Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson

3 reviews

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: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Islamophobia

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

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

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Pandemic/Epidemic

callmeamelia's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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