斯特·罗伯特·库尔提乌斯 Ernst Robert Curtius：他不想去理解这一悲剧，因为尝试理解就意味着接受认同。|| 在科隆大教堂对面的咖啡馆里，库尔提乌斯与纪德所见无疑是一片废墟，一个文明荒漠时代的哀恸时刻。但这废墟同时也象征着人们曾不顾一切地奋起抗争，挽救了他们所珍视的文明。

16）迈尔斯·戴维斯 Miles Davis：如果你在经济上脆弱不堪，你就一路弱到底了。如果你能娱乐大众，让他们的钱流一部分到你的银行账户里，你便有了资本，可以无视那些恶意诋毁你的人。|| 早期的热门歌曲必须取悦大众，所以处处受限，但回过头看却总被认为是他们最好的作品，也是最富冒险精神的。|| 我们当中的很多人随时准备为艺术家们献上学识、批评和赞美，我们很容易忘记，他们虽然天赋过人，使我们得以窥见崇高，但同样有对世俗的关心，这种关心也会随着成功而翻倍，与悖论无关，只是经济在作祟罢了。|| 艺术爱好者们不应轻易鄙夷艺术家与金钱的关系：保障和打理个人财务的繁难，与来自国家权威的压力没法相提并论。

17）谢尔盖·佳吉列夫 Sergei Diaghilev：任何揭露历史真相的行动都可能成为揭露当下真相的前奏。

18）F. 司各特·菲茨杰拉德 F. Scott Fitzgerald：你必须从众多名家那里吸收精华才能得到良好的影响。如果你只受一个人影响，那一定会有痕迹，而吸收养分的核心在于不留痕迹。|| 次要作家的口吻一听就是他们所欣赏的作家的滑稽模仿，而强大的作家则努力要摆脱这种影响，这也是他们力量的一部分。

19）夏尔·戴高乐 Charles de Gaulle：在她的葬礼上，戴高乐据说曾感慨：“如今她和其他人一样了。”这句话的凄美之处在于，它暗含着戴高乐一直以来的感受。希望她能像那些觉得她不一样的正常孩子们一样，这定是他私底下最大的愿望。

20）特里·吉列姆 Terry Gilliam：总体而言，负责人本身往往不是虐待狂，因为如果他是的话，组织效率很可能就会受到影响。|| 他观看了七月刺杀参与者们被钢丝绳套勒死的影片，但他的满足似乎来自公正惩罚得到实施的场景，而不是在痛苦中挣扎的可怕画面。|| 从长远来看，用“恶之平庸”来解释人类的丑恶并不像看起来那么管用。它让我们明白，还是不要生活在那些靠人的善良天性才能实现公正的地方比较好，善良天性也许并不多见，却往往遮蔽了我们对人性丑恶的认识。

21）维托尔德·贡布罗维奇 Witold Gombrowicz：你越是你自己，越能表达你的民族性——其中的含义是，如果你不受民族主义的压力，就更容易表达民族性。|| 一流艺术只是用来展示，在日常生活中基本没什么影响。

22）阿道夫·希特勒 Adolf Hitler：自由民主的一个缺陷：它的众多自由当中也包括遗忘的自由，忘记是什么曾经威胁过它的存在。|| 希特勒只能被武力打败：也就是说，要依照他的方式。批判他的书填满一座又一座图书馆，也比不上一发俄国炮弹的威力。我们要记住这个丑陋的事实，尤其当我们发现自己在助长一种自欺欺人的假象，以为只要所有关于信仰的争执能被消除，政治就会回归到自然秩序。|| 当知识分子为着一个高尚的梦想而密谋破坏庸俗的民主时，谴责他们没能预见到可怕的后果似乎不太公平。而默勒虽然出类拔萃，却也是众多知识分子中的一员。可是这样的知识分子太多了：这才是重点。

23）恩斯特·荣格 Ernst Jünger：多少骇人听闻的真相始终不曾让他充分意识到自己所犯的错误。他逃脱自责的方式是归罪于时代风格：也就是说，他让自己心里好过些的方法是相信每个人都在劫难逃，是被现代科技精神带回了野蛮残暴。|| 可是没有时代风格这种事，除非是说他们自己所体现的风格：对政治生活的灾难性后果不闻不问，而他们有充足的机会指出，这种灾难性后果正是他们自称代表的人文主义文化的头号死敌。

