ADORNO FOR BEGINNERS

[Ralph Dumain]

Though my reading will be interrupted for some weeks due to other pressing
tasks, I must report that I am totally fascinated by Adorno.  I never
thought I would come to this, but I am obsessed.  I even wrote a poem about
him.  I am developing my own ideas about him, but of course I am likely to
reinvent the wheel if I don't take into account other people's treatments.
I have a number of books by Adorno, but hardly an adequate collection.  In
terms of the secondary literature, I have several books on the Frankfurt
School as a whole, and a book by Susan Buck-Morss, THE ORIGINS OF NEGATIVE
DIALECTICS, that focuses more narrowly on Adorno and I forgot who
else--Benjamin, maybe.  I've got a real thin paperback introduction to
Adorno, which is a part of a series including Habermas, Fucault, and others.
In terms of more extended introductions, I have Martin Jay's ADORNO.
Haven't read any of these.

I'm beginning to think maybe I should acquire Frederick Jameson's LATE
MARXISM.  I am not a Jameson fan by a long stretch, but the fact that he
thinks Adorno is a philosopher for our time and his goal to explicate
Adorno's key ideas suggests that I might learn something important, not only
about Adorno, but how to popularize him, and in addition, I might find out
that my recent thoughts on him are old hat, after all, and I'm just the last
person to find out what's going on as usual.

So I would be very interested in some feedback on this topic, in particular
on Jameson's book and how it squares with Jay's and others.  I would imagine
that the various authors, apart from the issue of the depth and competence
with which they render Adorno's ideas, differ among themselves in emphasis
of which ideas are singled out as most important and the context in which
they are placed, and also in the interpretation and evaluation of his
philosophy.