This is an extraordinary work of criticism--literary, cultural, political--but also of writing. It manages to weave together an almost journalistic directness and clarity with a philosophical-theoretical meditation of tingling complexity. Its appearance is an event of considerable importance and of great excitement, not simply because many of the essays in this volume are of enormous significance by themselves, but because the style and concerns of the book make it of interest to a broader reading public as well as academics. --Thomas Keenan, Princeton University