A searching and learned response to vexing, long-debated questions.
Art as communication, transaction, and philosophy.
In a stimulating and wide-ranging investigation of the meaning of art, Noë (Philosophy/Univ. of California; Varieties of Presence, 2012, etc.) acknowledges the complexity of his questions: “What is Art? Why does it matter to us? What does it tell us about ourselves?” The author likens art to philosophy: both are practices that ask us to examine how we organize ourselves and open up the possibility for reorganization. Art, he writes, “investigates or exposes by destabilizing.” Like John Dewey, whose Art as Experience (1934) he repeatedly evokes, Noë believes that the “aesthetic attitude is thoughtful and inquiring…natural and universal.” The author is skeptical of both evolutionary and neuroscientific perspectives that posit biological or materialist theories about art, both of which he sees as reductionist. Evolutionary theories, Noë argues, “tend to be empty. They don’t tell us why we make art or why art is valuable for us. They don’t bring the art in art into focus.” As a researcher and member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the University of California, he feels “skeptical of the prospects for an empirical neuroscience of art,” since responses to art are never merely emotional but rather “more like judgments…shaped by our knowledge and background and experience and the larger culture and shared attitudes.” Noë sees technology as the precondition of art. Humans “are designers by nature” for whom technology extends into language and picture making. Writing enables communication but also shapes thought. Pictures, too, “are moves or gestures in a familiar communication game,” but Noë distinguishes between functional design and art, which provokes because it is strange and subversive. Every work of art—including music, dance, and the visual arts—“propositions you to see it, to comprehend it…to reorganize, and also to catch yourself in the act.”
A searching and learned response to vexing, long-debated questions.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8090-8917-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.
An analysis of our emotions and the skills required to understand them.
We all have emotions, but how many of us have the vocabulary to accurately describe our experiences or to understand how our emotions affect the way we act? In this guide to help readers with their emotions, Brackett, the founding director of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, presents a five-step method he calls R.U.L.E.R.: We need to recognize our emotions, understand what has caused them, be able to label them with precise terms and descriptions, know how to safely and effectively express them, and be able to regulate them in productive ways. The author walks readers through each step and provides an intriguing tool to use to help identify a specific emotion. Brackett introduces a four-square grid called a Mood Meter, which allows one to define where an emotion falls based on pleasantness and energy. He also uses four colors for each quadrant: yellow for high pleasantness and high energy, red for low pleasantness and high energy, green for high pleasantness and low energy, and blue for low pleasantness and low energy. The idea is to identify where an emotion lies in this grid in order to put the R.U.L.E.R. method to good use. The author’s research is wide-ranging, and his interweaving of his personal story with the data helps make the book less academic and more accessible to general readers. It’s particularly useful for parents and teachers who want to help children learn to handle difficult emotions so that they can thrive rather than be overwhelmed by them. The author’s system will also find use in the workplace. “Emotions are the most powerful force inside the workplace—as they are in every human endeavor,” writes Brackett. “They influence everything from leadership effectiveness to building and maintaining complex relationships, from innovation to customer relations.”
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-21284-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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