Book Description
In this unconventional book, Jonathan Hammer offers a new translation of Hugo Ball's visionary novella Tenderenda the Fantast, along with his own unique Tenderenda-inspired images. The resulting "dialogue" between Ball, the founder of Zurich Dada, and Hammer, a contemporary artist, casts new light on Dadaism and its postmodern legacies.

In Tenderenda, composed between 1914 and 1920, Ball recounts a hallucinatory tale of his own Dada enchantment and disenchantments. Jeffrey T. Schnapp introduces the book, elaborating the cultural and historical context of Ball's work and situating Hammer's work in relation to Dada. In a concluding essay, Hammer probes various aspects of Ball's asceticism, spirituality, and sexuality to arrive at a revisionist interpretation of Zurich Dada and the origins of modernism as well as postmodern art-making. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliantly Odd
Ball and Hammer is a like a six-hand piano piece.Seated at the bench are the long deceased founder of Zurich Dada, Hugo Ball; the contemporary artist, Jonathan Hammer; and the well-regarded critic-scholar, Jeffrey Shnapp.The piece they play is built around Ball's visionary novella-memoir, Tenderenda the Fantast, which is a bit like trying to build a temple around a hallucination.

Hammer and Schnapp brilliantly riff in and around Ball's memoir: the former with his zany illustrations, a provocative essay and his translation of Ball; the latter with a razor sharp-edged introduction and an array of learned notes. The mix works.It's hard to tell where one takes over and the other leaves off.

This is no conventional university press book from the standpoint of production values.It's graphically dazzling, has twenty-plus splendid color illustrations, and is at least as much fun as a ride on one of those Twister roller coasters.

I recommend it highly for yourself or for that distinctive gift to an eccentric friend or loved one who loves Dada.

It makes nice in your brain and looks just as nice on your coffee table. ... Read more

Book Description
Hugo Ball (1886-1927)--poet, philosopher, novelist, cabaret performer, journalist, and mystic--was a man extremely sensitive to the currents of his time. In February 1916 he founded the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. The sound poems and performance art by Ball and the other artists who gathered there were the beginnings of Dada. Ball's extraordinary diaries, edited by John Elderfield, are here available in English in paperback for the first time, along with Elderfield's critical introduction and a new afterword, the original Dada manifesto, and a new selected bibliography of works by and about Hugo Ball and general works on Dada. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Difficult. beautiful, underappreciated genius
Long before the beat movement or the hippies comes such a beautiful work from one of the most honest and daring individuals to ever live and then be forgotten in this world. The title says it best. Hugo Ball is probably themost important guide (in my life). You should read this and see if any ofit rubs off on you. ... Read more

Book Description
Hugo Ball (1886-1927), poet, musician, dancer, impresario, philosopher, was one of the brilliant literary figures of the early twentieth century. Working with some of the great artists of his time, including Kandinsky, von Laban, Tzara, and Hans Arp, he was at the cutting edge of modern thought as theatre director, Dada agitator and leading member of the luminous Berne circle.This study takes a new look at Ball, providing above all a close reading of his texts, and focussing on works which are seen as open-ended or given to inventing their own form, including Tenderenda der Phantast, his abstract poem cycle 'Gadji beri bimba', and Simultan Krippenspiel, a 'noise concert' or opera, which enthralled his audience the night of May 31, 1916. The book deals first with Ball's education as an artist and with the important figures in his life, notably Max Reinhardt, Frank Wedekind, and Vassily Kandinsky, whose theoretical stance he came in part to adopt. Subsequent chapters examine his theatre work as actor, playwright, critic and dramaturge, comprising his years of apprenticeship in Berlin, Plauen and Munich. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautifully written book
I had picked up a copy of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine" (the German New York Times) when I was in Germany last year and read a review about this book which was on the front cover of the arts section.
I picked up a copy of the book and was enchanted by the content of the book as well as by the subject matter and the writer's voice. White put so much care and heart into researching the life and work of Poet Hugo Ball. After reading this book your viewpoint on who the great influencers in the 20th century of art, poetry, and performance will undoubtedly need to include Hugo Ball. ... Read more

Book Description
Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, two of the towering Supreme Court justices of this century, formed a fascinating personal and professional relationship that lasted for more than 30 years, from the 1930s to the 1970s.Together, they were embroiled in some of the most momentous social, political, and economic conflicts in American history. While many observers of the Supreme Court have regarded them as having a uniquely close alliance at the core of the Warren Court, they were quite different jurists, marching to very distinct drummers.Of Power and Right tells the story of this curious relationship and the turbulent era in which it took place. Hugo Black was a much admired, congenial man.A gracious Southerner, he could be as hard and immovable as granite once he'd made up his mind.An ardent advocate of free speech and press, he was a Puritan who had difficulty accepting behavior outside his own personal standard of morality.For him, the fundamental issue was the power of the people to govern, first through the Constitution, and then, where the Constitution was not clear, through their elected officials.William O. Douglas was a very different man. Tough and even petulant, he could also be extremely shy and sensitive. A staunch defender of the Court and its role, he was often willing to plunge it into the middle of society's most divisive debates.He believed first and foremost in individual rights, and believed that the Court's most important job was keeping government off the backs of the people.Though close on and off the job, the two men frequently clashed over this fundamental difference between power and right.The Black-Douglas years saw unprecedented social and political upheavals, from the New Deal and the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War, and the Supreme Court was called upon time and again to reexamine and often fundamentally alter definitions of equality and liberty in every area of American life.Howard Ball and Phillip Cooper chronicle each man's confrontation with the issues before the court and the often heated debates that resulted.They develop the central tension in American political life between democratically exercised power and individual freedom that so often occupied Black and Douglas and about which they so often differed. In so doing, the authorspaint a full and compelling portrait not just of Black and Douglas, but of the institution of the Supreme Court during these years, showing us a Court that is more human, more politically aware, and more diverse than we have traditionally seen.The friendship of Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, and the differences that divided them, provide a unique window on the Supreme Court and the society it serves. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Modern Language Review, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 951 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Magic Bishop: Hugo Ball, Dada Poet.(Review)
Author: Andreas Kramer
Publication: The Modern Language Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Volume: 95Issue: 4Page: 1131(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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