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3 reviews for:
Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon
Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, Danny Coeyman
3.0 AVERAGE
3 reviews for:
Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon
Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, Danny Coeyman
3.0 AVERAGE
ashlurtis's review against another edition
I chose this for a library challenge because I enjoy watching Bob Ross, but this book is WAY too dense to be enjoyable. To be fair, even the intro sounded dull and boring. Perhaps interesting for an art scholar, not great for a casual fan.
mashleypotatoes's review against another edition
3.0
At times somewhat insightful, but more often utterly bizarre in tone. A lot of the attempts at critical insight are quite a stretch, with an expectation of “accept this because it is stated”, despite the evidence not lining up (the section on “comparisons” to Andy Warhol was particularly egregious, imo).
Just a note because I’ve seen comments elsewhere expressing surprise/confusion about it: This book is a university publication, meant to be seen through a light academic lens.
Just a note because I’ve seen comments elsewhere expressing surprise/confusion about it: This book is a university publication, meant to be seen through a light academic lens.
squidbag's review
1.0
Disappointing.
I went into this expecting a pleasant long weekend diversion, and boy was I let down. The three(!) authors start out by not building up your hopes, letting you know that Bob Ross, Inc. tightly controls information, image and technique, and they remind you of this every 20 pages or so. Even with hopes dashed, however, this was a slog of a read. In the absence of proper Rossworks, one of the authors has contributed "art" which faces up each chapter. This is very depressing. Additionally, the authors have not let the paucity of real information stop them from repeating themselves and engaging in wild speculation.
While there are moments of genuine critical insight contained within this volume, the trek one has to make to get to them is simply not worth it. To feel that a 176 page book is overlong is unacceptable, and means that the book has not done its job. The authors have tried to produce a scholarly work, but it is one with a vast army of distracting inline citations, typos, and points at which they are just wrong. When describing Bob Ross' studio set-up for the shows, they lay out a one-camera arrangement. Watch any one of Bob's videos, and you'll find a minimum of two. The authors go on to repeatedly insist that Gen Xers only appreciate Bob Ross ironically. This kind of sweeping generalization is ridiculous and irresponsible.
It's a bad book, for whatever reason. Don't waste your time.
I went into this expecting a pleasant long weekend diversion, and boy was I let down. The three(!) authors start out by not building up your hopes, letting you know that Bob Ross, Inc. tightly controls information, image and technique, and they remind you of this every 20 pages or so. Even with hopes dashed, however, this was a slog of a read. In the absence of proper Rossworks, one of the authors has contributed "art" which faces up each chapter. This is very depressing. Additionally, the authors have not let the paucity of real information stop them from repeating themselves and engaging in wild speculation.
While there are moments of genuine critical insight contained within this volume, the trek one has to make to get to them is simply not worth it. To feel that a 176 page book is overlong is unacceptable, and means that the book has not done its job. The authors have tried to produce a scholarly work, but it is one with a vast army of distracting inline citations, typos, and points at which they are just wrong. When describing Bob Ross' studio set-up for the shows, they lay out a one-camera arrangement. Watch any one of Bob's videos, and you'll find a minimum of two. The authors go on to repeatedly insist that Gen Xers only appreciate Bob Ross ironically. This kind of sweeping generalization is ridiculous and irresponsible.
It's a bad book, for whatever reason. Don't waste your time.