Adorno coined the message-in-the-bottle image for Critical Theory’s lack of an addressee

Evidence

The situation became even more complicated for Horkheimer and his closest associates when MacIver announced that he would support the incorporation of the Institute into Columbia University. There was now not merely a problem of distinguishing the possibility of the Institute’s being incorporated into the university from the possibility of its becoming involved in departmental lectures, without causing offence: the former was to be dealt with through delaying tactics, while the latter was to be encouraged. There was now a further issue over which the interests of Horkheimer, Pollock, Adorno and Lowenthal, on the one hand, and Marcuse and Neumann, on the other, might diverge. With closer incorporation of the Institute into the university, the chances of an academic career for Marcuse and Neumann would increase; in contrast, Horkheimer and those basing their hopes on having their material needs supplied by the Institute did not want to see its independence restricted in any way. This difference of view corresponded to an aversion to the idea of the message in the bottle' among the former group, and a liking for it among the latter. Message in the bottle’ was an expression used mainly by Adorno for Critical Theory, which he saw as lacking an addressee and as being condemned to `hibernating’ for the foreseeable future. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1153

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the origin and meaning of Adorno’s ‘message in a bottle’ as Critical Theory waiting without an addressee.
• XREF: Connects to institutional-history theme of exile intellectual life and the Frankfurt School’s estrangement from real-world reception.