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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Maggie Nelson's intelligence is truly astounding. She can take any topic and stretch my brain to its absolute capacity with her observations and insights. Whether I am particlarly interested in the topic or not, I appreciate how she can make me think so deeply about a variety of things. Some things in here certainly went over my head (and I had to google SO many people and works to give myself context), but that did not dampen my absolute awe at Nelson's brain. Not to mention the beautiful prose. This collection was particularly interesting because in places it gave context to things that Nelson was doing, comsuming, and thinking about during periods that she wrote her other books-for this reason I would probably not recommend this for those who are not already committed Maggie Nelson fans.
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
The concept behind Like Love is wonderful: a collection of essays and conversations exploring the almost symbiotic relationship between art and artists. And some of these pieces capture that perfectly: transcending the particular moment they were written in and saying something special about art.
Unfortunately, many of these essays don't quite work in this context: they rely on too much prior knowledge of the particular art or artists Nelson discusses so that outside of their original context they feel alienating and even a little elitist. It's a shame, becauses Nelson is a magestic writer, but I felt the collection could have been more carefully curated to appeal to a wider audience.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
Unfortunately, many of these essays don't quite work in this context: they rely on too much prior knowledge of the particular art or artists Nelson discusses so that outside of their original context they feel alienating and even a little elitist. It's a shame, becauses Nelson is a magestic writer, but I felt the collection could have been more carefully curated to appeal to a wider audience.
*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Like Love is a collection of essays and interviews spanning around 20 years of Maggie Nelson’s career. I love Nelson’s work and came into this expecting to fall in love with it, and there were certainly parts I did fall in love with—I found the interviews especially illuminating, and I enjoyed the literary criticism. Much of the book, though, is art criticism, and art criticism of a variety that seems to presume a familiarity with the artist and/or the work—some of which can’t be found online with simple google searches. I found myself lost—or losing interest—a few times for this reason.
It’s an admirable collection insofar as it attempts (I think) to get around the problem of “How do I turn a bunch of disparate pieces into a book?” by showing that the same preoccupations with art, and love of certain artists, have followed Nelson around throughout her career—it was very interesting to see the names of these artists recur in various contexts, to show how Nelson situations them in place with one another. But I found myself wishing that there had been attempts to better familiarize me with the objects of criticism in question; when the object remains obscured there’s only so much insight one can draw from the writer’s circumlocutions, I think. Suddenly this feels like a broader philosophical take than I had intended to make when I sat down to write this, so feel free to challenge me; something something epistemology. Maybe more to the point, that kind of criticism—if it exists—would I think function on the presumption of the reader’s lack of familiarity. I mentioned earlier I enjoyed the literary criticism more, and that’s probably telling about me as a reader: I am much more familiar with the world of literature and of literary criticism than I am of visual art, so it’s unsurprising that I felt able to draw more from those sections than I did those about visual art.
In any case, like much of Nelson’s work, this is probably something I will return to.
It’s an admirable collection insofar as it attempts (I think) to get around the problem of “How do I turn a bunch of disparate pieces into a book?” by showing that the same preoccupations with art, and love of certain artists, have followed Nelson around throughout her career—it was very interesting to see the names of these artists recur in various contexts, to show how Nelson situations them in place with one another. But I found myself wishing that there had been attempts to better familiarize me with the objects of criticism in question; when the object remains obscured there’s only so much insight one can draw from the writer’s circumlocutions, I think. Suddenly this feels like a broader philosophical take than I had intended to make when I sat down to write this, so feel free to challenge me; something something epistemology. Maybe more to the point, that kind of criticism—if it exists—would I think function on the presumption of the reader’s lack of familiarity. I mentioned earlier I enjoyed the literary criticism more, and that’s probably telling about me as a reader: I am much more familiar with the world of literature and of literary criticism than I am of visual art, so it’s unsurprising that I felt able to draw more from those sections than I did those about visual art.
In any case, like much of Nelson’s work, this is probably something I will return to.
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Thank you to NetGalley for this DRC.
While I am not new to Nelson’s work, this is the first of her books I have read. ‘Like, Love’ is a collection of conversations and essays that discuss a myriad of subjects. From Art Criticism to Bataille, the reader is presented with heavy academic discussions.
This is why I believe this collection could benefit from a bit of direction. It was incredibly dense, and a lot of context is missing. ‘Like, Love’ feels cherry-picked, and while there was a lot to chew on, it could have been separated into sections. I would encourage readers to read this sparingly. For a short book, it felt a 1,000 pages too long.
This is not to say that anyone should dumb down these riveting conversations, but the vital insights get lost in the sheer amount of text contained within it. I understand that Bluets and The Argonauts had some semblance of direction, and this is what I feel this book really needed.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed some of these discussions. They urged me to pick up books I had previously been eyeing up. I also have more films to watch thanks to Nelson. I am a huge fan of Georges Bataille, so to read the discussion about some of his work was fascinating.
Additionally, the title essay was like brain food. The incorporation of various philosophers amplified points, and added a different lens to what could often be a biased view.
Concluding, I am more likely to recommend Nelson’s other works than this one, but this book is for anyone who is interested in enriching their knowledge. You will come out of this collection having learned something new.
While I am not new to Nelson’s work, this is the first of her books I have read. ‘Like, Love’ is a collection of conversations and essays that discuss a myriad of subjects. From Art Criticism to Bataille, the reader is presented with heavy academic discussions.
This is why I believe this collection could benefit from a bit of direction. It was incredibly dense, and a lot of context is missing. ‘Like, Love’ feels cherry-picked, and while there was a lot to chew on, it could have been separated into sections. I would encourage readers to read this sparingly. For a short book, it felt a 1,000 pages too long.
This is not to say that anyone should dumb down these riveting conversations, but the vital insights get lost in the sheer amount of text contained within it. I understand that Bluets and The Argonauts had some semblance of direction, and this is what I feel this book really needed.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed some of these discussions. They urged me to pick up books I had previously been eyeing up. I also have more films to watch thanks to Nelson. I am a huge fan of Georges Bataille, so to read the discussion about some of his work was fascinating.
Additionally, the title essay was like brain food. The incorporation of various philosophers amplified points, and added a different lens to what could often be a biased view.
Concluding, I am more likely to recommend Nelson’s other works than this one, but this book is for anyone who is interested in enriching their knowledge. You will come out of this collection having learned something new.