24）弗兰兹·卡夫卡 Franz Kafka：在现实生活中，卡夫卡的想象常常围绕着女性的心思。若非如此，他的小说就不会那么与众不同：它们会更像普通的故事，而不那么像事实——尚未发生的事实。

25）海达·马尔戈柳斯·科瓦利 Heda Margolius Kovaly：他们推想，或许需要一个新的专制政权来创造并维持公正的秩序。所以，就像在历史的大潮中游泳一样，即使在大浪没顶的时候，他们也试图说服自己，潮水会带着他们去某个地方。

26）卡尔·克劳斯 Karl Kraus：理智的世界观的秘密，在于从他人身上看到美德，而从我们自身寻找混乱的根源。

27）格奥尔格·克里斯托夫·利希滕贝格 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg：艺术是我们所做的最自然的事情之一，而且关注艺术并从中汲取范例，实际上和关注个人体验并从中汲取范例一样自然。它甚至可以更自然，因为它包含了更多体验：其他人的以及我们自己的。|| 只有当我们还天真的时候，我们才能最深切地体会发现的欲望，一种和情欲一样浓烈的感觉，而且还有一样好处，那就是我们不必担心被拒绝。艺术总是需要我们。它发现我们对其有着无限的渴望。|| 文化之所以存在，有其特殊的原因，那就是保护我们不受自然本性的伤害。然而，他还可以补充说，保护我们自己不受自然本性的伤害是我们所做的最自然的事情：是它让我们更人性。艺术，还有对艺术的学习，并不是对生命的补充：它们是生命本身，是生命的一种表达，又回馈给生命，从而使它成为它的样子——更重要的是，向它展示它的样子，让生命变得有意识。|| 二十世纪晚期的女性主义做了大量努力来论证对女性美的狂热崇拜是消费社会强加的产物。可是，想来消费社会并没有强加给希腊人任何东西，是他们自己让海伦的美成为把伊里昂高耸入云的塔楼烧为灰烬的战争的燃点。|| 利希滕贝格只说对了一半。他认为理智与审美判断无关，这是对的。他认为做出审美判断的本能并不复杂，这又是错的。我们的梦想世界把它复杂化了，也把理性变得更加复杂。其实正是这个问题让我们有了最清楚的证明，那就是我们对世界从来不可能有完全理智的反应。理智是诗意的：它承载着我们个人的经历。我们也许最好承认，诗歌和欲望是分不开的。|| 一部杰作的特点之一，可能是作者宕开一笔，又让我们感觉不到有生硬和勉强之处的能力。|| 没有哪个作家，甚至包括写短篇小说的契诃夫，可以是维米尔。一个画家可以让你无话可说。而一个作家会让你有说不完的话。他使用的媒介的本质，就是在你内心引发一场对话。

28）戈洛·曼 Golo Mann：塔西佗的真正价值在于，他总是很清楚悲剧事件的起因是意外和错误决定，而悲剧的深度正在于意外本可以避免，决定本可以正确。|| 你要严肃对待历史，就必须严肃地相信历史本可能会是别的样子。

29）津卡·米拉诺夫 Zinka Milanov：我们也不应忽视，美国在那之前已经很有吸引力：这是美国文化帝国主义强势的一个显著例证，即便在高雅艺术范围内，它也已经从消费的角度塑造了古典音乐的世界，正如它塑造了绘画艺术。

30）埃乌杰尼奥·蒙塔莱 Eugenio Montale：在意大利歌剧漫长的奄奄一息时期，他作为乐评人出席了几乎所有重要演出的首演。如果电视或电影评论新人想要学习如何将单一文化事件的评论转化为对整个社会的评论，就应该找一个意大利语专家带着读几段蒙塔莱的《斯卡拉首演》。|| 将他所有的评论能力放在一起，你会看到一幅迷人的图景：一个人用全身心沉浸在艺术中来点亮生命。

31）孟德斯鸠 Montesquieu：我们需要通往人类灵魂的向导，而孟德斯鸠是其中最难超越的，因为他可以克制自己不进行道德判断直到最后一刻，同时并不放弃道德判断。|| 完全开放的头脑通常很空洞。

