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Monsters

What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?

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Monsters

By: Claire Dederer
Narrated by: Claire Dederer
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About this listen

 A passionate, provocative and blisteringly smart interrogation of how we experience art in the age of #MeToo, and whether we can separate an artist's work from their biography.

What do we do with the art of monstrous men? Can we love the work of Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, Hemingway and Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is history an excuse? What makes women artists monstrous? And what should we do with beauty, and with our unruly feelings about it?

Claire Dederer explores these questions and our relationships with the artists whose behaviour disrupts our ability to apprehend the work on its own terms. She interrogates her own responses and her own behaviour, and she pushes the fan, and the listener, to do the same. Morally wise, deeply considered and sharply written, Monsters gets to the heart of one of our most pressing conversations.

(P) 2023 Penguin Audio©2023 Claire Dederer Art Ethics & Morality Literary History & Criticism Philosophy

Critic Reviews

What a treat it is: funny, lively and convivial, constantly in argument with itself . . . Dederer's tone and willingness to be wrong and confused, along with her seductive, intimate style, bring the subject to new life . . . how rare and nourishing this sort of roaming thought is and what a joy to read. How moving, too, the underpinning adoration that allows the difficult questions to be asked. You are left wishing Dederer would apply her generous mind to every other niggling unfinished hang-up that haunts our culture (Megan Nolan)
In a world that wants you to think less - that wants, in fact, to do your thinking for you - Monsters is that rare work, beyond a book, that reminds you of your sentience. It's wise and bold and full of the kind of gravitas that might even rub off (Lisa Taddeo)
Personal, open-hearted and intellectually playful (50 of this year's best non-fiction books)
Witty and conversational . . . It's a book full of the nuance that the cancel culture debate so often lacks (*Books of the Year*)
Enthralling, challenging and downright unsettling . . . smart and provocative . . . Monsters is a vital book for our times, and it offers so much rich food for thought (Martin Chilton)
Thrilling
A properly honest and passionate book that will help set this debate alive (Andrew Marr)
An exhilarating, shape-shifting exploration of the perilous boundaries between art and life. This timely book inhabits both the marvellous and the monstrous with generosity and wit (Jenny Offill)
Exhilarating (Kathryn Hughes)
Excellent . . . Frank . . . A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book's mission (Melissa Febos)
Monsters is an incredible book, the best work of criticism I have read in a very long time. It's thrillingly sharp, appropriately doubtful, and more fun than you would believe, given the pressing seriousness of the subject matter. Claire Dederer's mind is a wonder, her erudition too; I now want her to apply them to everything I'm interested in so I can think about them differently (Nick Hornby)
A hot and urgent monologue structured around a problem without a solution . . . The conclusion to this immersive and doubtlessly important book is both tentative and bold (Frances Wilson)
Part memoir, part treatise, and all treat . . . nimble, witty . . . her exquisitely reasoned vindication of Lolita brought tears to my eyes . . . This is a book that looks boldly down the cliff of roiling waters below and jumps right in, splashes around playfully, isn't afraid to get wet. How refreshing
A timely interrogation of the eternal question: can you separate the art from the artist? It showed me my bookshelves, my record collection, the pictures and films I love - even myself - in a new, unflinching light. I'm pressing it into the hands of everyone I know. (Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key)
All stars
Most relevant
I was drawn to this book because it seemed to be addressing the exact question I was asking: can we reconcile monstrous creators and their glorious art? This book does more than ponder this question, though. Part memoir, social commentary, literary critique, it shows that the problem is bigger than a simple question.
I’m grateful for this book and for Dededer’s brain. What a brilliant read.

Fascinating book

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Claire Dederer has written an eloquent, thought provoking, critical and educational book about a topic that is difficult to approach. It would have been easy to describe the monsters and insist that’s the only category they fit in. Instead, Dederer digs deeper and shows the reader that the monsters can be more human than what we like to admit. At no point does Dederer excuse the monsters and their behaviour but she focuses on the fact that the current patriarchal systems protect them and that it’s hard to take them down easily. In addition, Dederer makes a case for being able to do both - love the art (movie, book, painting) but hate the monster behind it. To finish her book, Dederer examines whether she (and we as a collective) are monsters and the attempted answers are uncomfortable but presented in a way that allows the reader to reflect safely and with encouragement.

Outstanding book

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Claire Dedererer's book doesn't give simple answers, but instead explores the question with well considered possibilities of how we should approach art

well researched and we'll written

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I think I need to actually read this book. It listened like a podcast and I enjoyed listening to the author narrate but there are so many thoughtful points that become lost in the thick of it. A fairly short book under 10 hours of listening.
My feeling is the ongoing importance of education for the young so they can be empowered to make good decisions when they come up against a dark situation. We need more books like this and more teachers. Michelle Obama is one such person.

Important ideas to grapple with

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The audiobook was fabulously read - I enjoyed the memoir aspects of the author’s background and learned about some new people through this book! I appreciated the acknowledgement of privilege and the existential idea of humans making meaning - in the sense, what it means to be a mother and/or artist. Ultimately, continuing to follow or support, read or listen to a ‘monster’ is totally subjective - we find and make meaning of the strangest things as humans…

Ultimately, subjective!

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