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The Revolt of the Pendulum: Essays 2005-2008
This collection of essays shows James at his most dazzling and versatile. From the rules of grammar to the fundamentals of religion, from the culture of fandom to the cult of the critic, it's all there: his customary wit, learning and understanding.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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61 people want to read
About the author
Clive James
93 books285 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 26, 2011
Within this anthology of his essays from 2005-2008, there is a recurrent wistfulness (if not slight bitterness) with regard to the demise of his mainstream television career, together with repeated plugging of his website and newly-rediscovered role as Pete Atkin's lyricist. However, James was always a shameless self-publicist, and does it in such a self-aware fashion that it doesn't grate. Being a devotee of what one of his teachers referred to as 'sludge fiction' (indeed, I read this book whilst on holiday, and the rest of my reading was drawn from the very bottom of the sludge tank), his essays and reviews regarding high literary fiction and were beyond my area of expertise. Equally impenetrable to someone whose knowledge of things Australian is limited to what was divulged in Skippy and the 'Kylie and Jason' years of Neighbours, were his pieces concerning his homeland. However even where I didn't understand his initial points of reference, I came away better informed. In his analyses of popular culture he is, as ever, bang on the money, but his sharpest pieces, for me anyway were his critiques of current trends in the English language, particularly with regard to grammar and style. Coming from someone else who is not so well-versed in the blogosphere this may have degenerated into an anti-internet rant by an aging intellectual snob, but in James' hands it is a succinct and humourous dissection of the decay of English intellectual life. I doubt that he would be impressed by the form or content of this review... But having read this book I promise I will try harder in future.
September 20, 2016
My least favorite of all of the James' books that I've read so far. I skimmed much of it--it seemed to be slight magazine pieces pulled together.
January 31, 2025
Another fine collection
This is Clive James' first collection of essays since his hefty Cultural Amnesia, a monumental work which will probably form a large part of his literary legacy. Compared to that, the present book is more diffuse, drawing together pieces on people which range from Tommy Cooper and Niki Lauda to Camille Paglia and Karl Kraus. Along the way, the author shares his thoughts on bad grammar, Nicole Kidman's stalker, lyric writing, detective fiction and the films of Leni Riefenstahl. If - like me - you've read his other essay collections (such as The Meaning of Recognition or Snakecharmers in Texas), you'll know what to expect here. Alongside his breadth of reference and impressive erudition, all of his stylistic tricks are present and correct, and I found myself wanting to highlight some of his particularly apposite turns of phrase; my current favourite is on p191, where he scolds an academic author for missing some details: "if it was Dr McCulloch [...] who mistook it, then one would have thought that her spontaneity of response was in no danger of being inhibited by her erudition".
To a large extent, you either like this sort of thing or you don't, but - if you're wondering which category you might fit into - it's perhaps worth pointing out that just about all the pieces in this collection can be read in their entirety on the author's website, along with most of his recent poems (including those from Angels Over Elsinore, his most recent selection) and a large number of pieces salvaged from his older books that are now out of print. In fact, the setting up and maintenance of his site is another topic which is discussed at some length in the present book; he memorably describes it (p273) as "a transparent space vehicle that we have been building as it flies", and views it as a "gateway to infinity" that he (perhaps misguidedly) hopes will persist for longer than his books, or their author.
Originally reviewed 7 July 2010
This is Clive James' first collection of essays since his hefty Cultural Amnesia, a monumental work which will probably form a large part of his literary legacy. Compared to that, the present book is more diffuse, drawing together pieces on people which range from Tommy Cooper and Niki Lauda to Camille Paglia and Karl Kraus. Along the way, the author shares his thoughts on bad grammar, Nicole Kidman's stalker, lyric writing, detective fiction and the films of Leni Riefenstahl. If - like me - you've read his other essay collections (such as The Meaning of Recognition or Snakecharmers in Texas), you'll know what to expect here. Alongside his breadth of reference and impressive erudition, all of his stylistic tricks are present and correct, and I found myself wanting to highlight some of his particularly apposite turns of phrase; my current favourite is on p191, where he scolds an academic author for missing some details: "if it was Dr McCulloch [...] who mistook it, then one would have thought that her spontaneity of response was in no danger of being inhibited by her erudition".
To a large extent, you either like this sort of thing or you don't, but - if you're wondering which category you might fit into - it's perhaps worth pointing out that just about all the pieces in this collection can be read in their entirety on the author's website, along with most of his recent poems (including those from Angels Over Elsinore, his most recent selection) and a large number of pieces salvaged from his older books that are now out of print. In fact, the setting up and maintenance of his site is another topic which is discussed at some length in the present book; he memorably describes it (p273) as "a transparent space vehicle that we have been building as it flies", and views it as a "gateway to infinity" that he (perhaps misguidedly) hopes will persist for longer than his books, or their author.
Originally reviewed 7 July 2010
November 5, 2009
As an Australian by choice, not chance, I have for some time considered Clive James my favourite fellow-countryman. I should also like to urge people who have not done so to get acquainted with his previous, mammoth and wonderful tome Cultural Amnesia. The Revolt of the Pendulum is a collection of essays, not a cluster of writings on a central theme like Cultural Amnesia, but everything is suffused with the extraordinary Jamesian combination of erudition with wit. I particularly saluted his comments on the decay of literacy in "Insult to the Language" and "The Perfectly Bad Sentence". The first essay, "The Question of Karl Kraus", harks back to one of the themes of Cultural Amnesia, a book that was irresistible to me as soon as I realised that James was taking pre-1914 Vienna as the theatre on which so many of the 20th century's tragicomedies were rehearsed. But in all the chapters I think I learned something and laughed at something.
June 30, 2023
As with all collections a mixed bag. Some essays were funny and moving, some perhaps too English- focussed for this Aussie to really appreciate and I was completely unable put aside my own political views when it came to the essay in praise of John Howard!
June 13, 2010
Brilliant and witty essays from the Australian polymath. Everything he says is worth reading for its warmth, its wit, and its basic good sense.
July 22, 2019
Perfectly polished gems spanning an incredible range of subjects, serving to illustrate the scope of James' erudition and experience. A must for lovers of the language...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews