T.Elise reviewed Monsters by Claire Dederer
A floating, autobiographical, feminist, conceptual, and emotional approach to the issue
4 stars
I picked up this book in a bookstore purely because of my own wrestle and interest in the topic. I came in with a (mistaken) understanding that the book would be a pithy scientific dissection on the practicalities and systems we can put in place to evaluate and respond to certain works of art. I was instead met with Dederer’s floating, autobiographical, feminist, conceptual, and emotional approach to the topic. At first I felt somewhat frustrated that the chapters weren’t ‘getting at’ the issue and what I wanted to know - I wanted an answer. By the end of the book, I felt Dederer’s piercing lens and intent emerge to spite me for my overly simplistic expectation of how one can or ought to respond to art by ‘monsters’. There are, in my view, some flaws to the work in the way she may throw out an assertion toward the …
I picked up this book in a bookstore purely because of my own wrestle and interest in the topic. I came in with a (mistaken) understanding that the book would be a pithy scientific dissection on the practicalities and systems we can put in place to evaluate and respond to certain works of art. I was instead met with Dederer’s floating, autobiographical, feminist, conceptual, and emotional approach to the topic. At first I felt somewhat frustrated that the chapters weren’t ‘getting at’ the issue and what I wanted to know - I wanted an answer. By the end of the book, I felt Dederer’s piercing lens and intent emerge to spite me for my overly simplistic expectation of how one can or ought to respond to art by ‘monsters’. There are, in my view, some flaws to the work in the way she may throw out an assertion toward the end without great dissection. Nevertheless, I found her writing very digestible and pleasant to read. I don’t know if Dederer has me entirely convinced of her conclusion (if one could call it that?) spoiler below, but her meandering analysis and reflective style has certainly provided depth to my understanding of my relationship with great art/science and the monsters behind them. If like me you want an answer to this problem of what we do with art by monsters, I would encourage you to read this, but be prepared to be left with many feelings and thoughts you want to discuss with someone who has also read it! Perhaps a good book club book?
One last thought is that Dederer takes her own experience/lens of the art world she lives in, so for those of us taken by other significant works, sometimes her references and descriptions of art and it’s artist falls a little flat without having her rich understanding of what she is writing about. I had to do some googling at times to add context.
Note: I would give a trigger warning for child sexual assault/ other assault described in some detail in various parts of the book.. particularly the first few pages.
*SPOILER: that our consumption is essentially meaningless
