Currently reading
Salt Fish Girl: A Novel
A Place of Greater Safety
Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale
The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
This book offers more of a consideration of cruelty in art and poetry than an argument; Nelson shies away from either critique or apologia, and what remains is more like a model for thoroughly and meaningfully analyzing art that can be considered "cruel." I appreciated the thoughtful steps Nelson takes to fairly consider her own subjective responses, the defense and criticism of quoted pieces, and the overall implications of cruelty in art. Her approach emphasizes the need for reflective space: space between the self and the artwork, space to think, space to be ambiguous.
