Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson

3 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, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

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

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: 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