32）保罗·穆拉托夫 Paul Muratov：在文化领域，从来没有一种创新不是来自一种传统，因为文化本就是创新和传统的交织。

33）阿尔弗雷德·波尔加 Alfred Polgar：他区分了“知道”和“想象”。有了这个区别，他便能从赤裸裸的事实中找到文学，无论多么悲哀。|| 那些相信托马斯·曼反犹的人不得不面对一个不容置疑的事实：曼在关键时刻自掏腰包救助了波尔加，他知道波尔加和自己一样是德语的守卫者。|| “幸灾乐祸”（Schadenfreude）存在于人类灵魂深处，读一篇恶评似乎是无伤大雅的放纵。但真正有分量的批评是为了捍卫一种价值。

34）比阿特丽克斯·波特 Beatrix Potter：聪明的小听众会像品味薄荷糖一样品味“恰如其分的道德味道”。更重要的是，即便他们并不很确定什么是恰如其分的道德味道，他们已经在品味它了。

35）马塞尔·普鲁斯特 Marcel Proust：《战争与和平》也是一部大书，但你可以舒舒服服地一周读完，然后某一天会拿起重读。而《追忆逝水年华》永远读不完，因为你一边读它一边在变长。普鲁斯特的书独一无二，它指向一切地方：一座全是走廊的建筑，走廊的墙上全是门。|| 让—弗朗索瓦·勒维尔的《论普鲁斯特》显然着迷于普鲁斯特将哲学重塑为智慧的可能性。勒维尔在等身的著作中常常说哲学在十八世纪已经失去了在科学中的统治地位，在现代除了智慧外没有别的角色。|| 我们要牢记这本书的非虚构性，这很重要，这会让我们意识到这部史上最长的小说有多么缺乏小说的特质。比方说，它没有值得一提的结构，也许就算普鲁斯特再花上十年也不会写出一个结构来。

36）马塞尔·赖希—拉尼奇 Marcel Reich-Ranicki：在一种对崇高着迷的文化中，他一直是一股有价值的纠正力量：从高雅闲扯转向直截了当。这条道路的危险在于容易陷入未开化的无知境地，但他用无所不知抵消了这个危险。

37）莱纳·马利亚·里尔克 Rainer Maria Rilke：布莱希特作为诗人的名声依仗于人们对他语言才能的激赏，但也有不利因素：因为你越是欣赏他的语言天才，你就越意识到他看得有多清楚，也就越会面对一种事实：有多少事情他故意不提。|| 名气不光是簇拥在某个名字周围的误解的总和，还取决于人们没有朝哪个方向去增进对它的理解。|| 要衡量所谓名气的扭曲程度，光用误解去对照理解是不够的。我们得去看透那个实实在在的人，确定他是否像许多艺术家那样由他的事业来定义，还是像单人飞行员那样有一种独立的，甚至不可言传的自我。

38）爱德华·萨义德 Edward Said：有必要指出，有些阿拉伯思想家也认为《东方主义》是固执己见之作，在他们看来，该书鼓励了受害者心态，使失败的国家将自己当前的困境归罪于西方：这是一种西方左翼人士常有的居高临下的观念。

39）让—保罗·萨特 Jean-Paul Sartre：他或许知道自己天生无法长时间就任何要紧的大事说真话，因为说真话是普通人做的事情，而他想要与众不同的迫切愿望，对他来说更是一种动力，而非仅仅看清这个世界的模样。|| 他是一个活生生的例子，证明了魔鬼的代言人也可以是理想主义者，甚至不惜自我牺牲。如果除去美德的话，他可能会更容易打发，但他恰恰是有美德的，于是他成了最值得我们担忧的人。|| 埃贡·弗里德尔指出，真正的哲学家接近于艺术家，唯一不同的是他只有自己这个角色可扮演；因此任何感受深刻的哲学都是一部自传体小说。

40）阿图尔·施尼茨勒 Arthur Schnitzler：只有浪漫的人才能足够现实。|| 罗斯笔下的主角也必须承认，在现实生活中，他们被代价高昂而可耻的欲望所支配，这让他们感到痛苦和迷惘，就好像他们是亨利·米勒笔下放荡不羁的波西米亚人，只是衣着更考究。施尼茨勒却不承认有这样一回事，他认为想象和忠诚之间的战斗是生活的现实。

