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kyliemaslen's review against another edition
3.0
really enjoyed the first half of this book, but it became really uneven in the back half. an admirable concept that was perhaps pushed too quickly to be released in the wake of me too and trump.
taybroccoli's review against another edition
word salad, no dressing.
Really tried to power through the first two chapters of the author bemusing Roman Polanski & Woody Allen while making their sexual abuses a foil to their artistic geniuses, but then the chapters with titles referencing JK Rowling and Michael Jackson didn’t even mention their respective controversies so I’m just really confused as to what the point of this book actually is??? I picked it up hoping to gain some insights into that philosophical conundrum of separating art from artist but the author uses this hook to bait and switch into a pointless memoir. Just completely worthless as a book, she should have just stuck to op-eds.
Really tried to power through the first two chapters of the author bemusing Roman Polanski & Woody Allen while making their sexual abuses a foil to their artistic geniuses, but then the chapters with titles referencing JK Rowling and Michael Jackson didn’t even mention their respective controversies so I’m just really confused as to what the point of this book actually is??? I picked it up hoping to gain some insights into that philosophical conundrum of separating art from artist but the author uses this hook to bait and switch into a pointless memoir. Just completely worthless as a book, she should have just stuck to op-eds.
samuelgd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
tehanu1990's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
jacyjean's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
faehriss's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
While Claire does have some insights into the inevitability of biography being exposed in the digital age, where we draw the line with boycotts of artists and how much knowing of an author's misbehaviour tarnishes their work, this book is often repetitive in the way that it loops back onto earlier points and re-explains them in far more depth than is necessary for something that may have been read only a few hours prior. Towards the end it felt more like Claire trying to battle with her grief over ignoring her family in order to finish her books than any real analysis over whether we should line the pockets of problematic artists.
Ultimately, I do disagree with Claire's final conclusion in that we should continue to consume art made by people we view as heinous, even if they profit from it, just because we love it. This, to me, feels like an excuse made by somebody who can't muster the willpower to make life changes in order to live in line with their own morality. She argues that individual consumer's partaking in their art is inconsequential, but often our choice of consumption is the only choice available to us. To declare that to be entirely useless is to declare ourselves entirely powerless in the face of awful people doing awful things, and thats not a viewpoint I can stand for as I find it very detrimental to the concept of activism as a whole.
Ultimately, I do disagree with Claire's final conclusion in that we should continue to consume art made by people we view as heinous, even if they profit from it, just because we love it. This, to me, feels like an excuse made by somebody who can't muster the willpower to make life changes in order to live in line with their own morality. She argues that individual consumer's partaking in their art is inconsequential, but often our choice of consumption is the only choice available to us. To declare that to be entirely useless is to declare ourselves entirely powerless in the face of awful people doing awful things, and thats not a viewpoint I can stand for as I find it very detrimental to the concept of activism as a whole.