Mary Beard on Robert Hughes on Rome

Mary Beard, writing on The Guardian website today, has read more of Robert Hughes's Rome than I have so far - and found her own list of 'errors and misunderstandings' that will 'mislead the innocent and infuriate the specialist'. See my previous post.

The innocent, I think, are the ones that deserve the greater consideration here. Readers of newspaper reviews stand in some danger of being deceived. See, eg, this effusion, also from The Guardian.

Hughes is a famous writer of an expensive book from a respectable publisher.

As Professor Beard generously points out in her Guardian review, the only thing to do, if one gets this Rome as a gift, as many will, is to skip the first 200 pages. 

If it were about the twentieth century 'it would have been pulped'.

There is still time. 

 

 

Comments

[Tony Keen]

Jonathan Jones suggestion (in the comments on his piece) that Edward Gibbon would have been proud of Hughes is particularly unfortunate. Gibbon, a clear advocate of doing one's research properly, would have been appalled.

I read the first two pages, where I discovered that there is no archaeological evidence for the period of Rome's traditional foundation, which will come as news to many, no doubt.

[Clayton Burns]

This BBC interview with Robert Hughes is the worst I have heard this year. Philip Dodd is so lightweight as to be non-existent.

Robert Hughes sounded like a man less a shadow of himself than the man who had forgotten who he was.

Perhaps some of his timidity can be ascribed to his fear that he would be challenged on the lapses in his book. With a Dodd cipher in charge, that was not on the agenda.

Do people in the UK actually pay a license fee for this trash?

Night Waves
The Future of Europe, Robert Hughes, Peter Zumthor, Zoe Norridge

Philip Dodd talks to Robert Hughes about his new book Rome: A Cultural History.

Robert Hughes's "Rome" should be pulped. Philip Dodd should stop posing as a journalist and take up some flimsy PR position.

[Clayton Burns]

What might seem surprising is that the reviews of "Rome" split so elegantly between thoughtful analyses--as by Mary Beard and Allan Massie--and heedless blather--as by Peter Craven.

1.Rome by Robert Hughes 03 July 2011 by Allan Massie The Scotsman:

He begins with a canter through the history of the Republic and the Empire, much of it gleaned from out-of-date authorities or pseudo authorities... Likewise his judgments are outdated: he tells us that Augustus's wife Livia poisoned his nephew Marcellus, something for which no evidence exists...

Hughes's treatment of early Christian Rome is patchy and disfigured by his contempt for emperors and popes... The result is often entertaining but, as history, it is worthless... This [Hughes description] is a fair comment on Italy's Berlusconi-dominated TV, but a ridiculous judgment of Italian popular culture, which retains its vitality and elegance. But then Hughes admits his "ignorance of the Italian language."

Finally: Structurally, [Rome] is a mess, lacking any clear line; perhaps a fair reflection of the author's mind?

2.Roads to Rome 02 July 2011 by Peter Craven The Australian:

"...this month sees the publication of Rome, a history of the eternal city... this is a full-bodied history of a city in every aspect -- historical and political as well as artistic and architectural. You can tell by reading it that all the Virgil and Horace he absorbed at school and his youthful love affair with Italy have fed into Rome."

"Rome" has turned out to be a perfect litmus test for the media--it would certainly be legitimate to examine executive salaries at the BBC, where it seems there is little capacity to conduct honest cultural interviews.

The rank incompetence of Peter Craven--is it as bad as doctoring quotes? Perhaps at The Independent all is permitted.

I see little difference between plagiarism and Peter Craven journalism. Both represent an impermissible lowering of
standards.

However, most startling is the fact that Robert Hughes's "Rome" has not become a news story in the sense that The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal would interview Sir Peter and Robert Hughes so as to get at the root of this bizarre happening.

How can Hughes be trying to evade the facts here? How can the publisher be trying to push it through?

I take it as an indicator of a deeper fever.

[Clayton Burns]

A Pair of Ragged Claws, Book Blog by Stephen Romei, literary editor, The Australian.

My Favourite Novel 1 comments |
Saturday, July 02, 11 (04:49 pm)

Clayton Burns
Mon 04 Jul 11 (04:18am) Stephen Romei: An extremely ragged performance on the Robert Hughes “Rome” file. Perhaps you could apply a ragged claw to the review in The Scotsman. In The Telegraph. Or, even better, the exquisite review in The Guardian by Mary Beard.

Peter Craven has not done his background reading. If he had, he would have discovered Sir Peter Stothard’s fine Roman reading at his TLS blog--A Ragged Eagle in a Thunderous Sky--which brings to its knees “Rome” by Robert Hughes. On the basis of.

To hear Stothard tell it, it’s virtually illiterate in aspects. Not far off the mark. At this late date in July, it is uncanny that you still have not heard of the problems with this book. Chronology. Obsolescence. Incipient depravity. I sentence you to a few minutes at the blackboard.

Stephen Romei
Mon 04 Jul 11 (07:35am) Is it the ebook version in which he’s virtually illiterate? As mentioned I am on leave; I was leaving it to others to bounce off my Hughes link to some of the negative reviews, as you have done thank you.

[Clayton Burns]

Rebekah Brooks confronted by furious News of the World staff. (Guardian).