41）杜布拉芙卡·乌格雷希奇 Dubravka Ugresic：正如它所描述的那一刻，这段话本身也是一段插曲，因为生活本来面目的反衬而变得加倍甜蜜。

42）米格尔·德·乌纳穆诺 Miguel de Unamuno：我绝非第一个在乌纳穆诺的书页边做标记的人。在他最雄辩有力的时刻，他能一个接一个地说出隽永的格言，就像美国货运火车的车厢从草原上一个轨道终点站绵延至下一个。|| 和克罗齐一样，作为评论家的乌纳穆诺本能地理解他所热爱的崇高艺术是植根于俗世之中的。|| 艺术家不可能真的脱离具体现实，正如鸟不会飞离天空。

43）斯蒂芬·茨威格 Stefan Zweig：里尔克热爱艺术，但这样的爱也被用于增添他自己的荣耀。他崇拜的一切都被纳入他的个人风格。他用自己的矫揉造作装饰世界，而茨威格更谦卑。他可以想象一个没有他的世界，等大限来临，他做了自己在想象中真实的事情。|| 一个无所不知的国家会懂得如何通过允许人们去爱艺术来利用艺术，只要这种艺术之爱不干扰国家意识形态。一个精明的坏国家有本领让艺术生存下去，因为它应该知道艺术更能促进满足感而不是引起反叛。|| 个人才是真实的人，但这样一个关于“人”的概念是非常浅薄的，是一种贫乏到无望的现实描述。我们的生活因为那些创作出比自己的个性更好的艺术作品的人们而变得丰富起来。

副标题：需要被挽救的本真思想

中文版导言

• “人天生是政治动物”：先在于社会群体的独立个体是一种观念，它并不是对人的境况的“真实历史描述”，而是一种建构出来的“自我理解”
• “对应论”：古代世界有大量自然秩序与社会秩序的对应，等级制度之所以能成为规范性秩序，是因为在当时的社会想象中，它符合宇宙事物本身的结构
• 超验秩序的解体（“世界的祛魅”）：现代人获得了前所未有的自由，却也陷入了空前的意义迷失，在世界祛魅之后，人们不再能够将自己与超越自我的更大视野相伴随
• “本真性”的理想：现代文化中亦有一种“道德理想在起作用”，虽然这种理想在当代社会中可能体现为低劣扭曲的形态（“生活被平庸化和狭隘化”），但它本身是值得肯定和捍卫的
• “无可逃离的视域”：事物是否重要、是否有意义，必须针对一个背景而言，这个背景框架在人类活动最基本的方面界定了什么是重要的，什么是有意义的，并塑造了我们的“道德与精神的直觉”
• 单独的“自我”实际上并没有独自赋予或创造价值，那些看似高度自主的价值决定，背后往往是有渊源和来路的，是由许多经历和故事造就的，是在关系中形成的

第一章 三个隐忧

• “柔性的”专制主义：在温和的、家长式甚至民主的形式下，以自我为中心的个体原子无法控制“巨大的监护权力”，对此仅有的抵御措施是一个充满活力的政治文化（人民看重参与诸层政府，也看重参与自愿团体）
• 政治自由的丧失：种种非人格的机制可能会减少社会作为一个整体的自由度，但政治自由的丧失意味着即使留下的选择也不再是我们作为公民所做出的，而是由不负责任的监护权力做出的
• 现代性的三个隐忧：意义的丧失、道德视野的褪色，在欣欣向荣的工具理性面前，目的的晦暗，和自由的丧失

第二章 口齿不清的争论

• 中立的自由主义：本真性文化中的人们支持一种自由主义，即一个自由社会必须在什么构成一种好的生活的问题上保持中立，这个理论的结论是将关于好的生活的讨论放逐到政治争论的边缘地带
• 其结果是一种特别的口齿不清，对现代文化的构成性理想之一欲说还休，这个理想的反对者们轻视它，附和者们无法谈论它

