Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by fizzah
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
4.0
Lately I'm enjoying this brand of memoir-meets-criticism.
" 'It is always tempting, of course, to impose one's view rather than to undergo the submission required by art.' "
"Yet our moral sense must be made to come into balance with our art-love."
"Beauty is a fragile principle. It looks silly when it's brought up against utility—or morality...Beauty is what we like, whether we should or not, what we respond to involuntarily."
"Authority believes the work exists in an ideal state (ahistorical, alpine, snowy, pure). Authority ignores the natural feeling that arises from biographical knowledge of a subject." --> Does emotion have a place in criticism?
"We live in a biographical moment."
"The genius isn't so much a kind of person as a status of person: a person who can do whatever he wants."
"The contemporary ideal of the genius is a two-headed figure: both master and servant."
"How selfish do I need to be, to become as great as you?"
"When we love an artist, and we identify with them, do we feel shame on their behalf when they become stained? Or do we shame them more brutally, cast them out more finally, because we want to sever the identification? Maybe shame is the ultimate expression of the parasocial relationship."
" 'It is always tempting, of course, to impose one's view rather than to undergo the submission required by art.' "
"Yet our moral sense must be made to come into balance with our art-love."
"Beauty is a fragile principle. It looks silly when it's brought up against utility—or morality...Beauty is what we like, whether we should or not, what we respond to involuntarily."
"Authority believes the work exists in an ideal state (ahistorical, alpine, snowy, pure). Authority ignores the natural feeling that arises from biographical knowledge of a subject." --> Does emotion have a place in criticism?
"We live in a biographical moment."
"The genius isn't so much a kind of person as a status of person: a person who can do whatever he wants."
"The contemporary ideal of the genius is a two-headed figure: both master and servant."
"How selfish do I need to be, to become as great as you?"
"When we love an artist, and we identify with them, do we feel shame on their behalf when they become stained? Or do we shame them more brutally, cast them out more finally, because we want to sever the identification? Maybe shame is the ultimate expression of the parasocial relationship."