Parsing newly-translated Adorno

For years, hell — decades, I have been reading nonfiction well-peppered with quotes from Theodor Adorno. He gets cited for practically any subject. He had pithy things to say about seemingly everything, from psychology to television. I have built up an image of him as perceptive, wise and insightful. A true polymath, rare in the last century. So I was delighted to be offered a brand new book of his collected essays on culture. It’s called Without Model and it is very revealing — but not in a good way.

Adorno was first and foremost a musician, he said. As an German intellectual as well, he used his love of music to interpret everything he experienced along with lots he just read about. The results have often been inspiring. But having read the 16 essays here, I now see Adorno as more of a linguine chef, throwing sentences against a wall to see if they stick. The undercooked vastly outnumber the worthwhile ones.

Adorno thrived in the first two thirds of the 20th century, so he has plenty to say about cultural shifts, including art, film and of course, music.

My first real problem with Adorno is his use of the word immanent, meaning inherent or built-in. He uses it at least 25 times in these essays, more than I have ever seen it employed, and it is stifling. He seeks to cripple artistic license and expression with it. He makes sweeping…