[The end of the News Of The World. (Watch 5:49). Media editor Stephen Brooks on the demise of...the...News Of The World.] The Australian's website.

Media editor Stephen: You are not Brooks. You are Brook. If this is just a Freudian slip on your part--"Behold the man! Yes, I did it!"--then I forgive you. But don't make any more admissions until you consult a lawyer.

[News of the World was not such a steal for Murdoch. It may have made him piles of money, but the News of the World has proved more trouble to Rupert Murdoch than it was worth].

Simon Jenkins
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 July 2011 10.30 BST

[But Murdoch's response has been drastic. He is closing down the News of the World for good, trying like Lady Macbeth to eradicate the "damned spot" that seems to sully all his current ambition.]

[Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two: why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?]

Simon Jenkins: There is a problem with your comparison. In the plot rhythms of "Macbeth," Lady Macbeth's speech is not a case of "projection," but "recapitulation." That is, remorse, leading on to cryptic thoughts of suicide (--'tis time to do 't).

Exposition, projection, recapitulation.

We do not have the definitive exposition of the literary aspect of the News Of The World's apocalypse. Perhaps we could start with lazy "Macbeth" comparisons.

[Andy]

article that appeared good enough to be read so that adds to knowledge when reading

[Clayton Burns]

The serious reviews on Robert Hughes's "Rome" (Observer, for example) continue to validate Sir Peter's perceptions.

We might ask how we have gotten to the stage where we are shedding fundamentals in favor of transient commercial benefit.

One sign is the way that major publishers have either shed or downplayed important initiatives such as COBUILD or the Arden Shakespeare: Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, eds. 2006: Hamlet. The Arden Shakespeare. 3rd Series. London: Thomson Learning.

The third series "Hamlet" is a powerful if flawed edition, but the overall project is far too slow- moving and old-fashioned (the state of "Macbeth" as compared to the New Cambridge edition is indicative).

Just as we have excellent advanced learner's dictionaries from Oxford, Longman, and COBUILD, we should have an advanced learner's "Macbeth" that would provide a full description of its phonetics and phonology and place it in the context of English as a world language. COBUILD would be well-positioned to undertake this work, by establishing tenacious research units in Australia and the USA as well as in Birmingham.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. -- L. P. Hartley

1.Variety Mon., May. 9, 2011: Fox 2000 nabs 'Go the F**k to Sleep'
Humorous bedtime book for parents captures their endless bedtime routine.
By RACHEL ABRAMS

2.SKY News: The phone hacking saga would make an incredible film script: unscrupulous journalists, angry celebrities, money-grabbing police officers and the murky world of politics and power. Read Sophy Ridge's blog on senior police officers under pressure.

The future is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

I appreciate Stephen's information here, even if the material might seem lightweight to some. Context is all. We are what we read.

If I were in charge of Australia, though, I would do it--not in the same way.

The landscape is in somewhat of a clutter.

What strikes me as being the sharp edge of the future is a new method in recidivist Shakespeare. Students in Canada's grades 7 and 8 could assimilate the Oxford School Shakespeare "Macbeth," "Othello," "King Lear," and "Hamlet."

In grade 9, the New Cambridge "Macbeth." In grade 10, the Oxford World's Classics "Othello." In grade 11, the New Cambridge "King Lear." In grade 12, the new Arden "Hamlet."

Recidivist and recursive Shakespearean tragedy. The right formula for an Age of Trash. Along with a dozen of his sonnets in an official 30-lyric database--including Dickinson, Keats, and Blake. If professors in phonetics and phonology could ever figure out how to contribute to it.

To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand; what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.

[Clayton Burns]

Rome... GBS... Words as Images...

'It lasted two seconds': Crystal Harris takes parting shot at Hugh Hefner.

'Pictures ... don't reflect reality': Julia Roberts' ad given the brush off by watchdog

Glenda Kwek
July 27, 2011 - 11:29AM

[A series of L'Oreal advertisements featuring Hollywood star Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington have been banned in Britain for being overly airbrushed.]

It seems to me that reality is being staged where we are not looking. For example, Hefner's curious sexual method. Sperm in the fridge. Thaw. Insert by eyedropper.

If you take the lying out of advertising, the collapse of capitalism cannot be far behind.

[Clayton Burns]

July 31, 2011 For New Yorker on iPad, Words Are the Thing
By JEREMY W. PETERS New York Times
[...] [Offering the first detailed glimpse into iPad magazine sales since subscriptions became available in the spring, The New Yorker said that it now had 100,000 iPad readers, including about 20,000 people who bought subscriptions at $59.99 a year.

Additionally, more than 75,000 people have taken advantage of the magazine’s offer to allow print subscribers to download the app free.]

Perhaps Sir Peter could offer us The TLS report, on success with Facebook and any other initiatives.

The way that The Guardian is moving resources to New York might be an indicator that a New York-California edition of The TLS could be valuable.

The Telegraph is operating an extremely good live news blog on certain matters in the media. Incorporating Twitter. Now worth $8B. One might wonder how The NYT ended up with about.com instead.

What I would do without delay is include The TLS in The Sunday Times, the world's most beautifully designed paper in English. TLS might also start up a section called Literary Media. There is a dearth of good reporting on the media of literature.

[plumbing]

Literary works are very special because in this work is a hidden message that you want to share and discover by your followers.