poetskings 's review for:

Monsters: What Do We Do With Great Art By Bad People? by Claire Dederer

4.25

challenging reflective medium-paced

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this is a really interesting analysis moreso of how an audience engages with the work of ‘bad’ people. it queries what it means to be a monster, and posits that perhaps we are all monstrous in our own ways, so where is the line? to be a monster is to be normal, a part of the human condition. there is nothing exceptional about it. i think the conclusions drawn about there being no such thing as ethical consumption so consume whatever are perhaps a flattening and lack nuance of the conversation, but this is an interesting book that has shifted the way that i think about the art that i engage with