Synopsis
Taking up the case for the much-maligned--or, worse, ignored--subject of beauty, Scarry argues not only for its inherent value, and the value of paying attention to it, but suggests that cultivating an understanding or an appreciation of beauty can lead to a desire for truth and a more persistent belief in a just society.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2001-10-15 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 144 pages | | Height: | 7.0 in | | Width: | 4.5 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 5.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
"It is encouraging to have this utterly original blast for beauty now from the Harvard English department, where Scarry is a professor. It is not too late. Scarry, unlike her great 19th-century predecessors, does not preach, and in her short book does not even lecture. In a light and allusive and gentle and unpolemical style, she insinuates that we might learn to look and to listen better and to attend more closely to shapes and forms in art and nature, and to protect any beautiful things that we haphazardly encounter as we stumble along under the growing weight of the dull and indifferent things, which are always supposed to support us and which we are to take seriously. Ms. Scarry makes a strong case for concentrating seriously on Matisse and colors...and ferns and feathers."
Hampshire
"[Scarry's] book is full of striking observations about beauty in and beyond the arts. They spring from remarks on the impulse beauty stirs in us to perpetuate or duplicate it....[But] Scarry's argument about beauty is marred by an intellectual laziness...."
Baker
"[Scarry] draws a convincing connection between our desire to clarify and reproduce the beautiful things we see (usually through art) and our desire to clarify and reproduce the knowledge of our fellow men (usually through education)....Scarry makes a fascinating case that seeing beauty reminds us of our own marginality, and therefore our equalness to other people. And she very skillfully defies traditional political criticisms of beauty."
Boston Review - Meredith Petrin
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