Monsters
What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
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Monsters
Narrated by:
Claire Dederer
Buy Now for ₹500.00
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Narrated by:
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Claire Dederer
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Written by:
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Claire Dederer
About this listen
What do we do with the art of monstrous men? Can we love the work of Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, Hemingway and Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is history an excuse? What makes women artists monstrous? And what should we do with beauty, and with our unruly feelings about it?
Claire Dederer explores these questions and our relationships with the artists whose behaviour disrupts our ability to apprehend the work on its own terms. She interrogates her own responses and her own behaviour, and she pushes the fan, and the listener, to do the same. Morally wise, deeply considered and sharply written, Monsters gets to the heart of one of our most pressing conversations.
(P) 2023 Penguin Audio©2023 Claire Dederer
Critic Reviews
What a treat it is: funny, lively and convivial, constantly in argument with itself . . . Dederer's tone and willingness to be wrong and confused, along with her seductive, intimate style, bring the subject to new life . . . how rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read. How moving, too, the underpinning adoration that allows the difficult questions to be asked. You are left wishing Dederer would apply her generous mind to every other niggling unfinished hang-up that haunts our culture (Megan Nolan)
In a world that wants you to think less - that wants, in fact, to do your thinking for you - Monsters is that rare work, beyond a book, that reminds you of your sentience. It's wise and bold and full of the kind of gravitas that might even rub off (Lisa Taddeo)
Personal, open-hearted and intellectually playful (50 of this year's best non-fiction books)
Witty and conversational . . . It's a book full of the nuance that the cancel culture debate so often lacks (*Books of the Year*)
Enthralling, challenging and downright unsettling . . . smart and provocative . . . Monsters is a vital book for our times, and it offers so much rich food for thought (Martin Chilton)
Thrilling
A properly honest and passionate book that will help set this debate alive (Andrew Marr)
An exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life. This timely book inhabits both the marvellous and the monstrous with generosity and wit (Jenny Offill)
Exhilarating (Kathryn Hughes)
Excellent . . . Frank . . . A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book's mission (Melissa Febos)
Monsters is an incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time. It's thrillingly sharp, appropriately doubtful, and more fun than you would believe, given the pressing seriousness of the subject matter. Claire Dederer's mind is a wonder, her erudition too; I now want her to apply them to everything I'm interested in so I can think about them differently (Nick Hornby)
A hot and urgent monologue structured around a problem without a solution . . . The conclusion to this immersive and doubtlessly important book is both tentative and bold (Frances Wilson)
Part memoir, part treatise, and all treat . . . nimble, witty . . . her exquisitely reasoned vindication of Lolita brought tears to my eyes . . . This is a book that looks boldly down the cliff of roiling waters below and jumps right in, splashes around playfully, isn't afraid to get wet. How refreshing
A timely interrogation of the eternal question: can you separate the art from the artist? It showed me my bookshelves, my record collection, the pictures and films I love - even myself - in a new, unflinching light. I'm pressing it into the hands of everyone I know. (Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key)
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