Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sami_rose 's review for:
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
by Claire Dederer
Claire Dederer is brilliant, and this book is vital for anyone consuming art today. She did lose me a bit towards the end when she opened up the argument of what makes a monster to investigate “woman monsters”, where she is unconsciously making the argument that morally questionable and complex decisions of women are the same as men who are actively inflicting trauma and physical abuse. I think she gets stuck in her own paradox of ethical thought versus complex feelings here, an invaluable scaffolding for arguments of what to do with the art of monstrous men. At times, especially in the chapter on Woody Allen, it felt as though Dederer had witnessed the fraught conversations I’ve had with myself as revered artists have had their work stained by their personal actions. Ultimately, the point of this book is to not offer answers but to delve deeper into an issue that will never have an easily applicable solution.