First aired: January 12, 1983 on Channel 4.

These programs were on Channel 4 in its first years. Look at the state of it now and Steiner's diagnosis of the trivialisation of culture was clearly correct. - It would be a good thing for C4 to post these Voices discussions online.

Thanks for posting...This is a Jewel...The intelligence of all Four.

Such a pleasure to bask in their erudition.

Amazing! Thank you so much for putting this document to our disposal.

damn this was so good where can one find the rest? I love Steiner's voice even when he gets carried away

Fantastic! And heartbreaking that it cut when it was really heating up. Nevertheless, thank you for uploading what you had.

@juantorres90

Жыл бұрын

My God! I was building up at that point and then it got all cut out in a second!

@actaeonpress

Жыл бұрын

It's on the Channel 4 website, but I can't figure out how to download it. Maybe someone from UK can, or with a proxy.

I love the way McCarthy is directly in his face about his huge assumptions.

Great fragment. Too bad the remainder is missing.

Brodsky: "A poet is, in a sense, like a bird. Starts to chirp on no matter what kind of branch he alights. Literature is much older and more inevitable a phenomenon than any state and it's going to be that way".

@italialibera2102

Жыл бұрын

Plato said already that poet is a Winged thing

"a great writer, in fact, doesn't need History", Brodsky (19:58)

@DEWwords

Жыл бұрын

Well, that's too woo woo for me... even if it is Brodsky.

@edwardsamokhvalov6720

11 ай бұрын

well, he might be right that a great writer does not need history eventually, but making a great writer requires quite a material.

Great debate. Incomplete. Alas.

If only they would let Brodsky speak more. He comes off as deeper and more interesting than Steiner who sounds pretentious and self-important.

7:21 anyone know who this philosopher was?

@freeri87

2 жыл бұрын

A.J. Ayer?

@brucellowayne4853

2 жыл бұрын

@@freeri87 yeah, could be. Men with differing tolerances of profundity, it must be said...

Hey major what year mate.

Steiner is too constrained and formalistic in his argument. You can't generalize about the quality of Eastern vs Western art especially when those categories themselves aren't essential or even well defined. Wish the artists had spoken more in this conversation.

@DEWwords

Жыл бұрын

He's inexact, actually. It's a long list of hasty generalities wedded to questionable heroic straw figures

@edwardsamokhvalov6720

11 ай бұрын

way too formalistic!

Mc Carthy and Brodsky have the advantage of being artists as well as intellectuals who have been actively engaged in the arts and politics of their time; Steiner, who, face it was less gifted than either has the disadvantages of having had a relatively cloistered life with a captive audience of students.

@juantorres90

Жыл бұрын

As a note to your comment: in one of his last interviews, Steiner declared that the work of the smallest artist will always be far more important than that of the best critic.

4 very interesting people talking. Terrrific. Is the rest of the show lost?

@majoresterhazy7012

2 жыл бұрын

I’m afraid this is all I have of it.

There is definitely an elephant in the room that everyone (all 4 of them) tries to ignore while still keeping the conversation flowing. Did anyone feel this?

George Steiner telling Brodsky and Mary McCarthy that they largely exaggerate the mysteries of writing - the nerve!!