第三章 本真性之源

• 对何对何错的直感：理解对与错不是枯燥的计算，它扎根在我们的感受之中，道德，在一种意义上，具有一个内部的声音
• 自决的自由：只有我自己决定什么东西与我有关，不被外部影响左右的时候，我才是自由的，这个标准超越了消极自由（我不受他人的干扰，自由地做我想做的事情）
• 建立在公意基础上的社会契约国家：因为公意是我们共同自由的形式，所以它不容忍以自由的名义的任何对立
• 自我接触：与我自己内部本性的接触，它正处于危险之中，部分由于有压力将我们推向外部服从，也由于在对自己采取一种工具态度时我可能会失去倾听这种内部声音的能力
• 我们的每个声音都有其自己的东西要说出来，我不但不应该让我的生活符合外部一致的要求；在我之外我甚至不可能找到我据以生活的模型

第四章 不可逃避的视野

• “重要的他人”：我们总是在与重要的他人想在我们身上承认的那些特性的对话中，或者在斗争中，来定义我们的同一性（Identity），人类心灵的起源不是“独白式的”，而是对话式的
• 在孤独艺术家的情形下，作品本身式讲给未来听众听的，听众或许仍是被作品本身创造出来的
• 本真性文化滑向柔性相对主义：价值主观主义假定，事物自身并不具有重要性，它们有重要性，是因为人们认为它们有，所有可能的选择都同样有价值，并且正是选择带来了价值
• 但这隐秘地否认了一个预先存在的、有关重要性的视野的存在，在选择之前，某些事物式有价值的，另一些有较少的价值，更有一些事物根本无价值
• 作为理想的自我选择之所以有意义，是因为某些选择比别的更有意义

第五章 对承认的需求

• 私人层面，一个原发的同一性受制于重要的他人给予或扣压的承认
• 社会层面，同一性形成于开放的对话中，而不是由预定的社会脚本所塑造的，民主社会的到来虽然并未完全驱除决定一个人同一性的社会地位因素，但我通过与他人的对话和交流来赢得承认
• 共享的视野：平等承认不能嘴上说得好，除非共享更多的东西，否则我们并不真正共享一个对平等的理解，承认差异，要求一个关于重要性的视野

第六章 滑向主观主义

• 自我满足感：自我中心的形式倾向于将满足感集中在个人身上，使得他或她的周遭人士成为纯工具性的，它们倾向于将满足感仅仅看成是自我的，忽视或者弱化来自我们自己的欲望和意志之外的要求
• 审美：对美的欣赏给予我们一种统一性和完整性，它们超越了道德和欲望之间的斗争在我们身上的分裂，这种完整性不同于道德成就，它高于后者，因为它完全吸引住我们，而道德不能
• 对惯例的反叛：本真性涉及原发性，它要求对惯例的反叛，标准的道德本身经常被看作与沉闷的惯例不可分离
• 选择造就意义：在一个意义视野变得更微弱的平庸化的世界里，自决自由的理想逐渐展现出一种更强劲的吸引力，即使其他所有资源消失了，通过让我的生活变成自由的演练，选择似乎可以造就意义

第九章 一个铁笼？

• 阵营分派不一样：某些对自我实现伦理持批评态度的人是技术发展的大力支持者，而许多深陷在当代本真性文化中的人，共享着关于父权制和土著生活风格的观点
• “铁笼”图景中有大量真知灼见：现代社会把我们推到原子主义和工具主义方向，既通过让我们难以在某些情况下限制它们的统治地位，又通过产生一个将他们理所当然地视为标准的观点
• 工具理性带着其丰富的道德背景来到我们面前，它绝不仅仅是一种过分发达的主宰本能武装起来的，然而，它似乎太过频繁地服务于更严格的控制和技术统治的目的

第十章 反对碎片化

• 不需要官僚国家？：如果政府大规模地从经济中撤离，稳定和效率也不可能延续，而自由能长期在一个真正野蛮的资本主义社会及其无法消除地不平等和剥削所孕育的竞争地带得以延续，是令人怀疑的
• 碎片化：危险的东西并不是现实的专制控制，而是人民越来越不能形成一个共同目标并落实它
• 以法决事：有关权利的司法裁决容易认为是全或无的事情，权力这个概念似乎要求完整的满足，如果它不是，就什么都没有

All pictures were taken by the author during his visit to The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Texts sourced from exhibit label scripts and museum publication excerpts.

