Books, Books, Books

First, I want to answer the Wendesday One. My choice is the whole reason that I thought of the question, because I have homicidal temptations whenever I so much as think about this book, and figured that, while I might be a fascist extremist, I am probably not that far off from other people in these matters, only more honest.

So, I asked and so far there has been quite an outpouring of honesty.

Anyway, the one book that I would be happy to consign to the bonfires is a slim volume of Marxist art theory from a little twit named John Berger that is called Ways of Seeing. This book, a paperback in the Buckminster Fuller-too-much-sans-serif-bold style that screamed "The Future!" in 1972, was based on a BBC television series called Ways of Seeing. It should have died in 1978 as mere ephemera, a relic of hip, swinging London where fellows in Austin Powers regalia used trendy Marxist and feminist terminology to lure chicks to their pads for nefarious purposes (or perhaps each other to their pads for even more nefarious purposes).

However, Ways of Seeing offers the perfect mix of pre-digested, sound-bite stylings with enough agitprop to shame Brecht, all washed in a veneer of snide, ironic detachment (delivered in that annoying manner of speech that they tell me is called a "British accent." Perhaps, but it sounds like just another corrupted Low German dialect to me).

"The dumb fools might think that they are looking at a beautiful painting, but we know that what they are really doing is looking at a reproduction of an image that serves to stimulate desire, oppress women, blah blah blah." or in his own words (page 83):

"Oil paintings often depict things. Things which in reality are buyable. To have a thing painted and put on a canvas is not unlike buying it and putting it in your house. If you buy a painting you buy also the look of the thing it represents.

This analogy between possessing and the way of seeing which is incorporated in oil painting, is a factor usually ignored by art experts and historians."

Well it is probably ignored because it rings so hollow, is so patently minor a point, and is only partially true.

Berger is a Marxist. He is only concerned with power. He puts on shows financed by the BBC and his books are put out by Penguin Press. In other words, he represents the little guy. I imagine that if Michael Moore were smart enough, he would have an icon of Berger.

Anyway, this little turd of a book has the right blend of sneer, irony, Marxism, all pre-masticated, and has been tapped as an important text for Freshmen, especially in art history courses. I would bet that any given fall, any college bookstore in America has this book in the art history section of the textbook department.

There are some books that I periodically reread just to get my blood pressure moving. Tom Wolfe's idiotic, but slightly funny The Painted Word and From Bauhaus to Our House and Ways of Seeing top my list.

Wolfe,though, I find amusing. He is so notoriously fast and loose with his facts (particularly geography) that he makes a parody of himself, but seems to have the character to chuckle with us. John Berger (of course I am speaking of the ideal author, as I have no idea of the character of the actual John Berger - he might just be a cynic) is the sort who seems to need to be strangled with his silk scarf, and left to rot from the eaves of Saatchi and Saatchi as a warning to others.

Posted by erik at June 17, 2004 1:08 PM | TrackBack