Monsters cover art

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.

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

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Critic reviews

"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)

"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)

"A blisteringly erudite and entertaining read. Dederer holds the moral ambiguity of her subject matter, landing her arguments with precision and flair. It's a book that deserves to be widely read and will provoke many conversations." (Nathan Filer)
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Articulates the problem in how you can love the art of questionable artists concisely to your own moral compass. Far from simple, very compelling and personal. I highly recommend this.

Separating art from the disgraces of its creator.

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This book began with deep analysis on problematic figures but then took a sharp turn to meandering memoir which I didn’t expect or particularly enjoy.

Lost its Way

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I don't think there is anything I got like about this book. I would recommend it.

interesting and difficult subject, dealt with in a brilliant and articulate way

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Made me laugh out loud but also made me shudder. This is such an interesting and various book- I highly recommend it

Full of interesting ideas

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i have been having conversations about separating artists from art for years. but seemingly more frequently of late as more and more of our so called heroes are revealed to be, at the very least, problematic. so when i came across the abridged version of this book serialised on radio 4’s ‘book of the week’ it was minutes before i’d come here and downloaded it in full.

claire dederer, in writing this book, has taken on a mammoth task. and done it so adeptly i feel changed by it. her understanding and rigorous analysis of our responses to art and its inextricable link to artist has provided innumerable insights for me. and she has done it so compassionately and candidly, incorporating elements of autobiography and countless admissions of her own fallibility (for we are all fallible - part of the point of the book).

feminism, anti-racism, anti-capitalism, transgender rights and humanitarianism are all rolled into it and incorporated with as much self-awareness as is possible. it is an ambitious and important book. and i was deeply moved by the end of it.

i can’t wait to listen to it again. and carry on talking about it, being inspired by it and poorly paraphrasing parts of it. i can’t recommend it enough.

the book i needed

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This is a tricky subject. I had moments when I wanted to delete the book and move to something else, but I pushed on and was glad I did. The last 30 mins capture the argument. Recommended.

Overall a Good Listen.

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I heard extracts of this book and decided it was worth a listen. The early chapters are great and were really engaging and thought provoking. I felt it lost it's way towards the end as it became a little too much about the author rather than the artists. But it was enjoyable, entertaining and eye opening. I have already started recommending it to friends to read.

A fascinating exploration of a moral dilemma

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Very interesting and human. A very well put together book. Loved it. Very thought provoking. Also above all human.

Very good

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This is a book speaking to one of the most pressing and perplexing moral dilemmas in the current world. I cannot imagine how it could have been addressed more intelligently or more compassionately. No one is excused. You finish questioning your own responses and complicity but ultimately with a sense of the nature of the problem, in all its nuances, Perhaps it is the timing, the urgent current need to which this book responds, but I felt it was one of the best works of non fiction I had ever read. It is also fluidly, joyfully, accessible, written with clarity, humour and tremendous honesty. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

Timely and extraordinary

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The dilemma of good books written by nasty people always bothered me However,I feel that even if the asuthor was a nasty personality, as long as it didnt enter the book, I don't mind was that we don't always know what are the artists like. Even if they are on the oposite of politicall and other spectrums, as long as their nasty opinions don't enter the book, If they do, that is different,
This book talks very interestingly about this problem.

I often wondered about this

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