“A book unwritten is more than a void. It accompanies the work one has done like an active shadow, both ironic and sorrowful. It is one of the lives we could have lived, one of the journeys we did not take.” George Steiner, 2006
I’ve read many of George Steiner’s twenty-seven published books, but I would also have liked read some of these unwritten books that Steiner never finished writing. Steiner devotes each chapter of My Unwritten Books (2008) to a writing project that was started, but never completed.
In the first chapter, “Chinoiserie,” Steiner is approached by noted literary critic and editor, Frank Kermode, to contribute to Kermode’s MODERN MASTERS series. Steiner suggested a polymath like himself, Joseph Needham. Needham was best known as a biologist and sinologist. But, when Steiner sat down with Needham, the two men did not get along. That was their one and only meeting. Steiner did contribute a volume to Kermode’s MODERN MASTERS series, but it was Martin Heidegger (1979).
“Invidia” is NOT about the incredible AI computer chip company. Steiner starts writing about Francesco degli Stabili (aka, Cecco d’Ascoli) a mostly forgotten Italian writer and runs out of gas.
“The Tongues of Eros” might have been too spicy for most publishers. The essay starts off this way: “What is the sexual life a a deaf-mute? To what incitements and cadence does he or she masturbate?” (p. 61). These are questions I had not considered before Steiner’s jarring beginning.
“Zion” is a brief essay on what it’s like to be a Jew. “I had hoped to hammer out these arguments in a full-scale work. I lacked the clarity of vision to do so.” (p. 122)
“School Terms” is a dated essay on the difference between English schools, European schools, and U.S. schools. Steiner had been a Visiting Professor at many colleges and universities over his long career. Based on his time teaching at various institutions, Steiner makes some observations that are now completely obsolete and defunct.
I’m not a pet person, but Steiner loves animals. “Of Man and Beast” concludes: “To write my ‘animal book’ would have required not only eminent psychological and narrative skills. It would have necessitated raw introspection. I did not have the guts.” (p. 182)
“Begging the Question” focuses on Steiner’s politics–where he begs the question of what his politics is.
Have you started a project and wished you had finished it? GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
AUTHOR’S NOTE………………..IX
CHINOISERIE………………..1
INVIDIA………………..33
THE TONGUES OF EROS………………..59
ZION………………..91
SCHOOL TERMS………………..123
OF MAN AND BEAST………………..161
BEGGING THE QUESTION………………..183