Matisse: The Red Studio

Henri and Amelie Matisse spent the first six months of their married life in Ajaccio, Corsica, where Matisse encountered the Mediterranean sun and sea for the first time. The experience transformed his painting and palette, with realistic description giving away to compositions built primarily on color. The parklike property of this former olive farm was on of Matisse’s favorite sites in Ajaccio; here, his representation of light dissolves details such as the trunks of the olive trees and the door at the top of the stairway.

“Where I got the color red—to be sure, I just don’t know,” Matisse once remarked. “I find that all these things . . . only become what they are to me when I see them together with the color red.” This painting features a small retrospective of Matisse’s recent painting, sculpture, and ceramics, displayed in his studio. The artworks appear in color and in detail, while the room’s architecture and furnishings are indicated only by negative gaps in the red surface. The composition’s central axis is a grandfather clock without hands—it is as if, in the oasis of the artist’s studio, time were suspended.

Large Red Interior depicts a corner of Matisse’s house in Vence, France, where he lived and worked from 1943 to 1949. It shares with The Red Studio the art-within-art device that had remained a constant for Matisse throughout the decades. Only now, however, does the radical flatness of the 1911 painting return.

In many ways, this composition is the antithesis of The Red Studio. Matisse describes the room in clear material details and renders the works of art as virtually blank. In addition to showing a model and a work in progress, it presents a view that vividly brings together indoors and outdoors. Encompassing the full height of the room from the zigzagging floorboards to the scalloped ceiling, Studio, Quai Saint-Michel conveys the closeness of Matisse’s small quarters during the war years, when he spent winters at his Paris apartment.

This is the sole painting in which Matisse depicted the exterior of his Issy studio. The view through the window shows the studio nestled in the surrounding trees (painted blue, like the dressing table, wall, and sky). The studio’s distinctive pitched roof and chimney are also reimagined as blue, while the yellow of the building’s exterior links it to the objects on the table. In one flat plane, Matisse connects inside and outside, home and work, life and art.

This painting was made a few months after Matisse moved into the Issy studio and is his only still-life composition that portrays the wood-paneled walls naturalistically, albeit in blue. A distinctive wooden table occupies the center of the composition. A pot of geraniums and a cloisonne Japanese jar grace the table, across which a floral fabric is draped. The true star of the painting, the flowing textile pulls the real flowers of the geranium and the painted flowers of the ceramic into its own decorative hum.

Appendix I: Collection 1880s-1940s

In this painting, the three classical graces gathered at a water source are depicted as a series of solid, sculptural forms that diverge from the modern language of flattened abstraction with which Picasso was also experimenting during this moment. With their terracotta skin and fluted white garments, the women resemble the earthenware vessels in which they gather water, or columns from the ancient world, offering a reassuring link to tradition after the chaos of World War I.

Dance (I) marks a moment in Matisse’s career when he embraced a reductive approach to painting, seeking the expressive potentials of fundamental elements: line, color, and form. Across this monumental canvas Matisse used only four naturalistic colors: blue for the sky, green for the ground, and black and pale pink in rendering the five figures. When it was painted, its simplification of the human body and radical elimination of perspective were attacked as inept or willfully crude, but Matisse felt that it evoked “life and rhythm.”

Although images of women and children are frequent in the history or art, depictions of pregnancy are rare. Klimt was among the many artists of his time who combined archaic traditions–here Byzantine gold-leaf painting–with a modern psychological subject. The artist’s preoccupation with formative drives like sex and death paralleled Freud’s explorations of the psyche.

The terra-cotta shades and heaviness of the figures in Two Nudes derive from Picasso’s interest at the time in the ancient Iberian sculpture of his native Spain. Like the woman in Demoiselles, with whom she shares a chiseled nose and dark, hollow eyes, the nude seen here holds open a curtain and gazes toward, as though inviting us in.

“Painting from nature is not copying the object.“ Cezanne wrote, “it is realizing one’s sensations.” In this work the artist demonstrates that a still life can be more than an imitation of life–it can be an exploration of seeing and of the very nature of painting. Here, some areas of canvas are left bare, and others, like the drape of tablecloth, appear unfinished. Rules of perspective, too, are broken: the right corner of the table tilts forward and is not aligned with the left side.

