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#culturalcriticism
review
anushareflects
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Pickpick

A cultural critic‘s essay collection that is titled “Against Everything” is an immediate buy for me. A truly thought provoking and boundary pushing read, with some great insights and perspectives by the Stanford professor, author and cultural critic Mark Greif. Read my full review on anushareflects.wordpress.com. Essays dwell on themes of exercise, experience, reality TV, war, and much more.

review
twinkletoes74
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma | Claire Dederer
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Bailedbailed

This book looks at famous people and discusses whether you can still appreciate their work even though they have done bad things in their lives.

TieDyeDude This sounded really interesting, but I've already formulated my own thoughts on this issue, so I was a little divided on whether I wanted to read it. Why did you bail? 2w
twinkletoes74 I just found it quite boring. The author seemed to go off topic a lot. 1w
27 likes2 comments
review
broughtyoubooks
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma | Claire Dederer
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Pickpick

Something I sorely needed to read. It kind of lays out that yes, these people committed awful acts and yes, you can be hurt/upset/infuriated by that (I listened to the audio and went for long walks, which helped). A lot of reviews are salty and expect more from the text, but I think it's good that she sort of steps away from giving a definitive 'this is how to go about it' and instead talks of her own and others thoughts about the whole dilemma.

review
GingerAntics
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Panpan

This is a far too long, angry diatribe that is very disjoined and poorly organised. Some chapters are all over the place while others have a followable organisation. It is unclear what this author actually believes or is even raging against. It is frustrating to read. I wanted to take her seriously, but after the first few chapters, that was rendered impossible by the book itself, by her own words.
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

GingerAntics Apparently even reading her book is a white supremacist act (words that appear in the book, supposedly said by someone else, but she never refutes them). From her own words, she was fired from the New York Times for speaking out publicly within the company about her bosses, and she‘s claiming this was political... maybe. Or she quit because she saw the writing on the wall about her firing? 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 2mo
GingerAntics Again, it‘s unclear. It is all so very unclear. If this is her standard writing style, I have a hunch about a contributing factor in her dismissal from the NYT. @TheBookHippie is 100% accurate in saying this book is unproductive. #NellieBowles #MorningAfterTheRevolution #WhatRevolution #WhatDidIJustRead #JustDont #audiobook #readbytheauthor #unproductive #exhausting (edited) 2mo
kspenmoll This book sounds totally weird. Mixed up thinking?! Cloudy brain?! 2mo
GingerAntics @kspenmoll honestly, she‘s angry. I‘m not sure there is much else to it. She lost or gave up her dream job, and she‘s pissed. 2mo
17 likes4 comments
blurb
GingerAntics
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It is unclear if Bowles is for or against these thoughts? She is not being very clear.
#NellieBowles #MorningAfterTheRevolution #Racism #WhiteSupremacy #literacy #reading #intellectual #urgency #inpatients #perfectionism

GingerAntics Being expected to show up to work on time is white supremacist? I need some clarification immediately. 2mo
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie Stimming gets you fired all the time... mostly white autistic people... but it‘s racist to be against stimming? THIS DOESN‘T MAKE ANY SENSE!!! What is she saying? What is she talking about? 2mo
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie now there are baby names that are white supremacist? I‘m either going to need her to get to the point, or I‘m going to have to choose between day drinking and DNFing this one. What is happening? BLM is fading? She is just all over the place. 2mo
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics she‘s just mad I think. People aren‘t perfect, activist aren‘t perfect. A bunch of imperfect people must ban together, look in the mirror maybe instead of writing a book attacking everyone 🤷🏻‍♀️ (edited) 2mo
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie yeah, this is very much angry rant. There isn‘t an argument to be seen anywhere. 2mo
10 likes5 comments
quote
GingerAntics
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They did?
This is starting to sound less “progressive” and more conservative. 🤨
#NellieBowles #MorningAfterTheRevolution #BLM #antifa

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GingerAntics
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We are? So not wanting to live in a fascist state means being an anarchist “lots” of the time? 🤨 And being over racism is also anarchist? 🤨
#NellowBowles #MorningAfterTheRevolution #antifascist #anarchist #BLM

kspenmoll What?! What does she base her pronouncements on? Research? Her own ideas?! 2mo
GingerAntics @kspenmoll her opinion 2mo
marleed You are a trooper sticking with this one! 2mo
GingerAntics @marleed I listened to a good portion of it on 3x speed… and I skimmed (as much as you can with an audiobook) the last handful of chapters. 2mo
13 likes4 comments
blurb
GingerAntics
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I have a sneaking suspicion that I‘m going to be regretting this one fairly quickly, but for some reason, I‘m charging ahead. Here. Goes. Nothing.
#NellieBowles #MorningAfterTheRevolution #audiobook

TheBookHippie Bailed … it‘s not productive .. IMO 2mo
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie oooooooh, I am feeling that. Is this just “I got fired from NYT because I conflated BLM and antifa like conservatives and refused to let that go, so here are all these other way more extreme white people to attack instead?” I need some clarity. Being a reader and an intellectual is racist, but only reading one book about antiracism doesn‘t make you a real antiracist, you need to spend YEARS studying this. 🤨🤨🤨 2mo
kspenmoll Is she nuts?! 2mo
GingerAntics @kspenmoll 🤷🏼‍♀️ 2mo
12 likes4 comments
review
quietlycuriouskate
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma | Claire Dederer
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Pickpick

It's no spoiler to reveal that there's no handy graph with great art on the X axis and monstrosity on the Y axis. What it does have is an ample selection of ethical chew-toys. She discusses themes such as: who gets to be considered a genius? How do we ascribe monstrosity differently to male and female artists? Who the hell is included in "we" anyway? To what extent does "our" individual, subjective judgement have any meaning? I liked it a lot.

GingerAntics This sounds like an intriguing mental exercise. 3mo
Caroline2 Oh I have this on my kindle. Sounds like I need to move it up the pile. 👍 3mo
quietlycuriouskate @GingerAntics @Caroline2 It's good! Be warned, though: I was expecting the onslaught of male, predominantly sexual, violence. However I was struck by the references to Trump's previous presidency, in that we had little idea how that would prove to be just the warm-up act for his current monstrous behaviour. 3mo
See All 6 Comments
GingerAntics @quietlycuriouskate how innocent we were, just 4 years ago. 3mo
sarahbarnes Oof. Great review. 3mo
44 likes1 stack add6 comments
review
Jas16
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma | Claire Dederer
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Mehso-so

I put this on hold after looking at all the Gaiman on my shelves and thinking “here we go again.”There is much to discuss regarding the art vs the artist but this was not what I was looking for. I found the equivalencies of monsters troubling. Women wanting space from childcare to work given the same consideration as Polanski? To me, it had less real reflection on the potential responsibilities of consumers and more tangents and biographies.

TrishB My thoughts exactly! I wanted a serious consideration but this came across as the authors attempt to rationalise her admiration of Polanski. 3mo
Jas16 @TrishB So glad you agree and I went back and read your review which had me nodding in agreement as well. 3mo
53 likes2 comments