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Phillip Christoffersen's Reviews > Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
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As someone who fell in love with Wagner’s music in high school, and who’s struggled with what to make of Wagner in a broader context, this book feels almost tailor-made to an itch I’ve felt for a long time.
This book can only be itself described as Wagnerian � every single possible connection to Wagner in every subsequent possible subculture is explored in this book, and many recur again and again through and through as if the leitmotifs in Wagner’s musical system (Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrooks� as connecting to institutional degeneration in many contexts, Amfortas� wound and it’s connection to LGBT engagement with Wagner, among many more�). In terms of a verdict on Wagner, I think I agree with Ross in that none put it better than Mann, in that Wagner’s work may still be admired, despite the “malicious abuse to which its great object somewhat lends itself.� Indeed, the use of Wagner as a kind of cultural shield which we can use to shy away from concerns in how our media culture fuels American hegemony, and ignore the reality that many totalitarian propaganda machines look a lot more like Hollywood than Bayreuth.
Still, this book isn’t perfect, largely for two reasons � first, it is overlong, owing to some detail that, while interesting and well-written, didn’t feel like it added much beyond additional detail, especially in the last half. I hesitate to criticize this, since I often found these intriguing, but it did feel overlong when put together, and some chapters felt more like lists of vignettes than essays on Wagner. Second, I would have appreciated more on details from Wagner’s life � I wasn’t expecting the book to largely start afterwards, and in places I think it would have been useful to have seen more about the history of the development of the Ring, Tristan, and Parsifal to better appreciate some of the reception and reaction to these.
Overall, this book is still an admirable accomplishment, and I don’t regret taking the time to brave its 700 pages. Only be aware that it is not a biography, nor really a description of what Wagner really was in some sense, but really only about the shadow he cast on the world (in Ross� fairness, he does advertise this pretty clearly).
This book can only be itself described as Wagnerian � every single possible connection to Wagner in every subsequent possible subculture is explored in this book, and many recur again and again through and through as if the leitmotifs in Wagner’s musical system (Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrooks� as connecting to institutional degeneration in many contexts, Amfortas� wound and it’s connection to LGBT engagement with Wagner, among many more�). In terms of a verdict on Wagner, I think I agree with Ross in that none put it better than Mann, in that Wagner’s work may still be admired, despite the “malicious abuse to which its great object somewhat lends itself.� Indeed, the use of Wagner as a kind of cultural shield which we can use to shy away from concerns in how our media culture fuels American hegemony, and ignore the reality that many totalitarian propaganda machines look a lot more like Hollywood than Bayreuth.
Still, this book isn’t perfect, largely for two reasons � first, it is overlong, owing to some detail that, while interesting and well-written, didn’t feel like it added much beyond additional detail, especially in the last half. I hesitate to criticize this, since I often found these intriguing, but it did feel overlong when put together, and some chapters felt more like lists of vignettes than essays on Wagner. Second, I would have appreciated more on details from Wagner’s life � I wasn’t expecting the book to largely start afterwards, and in places I think it would have been useful to have seen more about the history of the development of the Ring, Tristan, and Parsifal to better appreciate some of the reception and reaction to these.
Overall, this book is still an admirable accomplishment, and I don’t regret taking the time to brave its 700 pages. Only be aware that it is not a biography, nor really a description of what Wagner really was in some sense, but really only about the shadow he cast on the world (in Ross� fairness, he does advertise this pretty clearly).
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
December 23, 2023
– Shelved