Appendix II: Collection 1940s-1970s

Hantai executed this work using his signature method of “pilage”, or folding: he knotted parts of an unstreteched canvas, brushed on paint, and then, once they acrylic had dried, untied the surface to reveal interplays of paint and ground. What looks like a playful image is in reality the chance of outcome of a highly technical procedure. Hantai developed an approach that combined features from diverse art movements, including Surrealism’s automatism–in which conscious control is surrendered–and Pop’s and Minimalism’s elimination of traces of the artist’s hand.

Titled after the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, Gaea is composed of floral colors and organic, somersaulting shapes that reflect the artist’s abiding fascination with the natural world and its primeval origins. Though she painted abstractly, Krasner rejected the notion that her painting was devoid of content—she “wouldn’t dream of” creating a painting from a fully abstract idea, she said. In works like this one, titled after the Earth goddess of the ancient Greeks, the artist claimed to be “drawing from sources that are basic.”

The ghostly scaffolding, swooping calligraphic lines, and blue and yellow washes of this painting most likely depict the view from Sekula’s downtown New York studio, which she shared with composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. “Looking outside my window,” wrote the Swiss painter and poet, an immigrant to the United States, “I think of all the contemporary American poets and artists who represent their outlook on this strange country and I find myself beginning to realize that I shall be one of them. I shall begin to speak of … a future that we begin to feel underneath the current of war and strife and uncertainty.”

All pictures were taken by the author during his visit to The Met Fifth Avenue, New York. Texts sourced from exhibit label scripts.

Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents

The Cotton Pickers is Homer’s most monumental representation, in form and content, of life for the newly emancipated in Reconstruction-era Virginia. Two sensitively rendered laboring women appear poised between their past, present, and future. The work’s complexity–of figural characterizations–is grounded in themes of conflict and struggle as well as those of uncertainty and opportunity. Its title and the women’s portrayal suggest a post-slavery economy in which little had changed for many.

In the years after Civil War, Homer often explored women’s new roles in society, especially their access to leisure. This representation of a quintessentially modern subject–women at the beach–confounded critics when it was first exhibited, in New York in 1870. Some viewers focused on issues of decorum and class, criticizing the women’s state of undress–even though they are wearing typical bathing costumes in the era–and one described them as “exceedingly red-legged and ungainly.” A disquieting sense of voyeurism and mystery imbues the scene, amplified by the strong light and strange shadows, suggesting deeper meanings below the surface.

Homer often represented the arduous labor of North Atlantic fishermen, based on this experiences at Cullercoats and amplified by observations made around his home on the coast of Maine. In one series of paintings, he explored the inherent dangers of fishing in the Grand Banks, the rich waters southeast of Newfoundland. The meeting of these currents provides a fertile environment for fish, but it also makes the area one of the foggiest places on earth. This painting is infused with tensions as the solo fisherman gazes toward the safety of the distant schooner and considers his ability to reach it before the fog, looming on the horizon, settles.

Many of Homer’s images of the Bahamas evoke the idea of the islands as a paradise created especially for tourists. Enjoying local fruits was perceived as a fundamental luxury of the visitor experience. This vibrant watercolor, a rare still life by the artist, offers a complete sensory experiance–ripe citrus, bright green leaves, and fragrant blossoms are bathed in warm sunlight.

Homer’s attention to inclement weather in this watercolor distinguishes it from the more idyllic tropical images he produced during a previous trip to Bahamas, in 1884-85. Dark clouds threaten, while several tall palms are lashed by violent winds. This detail combined with the tempestuous weather may evoke the geopolitical turmoil elsewhere in the Caribbean that year, specifically in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The weather events depicted here and in Homer’s images of storms off the coast of Maine represent important precursors to the turbulence of The Gulf Stream.

In Homer’s epic saga set along the Gulf Stream, a Black man faces his possible demise on the deck of a distressed boat, while threatened by sharks and a watersprout. This painting is the culminating expression of various deeply personal and universal themes that Homer explored across his career, particularly the conflict between humans and the natural environment. The Gulf Stream is also rich with geopolitical implications. Homer acknowledged the expanded imperial ambitions of the United States beyond North America with the addition of key elements. Sprayed across the ship’s deck are stalks of sugarcane–the Carribean commodity central to the economy of empire and directly linked to the swift ocean current of the title, which enabled its trade, and the devastating history of transatlantic slavery. Homer interweaves these complicated narratives in a painting that confronts human struggle, personified by a stoic survivor, against the relentless power of nature.

