Activity

Tacit acceptance of the claim that one half of the world no longer contains antagonisms is supplemented by jests at everything that belies the official theodicy of the other half

the economic transactions presented as the machinations rapacious traders are not merely puerile [...] they are also unintelligible by the criteria of even the most primitive economic logic

Cultural conservatives who demand that a work of art should say something, join forces with their political opponents against atelic, hermetic works of art.

known in Russian catechisms as formalism

Lukács's neo-naivety does not even call a halt before Thomas Mann, whom he plays off against Joyce in a fulsome flattery which would have nauseated the great chronicler of decay.