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The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics. By Jane Bennett. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. 213p. $55.00 cloth, $17.95 paper.
At first, it may seem that Jane Bennett is attacking Max Weber. Against his famous assertion that modernity has disenchanted the world, rendering it potentially understandable and thus devoid of the power of transcendent meaning, Bennett engages in a traditionally theoretical explication and critique. She traces those thinkers who arise from this tradition, whether or not acknowledged, and addresses (and celebrates) those whose philosophies of the modern world provide alternative readings, most notably Kant and Deleuze.
But it is quickly apparent that Bennett's goal is much more demanding and rewarding than to summarize and critique. Instead, the purpose of this spirited and absorbing book is to call attention to those sites of contemporary experience that, far from being anesthetizing, continue to make experience meaningful. Indeed, it points to those aspects of contemporary existence that have the potential to reenchant, to recapture meaning from meaninglessness.
Bennett notes what few Weberians are willing to admit: The rationalism that he alleges is overtaking modernity actually conjoins everywhere with inventiveness, playfulness, and excitement. Human lives, far from always being dour, overdetermined existences, are frequently lived in wonder and marvel. The trick,...