Appendix: 19th and Early 20th Century European Paintings

Thaulow (Norwegian, 1847-1906) earned great success with his depictions of the rivers and byways of Northern France. This canvas shows the village of Picquigny, near Amiens on the river Somme, where the Norwegian painter worked for several weeks in the late autumn of 1899. The composition adopts a downward vantage point that emphasizes the eddying water and its ever-changing colors, reflections and illumination.

Despite the seemingly rapid brushwork and the summary treatment of detail, this painting was preceded by at least two drawings and an oil sketch. This is Manet’s last portrait of his wife; it was painted at Bellevue, a suburb of Paris, where they spent the summer of 1880.

In addition to the girls’ manifest charm, Renoir undoubtedly counted on the notoriety of Mendes’ bohemian parents to gain attention: their father was a Symbolist poet and publisher, and their mother was the virtuoso pianist Augusta Holmes. Renoir completed the commission in a matter of weeks and immediately exhibited the large canvas in May 1888, but the response to his new manner of painting, with its intense hues and schematized faces, was unenthusiastic.

All pictures were taken by the author during his visit to The Art Institute of Chicago. Texts sourced from exhibit label scripts and museum audio guide.

Original draft as of September 7, 2019.

Manet painted Boating in 1874, the same year the Impressionists organized their first exhibition. Unlike many Impressionist works, Boating was not painted outdoors to capture a fleeting moment; Manet actually reworked significant sections in his studio.

Manet packed this slice-of-life scene to the point of confusion, layering customers, the waitstaff, and a performer’s reflection within the limited frame. The barmaid is drinking beer and the idea that she is taking time away from her job and patrons seems incredibly modern. Manet very likely made quick sketches on the spot and reworked it back in his studio, as a result of a more calculated method. With this Manet announced himself in a strong way at the Vie Moderne gallery in 1880 as a painter of modern life.

This exuberant still life features a plate of oysters, a bottle of champagne, and their various accessories. The subject (especially the Japanese fan) and daringly cropped composition, and fluid paint handling signal Manet’s fashionable modernity.

This picture of a woman fixing her hair speaks to Manet’s interest in the activities and accouterments of women’s grooming and styling. Unfinished and unsigned, it was purchased by Berthe Marisot after Manet’s death.

Manet’s sympathetic portrayal of his wife Suzzanne. However, the surface of the painting is strikingly different from contemporaneous depictions of chic young Parisiennes. Like all of Manet’s late portrait of Suzzanne, the painting remained a private work, was retained by the artist’s widow until financial circumstances forced her to sell it.

In the Conservatory presents a richly ambiguous scene: the two figures’ left hands almost touch. It also remains unclear whether Manet painted the couple in an actual conservatory or created a semblance of one expressly for this and other paintings of this period. This painting was exhibited with Boating at the 1879 Salon, where the two formed a modern pair.

While this painting presents slushy environment and all elements of romance and flirtations, you find it suggests something else, not caring, and indifference. The end result is so narrative but at the same time unyielding in its narrative. Although this painting did not give Manet the universal praise when exhibited in 1879, it becomes foundational for a lot of his later works.

While the mug of beer and the wooden bar attached to the reader’s illustrated journal suggest a Parisian cafe, the scene was in fact composed in Manet’s studio. The backdrop is not a real garden at all, but one of Manet’s own paintings. By 1880, Manet has become less mobile due to illness, and can no longer make it out to the cafes, parks and other Parisian scenes. Instead he resorted to recreating the scenes in his studio.

The woman reading is a modern woman; she has a mug of beer, she is by herself, and she is concentrated in possibly what she is gonna to consume next. Manet said this is the type he would like to show in all his beauty and all of their grace and glamour.

The model poses in near profile against an artificial verdant backdrop. The composition recalls Manet’s other pictures of fashionable Parisiennes in flowery settings.

Manet painted this sun-drenched picture in summer 1881. His bright palette and exuberant brushwork create a scene that hardly qualifies as hideous — which is how he described his own garden. Manet is largely confined to the house during this period, discouraged by his illness and frustrated by perpetual bad weather.

A lighthearted still life. This brings together several of Manet’s favorite motifs. The hat-like egg-washed bread sits askew on a porcelain plat. His wife’s cat, Zizi, emerges from the right edge.