Interview with George Steiner, part two

[eslubin]

12:34 this video is watching just for the pain on Steiner's face in forcing himself to reference Harry Potter. LOL

What a tremendous interview, especially the last 30-35 mins

[benthejrporter]

Thanks for posting this interview with such an intelligent and elloquent thinker. I wonder if he's any relation to Rudolf.

[shalimarite]

"If you don't commit great creative mistakes when you're young, the rest of your life is largely wasted. "

[scowlee]

An alluvial plural bell.

[1qewretry]

what a wonderful man. does he still teach at cambridge? what do you study to have a tutorial with him?

[von1933]

Thiis man is brilliant. One could truly be envious of his training and his being steeped deeply in three languages and three cultures. But this is not all. He has been truly creative in dealing and bringing to fruition his incomparable background.

His distractors, sadly provincial as most of them are, will be long forgotten, while his ideas will be seminal to many..

[carolingianguy]

his literary comments are superficial generalisations, also snobbish, too much an enthusiaste, but stimulating nonetheless to the undergraduate in all of us, Language and Silence his best book, interviewer knows nothing about literature

[toolesttool]

Anyone knows who's the interviewer?

[ayabaya]

It is Alan Macfarlane (details on wikipedia) of University of Cambridge

[Jamesbharris2]

'Serious game' (26.40) is Goethe, Faust, in case any one is interested. I'm sure Dr. Steiner would be an excellent man to have a chat with.

[perseus07]

don't be so unfair,in times where ignorance and harshness prevail,it is not so bad to hear a cultivated person.

[hegeleian]

'His Heidegger booklet is impressing with superficiality.'

Well you could hardly expect an in-depth textual and intellectual exegesis in a book entitled 'Introduction to'; perhaps a rather weak criticism.

[301250]

If the good professor could lay his hands on a DVD of Jonathan Miller's riveting production of Handel's 'Tamerlano' with the forces of Trevor Pinnock&The English Concert,I am sure he would change his mind about Handel. And what about the perennial favourite of oratorio lovers,the Messiah? A work that can never fail to uplift the spirits in this secular age however jaded a person is after a surfeit of pleasures that bring only instant gratification but nothing really meaningful. sd goh (malaysia)

[301250]

A former linguistic professor at the University of Malaya here who did his postgrad studies in France and is a music critic for a local daily, tells me that he gets a 'mental block' when it comes to Haydn's music. But I am inclined to agree with Dr. Steiner and I find Haydn's music filled with sunlit optimism,devoid of angst and hang-ups. I used to sing in a choir here and in 1996 we did Die Schopfung (in German). Dorati's cycle of the symphonies, Schiff's piano snts etc. are great stuff. sd goh

[altnoc]

Mr. Steiner can be sure he's moved and excited a whole lot of us.

[sonata1992]

He must be the most eloquent person I've ever heard.

[suicide1112]

He is quite careful. I loved hearing his thoughts on his favorite authors.

[Leibo07]

Just try and here then his 'thoughts' on political dissidents, and the counterparts of Zionism and Israël.

His Heidegger booklet is impressing with superficiality. This man is far overrated.

[suicide1112]

Oh.. I agree with you mostly there, but in this limited capacity, I find his thoughts interesting.

[Leibo07]

Moreover, I can not understand how someone can bear to hear and see this pompous man continuous displaying of (often very questionable!) opinions and extent of his reading.

He really benefited from holocaust and his being a survivor. He rather should be guiltridden, and not smacking his lips time and again.

And in this limited capabacity he again displays superficiliaties, that anyone knows. Embarassing for the watcher and listener.

[suicide1112]

I think it is quite clear that you are really quite irrational and near hell bent.

He has things of interest to say, in his limited capacity.

Beyond that I find no worth in him.

[Leibo07]

We, in Netherlands, had the occasion to hear and see this person for hours on end and several evenings. No limited capacity.

It was a comination of interview solely with him ànd in debates with others. This was just an embarrasing showoff. It was filled with total reactionary cliché propaganda about Israel, marxism, modern youth and a questionable theory of literature. I know professors in Cambridge, who turn up their noses at his presumptious vulgarities. He gives scholars a bad name.

[suicide1112]

I'm not saying that I disagree with you. Outside of his thoughts on literary criticism (limited), I have no use for him.