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Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
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About This Book
From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, a passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of #MeToo, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men? Claire Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? She explores the audience's relationship with artists from Woody Allen to Michael Jackson, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.
Reviews
"Nuanced and incisive ..."
"By turns emotional and measured, this is a valuable meditation on some of the era's most urgent cultural questions."
"There are moments when she lays out a line of argument only to seek to invalidate it with questions left unanswered."
"Dederer's instincts to approach such material with an open mind—and heart—are laudable."
"Dederer is continually trying — not in the adjectival sense, but as the present participle: showing us her thought process, correcting as she goes and experimenting with different forms ..."
"The pragmatist in me suspects the answer to these conundrums is simply acknowledging human complexity: Caravaggio was a murderer; bad humans can be great artists."
"Dederer's shrewd, vivid descriptions of movies and books suggest just how much they mean to her and how deeply any sacrifices on the altar of contemporary sexual ethics might cut ..."
"Dederer offers nuanced answers, challenging the assumption that boycotting is always the best response."
"Exhilarating, gnarly ..."
"In terms of structure, Dederer's book meanders as feelings do, sometimes harshly censorious about the flaws of artists such as Allen and Polanski, sometimes worrying obsessively about the ethics of adoring their creations, and at other times shaking off anxieties in favour of a commitment to what the heart wants in spite of itself ..."
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