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The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning | Maggie Nelson
“This is criticism at its best.”—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times Writing in the tradition of Susan Sontag and Elaine Scarry, Maggie Nelson has emerged as one of our foremost cultural critics with this landmark work about representations of cruelty and violence in art. From Sylvia Plath’s poetry to Francis Bacon’s paintings, from the Saw franchise to Yoko Ono’s performance art, Nelson’s nuanced exploration across the artistic landscape ultimately offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.
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AnneCecilie
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#WeeklyForecast

Finish The Art of Cruelty and start Braiding Sweetgrass

I‘m currently reading Lessons in Chemistry and want to finish that, and start Acting Class.

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Woozy-Shooz
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Maggie Nelson works magic. This book disabused me of many of my undergraduate pretensions and preoccupations. Not that I don‘t like a lot of the art and artists that she takes to task, like Artaud, it‘s just that I never bothered to ask myself the seemingly simple question of why and how is cruelty somehow deep and primordial as opposed to say, love?

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Vikz
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#listeningto this via #scribe. Interesting listening

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Arbol
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Been listening/reading to this of and on for about at week and have been struggling. The narrator is overdoing it so much I can't hear what she's saying past her forced musicality. It's completely wrong for the topic. Will probably switch to pbk as I keep wanting to highlight and make notes anyway.

readordierachel A bad or inappropriate narrator can really ruin a book. Hate when that happens. 6y
11 likes1 comment
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shortsarahrose
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Pickpick

I‘m not sure I have the exact words to express what I think of this work. It will take me some time to process. A reread (on paper) may one day be necessary to better grapple with her ideas.

More academic/less personal than Bluets or The Argonauts, but still personal. A familiarity with modern/contemporary art (especially performance art) is recommended, though this work spans so much more than that.

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shortsarahrose
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I am not yet done with Maggie Nelson (this time on #audio)

3 likes1 stack add
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SarahEvonne
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Maggie Nelson deserves only the most carefully composed Litsy post.

10 likes4 stack adds
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Devonhdunn
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"Often I think people ask these questions because they are afraid that there is no drive that, when pushed to its outer limits, does not invite or at least graze its extinction."

2 likes1 stack add