The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays (New York Review Books (Paperback))

An NYRB Classics Original Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys’s essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of André Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time. CONTENTS Biographical Notes Title Page Copyright Dedication The Hall of Uselessness (By Way of a Foreword) PART I: QUIXOTISM The Imitation of Our Lord Don Quixote An Empire of Ugliness Lies That Tell the Truth PART II: LITERATURE The Prince de Ligne, or the Eighteenth Century Incarnate Balzac Victor Hugo Victor Segalen Revisited Through His Complete Correspondence Chesterton: The Poet Who Dances with a Hundred Legs Portrait of Proteus: A Little ABC of André Gide Malraux The Intimate Orwell Terror of Babel: Evelyn Waugh The Truth of Simenon The Belgianness of Henri Michaux The Sins of the Son: The Posthumous Publication of Nabokov’s Unfinished Novel Cunning Like a Hedgehog The Experience of Literary Translation On Readers’ Rewards and Writers’ Awards Writers and Money Overtures PART III: CHINA The Chinese Attitude Towards the Past One More Art: Chinese Calligraphy An Introduction to Confucius Poetry and Painting: Aspects of Chinese Classical Aesthetics Ethics and Aesthetics: The Chinese Lesson Orientalism and Sinology The China Experts Roland Barthes in China The Wake of an Empty Boat: Zhou Enlai Aspects of Mao Zedong The Art of Interpreting Non-Existent Inscriptions Written in Invisible Ink on a Blank Page The Curse of the Man Who Could See the Little Fish at the Bottom of the Ocean The Cambodian Genocide Anatomy of a “Post-Totalitarian” Dictatorship: The Essays of Liu Xiaobo on China Today PART IV: THE SEA Foreword to The Sea in French Literature In the Wake of Magellan Richard Henry Dana and His Two Years Before the Mast PART V: UNIVERSITY The Idea of the University A Fable from Academe PART VI: MARGINALIA I Prefer Reading A Way of Living Tell Them I Said Something Detours Memento Mori Acknowledgement Publication Details Notes Index

Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization: a distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature, he was one of the first Westerners to expose the horrors of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Leys’s interests and expertise are not, however, confined to China: he also writes about European art, literature, history, and politics, and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. No matter the topic he writes with unfailing elegance and intelligence, seriousness and acerbic wit. Leys is, in short, not simply a critic or commentator but an essayist, and one of the most outstanding ones of our time.

The Hall of Uselessness gathers the finest of Leys’s essays for an American audience for the first time. On subjects ranging from China to Orwell and from Quixotism to the sea, Leys feuds with Christopher Hitchens, ponders the popularity of Victor Hugo, and considers whether Vladimir Nabokov’s posthumous novel should ever have been published. He dissects Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge regime, and discusses the legacies of Waugh, Chesterton, Simenon, and Confucius. He discusses Chinese art, culture, and politics; the joys of literary translation; and the fate of the university.

The Hall of Uselessness is an illuminating compendium from a brilliant and quirky writer and an exemplary global voice.

An NYRB Classics Original Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys's essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of Andre Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time "Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys's essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of André Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time."--p. [4] of cover. "Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys's essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of André Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time."--Page 4 of cover