decafplease's review against another edition
4.0
April book
I assumed the essays would be composed of her meandering thoughts about what it means to be human. Well. I was wrong. Hustvedt is an academic and even though her writing is lucid and direct, she takes you all over the place: neuroscience, psychoanalysis, philosophy of modern art, linguistics, developmental science, historicism, anthropology, personal memories, reflection on academia, literary criticism, and film review. Because her approach is so interdisciplinary, she cites...a lot of people. Winnicott, Benjamin, Freud, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl, Kristeva, Fielding, Proust, Bloom, Sontag, Habermas, Baudrillard, Virilio, Bakhtin, Kuhn...and the list goes on. Basically I couldn’t just breeze through this book, which meant I had to carve out time to read this, or if I read this before bedtime, I’d be skimming a lot. Fav essays: the one about migraines, the one about disciplines as islands, the one about her father, the one about sleep, and the one about Goya.
I assumed the essays would be composed of her meandering thoughts about what it means to be human. Well. I was wrong. Hustvedt is an academic and even though her writing is lucid and direct, she takes you all over the place: neuroscience, psychoanalysis, philosophy of modern art, linguistics, developmental science, historicism, anthropology, personal memories, reflection on academia, literary criticism, and film review. Because her approach is so interdisciplinary, she cites...a lot of people. Winnicott, Benjamin, Freud, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl, Kristeva, Fielding, Proust, Bloom, Sontag, Habermas, Baudrillard, Virilio, Bakhtin, Kuhn...and the list goes on. Basically I couldn’t just breeze through this book, which meant I had to carve out time to read this, or if I read this before bedtime, I’d be skimming a lot. Fav essays: the one about migraines, the one about disciplines as islands, the one about her father, the one about sleep, and the one about Goya.
auroralibrialis's review
4.0
Siri Hustvedt has a brilliant mind. In this collection she draws from her extensive knowledge within the fields of neuroscience, psychology, literature and art, as well as from her own life and personal experiences, to explore topics like memory, identity, perception and language. What happens in our brains when we remember, when we imagine, when we look at art? What is the self? What is reality?
These essays are erudite, compelling and very accessible. My only complaint is that it got somewhat repetitive towards the end. Probably a natural consequence of the fact that she wrote these essays over a period of 8 years and for different audiences.
For anyone interested in dipping their toes into her non-fiction:
Notes on Seeing
Knausgård Writes Like a Woman
These essays are erudite, compelling and very accessible. My only complaint is that it got somewhat repetitive towards the end. Probably a natural consequence of the fact that she wrote these essays over a period of 8 years and for different audiences.
For anyone interested in dipping their toes into her non-fiction:
Notes on Seeing
Knausgård Writes Like a Woman
amazingmyrsky's review against another edition
I read 3/4 of the book, I did not enjoy it, so I decided to not finish it
readinternationally's review against another edition
5.0
The best book of essays I've read in a long time. I especially like the thinking part of the essays. Her experience in various disciplines, such as psychoanalysis, psychology, philosophy, literature, cultural studies, the arts is so grand, and her musings on interesting topics that are cross-cut between these areas are informative and really enjoyable.
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