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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
“Lived experience expands and illuminates the art we take in.”
This was such an interesting read and delved into a really important topic, now more than ever!
I’m sure we all have that one creator (be it musician, actor, artist) that we admire the work of, only for their personal biography to be a disgusting pit of problematic believes/behaviours.
Dederer explores this relationship between art and artist, as well as between artist and consumer, so brilliantly and she doesn’t shy away from any of the darker elements that this topic presents.
If you’re looking for a fascinating and insightful piece about whether we should separate the art from the artist, or whether the artist’s biography is the reason the art is as great as it is, then look no further.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Abandonment
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
More memoir than criticism. If you are going into this looking for tools to manage monsters, you won't get any. This is more a car ride than a destination.
Up and down in terms of engagement. Especially enjoyed the discussion of Nabokov - gave rise to points I didn’t consider when reading and reflecting on Lolita. I also enjoyed the questions at the end - reframing the whole starting question.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Just really well-written criticism that manages to be insightful/rational but also personable and approachable. Really liked this.
reflective
slow-paced
Look, I thought this was a great book and a great examination into the facets of dealing with the great art of terrible people. I thought it got... eh... like tenuous when she was talking about abandoning mothers as monsters, and ngl the realisation of what do we do with artistic monsters is a corollary to what do we do with monsters IRL was like, yes Claire this is painfully obvious. But I really liked the concept of The Stain being something that affects how the artwork is translated, that it's impossible to separate knowledge of monstrous things from the art, regardless of what stance you take about consuming the media of 'monsters'.
Idk, it's also been a while since I finished it. But I remember it being real good! Would recommend.
Idk, it's also been a while since I finished it. But I remember it being real good! Would recommend.
informative
fast-paced