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spark_879's review
had to return to the library but i really enjoyed the essays i read from the book and also found the included photos interesting!
the section i read was mostly the author analyzing various works of literature and exploring their themes. i hadn't heard of any of the authors or books mentioned but i found it interesting nonetheless and it broadened my understanding of what forms of literature exist.
one of the main things that stood out to me was the author's writing style, which was different from others i've read (/pos).
the section i read was mostly the author analyzing various works of literature and exploring their themes. i hadn't heard of any of the authors or books mentioned but i found it interesting nonetheless and it broadened my understanding of what forms of literature exist.
one of the main things that stood out to me was the author's writing style, which was different from others i've read (/pos).
dreamgalaxies's review against another edition
3.0
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Very well written, but so many short essays eventually began to feel tedious. So much of it was about images, so it took me a long time to get through--I felt like I needed the internet handy at all times to fully comprehend the text, because I needed to search for different photos the author was referring to. I also assumed there'd be more of a theme, but this reads more like the collected articles of the author. It wasn't bad but it wasn't what I was expecting.
Very well written, but so many short essays eventually began to feel tedious. So much of it was about images, so it took me a long time to get through--I felt like I needed the internet handy at all times to fully comprehend the text, because I needed to search for different photos the author was referring to. I also assumed there'd be more of a theme, but this reads more like the collected articles of the author. It wasn't bad but it wasn't what I was expecting.
mikelchartier's review against another edition
5.0
The blurb on the cover states that Known and Strange Things is a "blazingly intelligent" first book of essays. That begins to cover it. I was discussing these essays with a friend recently and couldn't quite articulate how impressive Teju Cole's observations of the world around him are. He has a way of stating things that are at once profound and deceptively simple. I expect that my experience is not unique in that it took me ~six months to read because his language is something in which to luxuriate. Spectacular read, highly recommended.
half_book_and_co's review against another edition
4.0
„Can my photograph convey an experience that others have already captured so well? The answer is almost always no, but you try anyway. I might feel myself to be a singular traveler, but I am in fact part of a great endless horde.” (Teju Cole, “Far Away from Here”)
Teju Cole is of course not only known for his writing but also his photography (and the ways he has tried to utilise social media). Consequential, “Known and Strange Things” not only thinks about specifics photographs but also about the process of taking photos. As someone who also loves to take photos and is tired of too simple complaints such as “now all the people take photos and no one really appreciates anymore” (for me, it is actually often the opposite, when I take a photo I really take the image in, it’s often also what I remember later), there was a lot to consider in Cole’s essays. I did not always agree but when I wanted to debate a point, following his thought-process also helped me sharpen my arguments.
It took me almost five years between picking up this book and actually finish reading it – which was mostly on me and not on the book. But this essay collection is packed full. There are 54 essays in the four sections named “Reading Things”, “Seeing Things”, “Being There”, and “Epilogue”. Cole peels back layers from literary works, dissects visual works of arts, their making and other works they talk to, and he writes about his own experiences. With so many texts, there will always be some bound to speak less to your interests. In some of the essays, I found the descriptions too dominating and would have wished for more direct analyses (though detailed descriptions of art can also partially already be some kind of analysis or interpretation). Then, Cole engages with some art that I am less interested in – though I love the incredible spectrum of works he does reference. That said, this is a fantastic collection which made me miss going to the gallery even more than I already did. But at least we still have books.
Teju Cole is of course not only known for his writing but also his photography (and the ways he has tried to utilise social media). Consequential, “Known and Strange Things” not only thinks about specifics photographs but also about the process of taking photos. As someone who also loves to take photos and is tired of too simple complaints such as “now all the people take photos and no one really appreciates anymore” (for me, it is actually often the opposite, when I take a photo I really take the image in, it’s often also what I remember later), there was a lot to consider in Cole’s essays. I did not always agree but when I wanted to debate a point, following his thought-process also helped me sharpen my arguments.
It took me almost five years between picking up this book and actually finish reading it – which was mostly on me and not on the book. But this essay collection is packed full. There are 54 essays in the four sections named “Reading Things”, “Seeing Things”, “Being There”, and “Epilogue”. Cole peels back layers from literary works, dissects visual works of arts, their making and other works they talk to, and he writes about his own experiences. With so many texts, there will always be some bound to speak less to your interests. In some of the essays, I found the descriptions too dominating and would have wished for more direct analyses (though detailed descriptions of art can also partially already be some kind of analysis or interpretation). Then, Cole engages with some art that I am less interested in – though I love the incredible spectrum of works he does reference. That said, this is a fantastic collection which made me miss going to the gallery even more than I already did. But at least we still have books.
keight's review against another edition
4.0
This collection of essays is divided into three sections — “Reading Things,” “Seeing Things,” and “Being There” — and for me they progress from the least cohesive to the most cohesive. Many of the literary essays feel more like sketches than fully fleshed out essays, and I slowly worked through these over the summer before lulling out when I was partway through the “Seeing Things” section. When I came back to Known and Strange Things, I found myself in the middle of an essay about the photographer Gueorgui Pinkhassov, which is mostly about his work on Instagram, though Teju Cole broadens the lens to inquire what photography means now that the barrier for entry has essentially disappeared:
All bad photos are alike, but each good photograph is good in its own way. The bad photos have found their apotheosis on social media, where everybody is a photographer and where we have to suffer through each other’s “photography” the way our forebears endured terrible recitations of poetry after dinner. Behind this dispiriting stream of empty images is what Russians call poshlost: fake emotion, unearned nostalgia. According to Nabokov, poshlost “is not only the obviously trash but mainly the falsely important. the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive.” He knows us too well. Read more on my booklog
All bad photos are alike, but each good photograph is good in its own way. The bad photos have found their apotheosis on social media, where everybody is a photographer and where we have to suffer through each other’s “photography” the way our forebears endured terrible recitations of poetry after dinner. Behind this dispiriting stream of empty images is what Russians call poshlost: fake emotion, unearned nostalgia. According to Nabokov, poshlost “is not only the obviously trash but mainly the falsely important. the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive.” He knows us too well. Read more on my booklog
dkai's review against another edition
4.0
First few were a bit hard to get through but then it ramped up. Lots of highlightable passages. Broad range of subjects around the world, with prominent theme of images.