Minima Moralia

[L Spencer]

Reading Adorno's "Minima Moralia" is always going to be a worthwhile 
exercise. My NLB paperback of Jephcott's translation was bought in 
the mid-70s when I was a very young undergraduate. Certain of its 
ringing phrases have insinuated themselves into the rest of my life. 
    I am not sure that reading 50 pages makes sense. The prose is so 
tightly wound into its little nodules that even ten pages could mean 
that one is covering an immense ground and just too great a diversity 
of topics... On the other hand certain themes or threads run through 
the book: the fate of the "subject", the relation between the 
personal and the political, the morality of the business of 
thinking...
    It may be too a proceedure too anarchistic for this already 
anarchistic medium but I would love to hear from anyone which lines 
from "MM" really struck them as memorable and worth thinking over. I 
remember the impact on me when I tried to think through that passage 
in which Adorno says something like ...in sexual politics the accuser 
is always in the wrong... But what did Adorno actually say? and why 
has it been "boiled down" to that in my recollection?

    "Minima Moralia" is a self-confessedly personal document. 
Adorno's personal situation and history at the time of writing "MM" 
looms large in some of the most resonant passages. Other passages 
which attempt to map a stage of capitalism now seem both prophetic 
and somewhat dated... 

    Finally, I look forward to hearing what academics make of 
Adorno's treatment of academia and of intellectuals in general.

Lloyd


l.spencer@tasc.ac.uk

Lloyd Spencer, School of Media
Trinity & All Saints University College, 
Leeds LS18 5HD, England

Tel. (0113) 2 837 186     
Fax. (0113) 2 837 200