Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson

5 reviews

notlikethebeer's review

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

This is probably the kind of book that each reader will take what they want from. For me, that was some of the discussion right at the end of the book, about the ethics and implications of providing the voice of perpetrators, which I found fascinated and inredibly relevant, at least to my own interests! However that's not to say that I didn't enjoy the rest of it, or find it interesting/useful, as I definitely did, and have found myself applying some of Nelson's analysis since reading! My major criticism is that it was quite academic, which is a sad departure from Nelson's usual knack for writing in an incredibly engaging and readable way. And it was, in some ways, 'before it's time' perhaps in that the past 10+ years would have made for plenty of fertile ground - I frequently caught myself thinking "hmm, that's just like [insert recent event]"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, and Torture

cmbooks8's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

2.0

An ironic and odd take on aesthetics written by a "better than thou" author who goes so far as to quip more than once about how superior her moral compass is, then bashing on her peers for enjoying "crude" art (page 60). Her arguments are coherent but clearly and irreparably bias, refusing to even consider another view as having a relevant point, occasionally taking her adversaries (Francis Bacon, Nietzsche, and others) quotes out of context to benefit her own argument. Her arguments are also full of an irony that she stands against shock horror as a form of desensitization, but she is entirely okay with randomly inserting detailed references to torture in sections where, frankly, it was uncalled for. 

I must hand it to Nelson, her writing is intriguing, and despite disagreeing with practically every point she made, I was engaged. It read with the equal power and view (but opposite reasoning) as the work of an Evangelical preacher. It was very upfront, and at times disrespectful, about the author's beliefs, and all in all it read as the equivalent of being screamed at over a phone call for having a different opinion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Islamophobia

bayrayj's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

I usually do not fall in love with non-fiction, but this book is different. Maybe because the author is as talented with poetic prose as she is with essay formatting, but no matter, I love Maggie Nelson and I love this book. As someone who indulges in true crime and “cruel” story telling this reading challenged me to consider why. Why I want to fill myself with that? Why these stories are so popular? What the goals are of the creator? Are they just or successful? I didn’t need to agree with every line to understand the importance of these questions in the world we navigate each day. The issues she brings up are only becoming more descreet. I’m my opinion, this book asks its reader, “do you know what you’re doing?” To which my answer was “no”.
The one issue I had was my difficulty recommending this book to others, as it falls into some of the traps it describes. Many of the references are given in such detail, and brought up so casually thoughts of rape, torture, and murder, that I feel it may be cruel to get friends to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Rape, Gore, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Misogyny, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Vomit, Excrement, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Suicide

These content warning happen in the discussion of their validity in connection to the content they were previously included in, not as story telling tools.

penofpossibilities's review

dark informative reflective

3.0

I started listing trigger warnings and then I realised. Its... its all of them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Gore, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Suicide, Child death, Blood, Mental illness, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Torture, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Sexism, Ableism, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Violence, Rape, Racism, Murder, Sexual violence, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Vomit, War, Infidelity, Addiction, Transphobia, Genocide, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and Homophobia

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Mass/school shootings

callmeamelia's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, Death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Torture, Slavery, and Vomit