Prejean, Sister Helen, 172–73
—Dead Man Walking, 31–32
Protestantism, 134–36, 137
Puritans, 134–36, 162–63
Rafelson, Bob, 82
Rancière, Jacques, 28, 47, 97, 117–18, 130
—The Emancipated Spectator, 24, 45
Réage, Pauline, 67
—Story of O, 183
Red Cross Torture Report, 41
Republican Party, 64, 138
RETORT, 46
—Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War, 43
Revelation, Book of, 207
Rhodes, Richard, “The Media Violence Myth,” 62
Rhys, Jean, 218
Richardson, John, 250
Rorty, Richard, 172
Rose, Jacqueline, 259
—The Haunting of Sylvia Plath, 243
Roth, Eli, 56, 60
Roth, Philip, 196
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17
Rubins, Nancy, 111, 116
Russell, John, 176
Ryman, Robert, 203
Sade, Marquis de, 16, 58, 183–85, 186
—120 Days of Sodom, 169, 256
—Philosophy in the Bedroom, 17–18, 69, 168–69
Saint-Point, Valentine de, “Manifesto of Futurist Woman,” 67–68
Saltz, Jerry, 187, 263
Salzberg, Sharon, Lovingkindness, 173–74
Sample, Kirk Douglas, 119–20
Sapphire, 67
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 163
Satan, 135–36, 243
Sawyer, Diane, 177
Scarry, Elaine, On Beauty and Being Just, 77, 191–92, 251
Schneemann, Carolee, 22, 30, 79, 103, 264
—Up To and Including Her Limits, 130
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 16
Scorsese, Martin, 66
Scott, A. O., 25, 91–92
Second Life, 49
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky, 58
—Epistemology of the Closet, 87
—Touching Feeling, 32, 161
September 11, 2001, 29, 43
Serenity Prayer, 251
Serra, Richard, 129
Serrano, Andres, Piss Christ, 53
Sessions, Senator Jeff, 138
Sexton, Anne, 138–39
—“In Celebration of My Uterus,” 87
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, The Cenci, 18
Shepard, Matthew, 198
Sherman, Cindy, 264
Siegelbaum, Sami, 115
Sierra, Santiago:
—160 cm Line Tattooed on 4 People, 127
—Polyurethane Sprayed on the Backs of 10 Workers, 128
—10 People Paid to Masturbate, 127–28
Simpson, O. J., 26, 167
Skarsgård, Stellan, 195
Skinner, Francis, 156
Skull and Bones, 63
Smith, Patti, 266
Solanas, Valerie, 67
Solis, Gary, 65
Solomon, Courtney, 56–57, 59–60
Sontag, Susan, 27, 28, 42, 43, 61, 213, 239, 265
—On Photography, 141–42
—Regarding the Pain of Others, 39, 45, 184
Sotomayor, Sonia, 137–38
Spears, Britney, 43
Spengler, Volker, 231
Spero, Nancy, Torture of Women, 75
Spicer, Jack, After Lorca, 216
Spielberg, Steven, Schindler’s List, 187–89
Stead, Christina, 67
Steinke, Darcey, 264–65
Stonex, Chuck, 36
Streb, Elizabeth, 123–25, 130
—Wild Blue Yonder, 124–25
Suicide Girls, 59
Sullivan, Andrew, 42
Supreme Court, U.S., 53, 137–38
Surrealism, 3, 19
Sutherland, Kiefer, 64
Suzuki, Daisetz T., “Zen and Swordsmanship,” 208
Sylvester, David, 6, 248
Taguba, General Antonio Mario, 70
Tanenhaus, Sam, 80–82, 196–97
Tanner, Reverend John, 177
Tarantino, Quentin, 188, 252
—Inglourious Basterds, 94
—Kill Bill, 82
Taylor, Barbara, On Kindness, 174
Tea Party, 36
Teena, Brandon, 197–98
Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition (TBSC), 35–37
Texas Virtual Border Watch Program, 35–37
Theroux, Alexander, The Primary Colors, 113–14
Thoreau, Henry David, 30
Thucydides, 137
To Catch a Predator, 33–34
Trecartin, Ryan, I-Be Area, 48–52
Tribe 8, 88
Trilling, Lionel, 7, 8
Trocchi, Alexander, 150, 261
—Cain’s Book, 147–49
Trungpa, Chögyam, 61–62, 249
Tutuola, Amos, 265
24, 57, 60–61, 62, 64
Twombly, Cy, 263
Union Carbide, 157–59
U Pandita, Sayadaw, 173, 174
Updike, John, 196
Victorian period, 69, 151–55
Viennese Actionism, 3, 20–22, 71, 99, 186
Vietnam War, 108, 115
Virginia Tech shootings (2007), 54, 66
Virno, Paolo, 45
Virtual Community Watch, 35–37
von Trier, Lars:
—Antichrist, 263
—Breaking the Waves, 195–97
—Dancer in the Dark, 195
—“Golden Heart” trilogy, 195–97
“WACK: Art and Feminist Revolution,” 75–80
Walker, Kara, 241–48, 259, 264
—8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America, A Moving Picture by Kara E. Walker, 244–48
—My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, 242
—Narratives of a Negress, 243
—“The Negress,” 242
—“Negress of Noteworthy Talent,” 242
—“Negress of Some Notoriety,” 242
—Texts, 244
—Why I Like White Boys, an Illustrated Novel by Kara E. Walker Negress, 243–44
Wardman, A. E., 23
Warhol, Andy, 185, 220
—Death and Disaster series, 240–41
—Empire, 37
—POPism, 126
—Vinyl, 125–26
Waters, John, 196
—Pink Flamingos, 103–4, 185–86, 187, 188
Watertown colony, 135–36
Watson, Emily, 195
Watts, Naomi, 264
Weegee, 263
Weil, Simone:
—Gravity and Grace, 176
—“The Iliad, or the Poem of Force,” 163–64, 175–76
Weissman, Benjamin, 58
Wenders, Wim, 239
Wesleyan University, 26–27
Western civilization, 4, 53, 168
West Point, U.S. Military Academy at, 64, 65
White, Mike, 66–67
Wieseltier, Leon, 245
Wilkes, Peter, 59
Williams, Heathcote, 22
Williams, Tennessee, 150
Williams, William Carlos, 136, 266
—“Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,” 140–41
—In the American Grain, 135
—“The Ivy Crown,” 139–40
Wilson, Representative Joe, 132
Winnicott, D. W., 267, 268
Winthrop, John, 135–36
<
br /> —“A Model of Christian Charity,” 135
Wiseman, Frederick, Titicut Follies, 126–27
Witness project, 37–38
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 47, 146, 155–57, 162, 216
Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse, 225–26
Wooster Group, The, North Atlantic, 122
World War I, 19, 189
World War II, 37, 240
Wuornos, Aileen, 73
Xe, 36
X-Files, The, 57
Yes Men, The, 157–61
YouTube, 29, 39
Zen Buddhism, 44, 207–9
Žižek, Slavoj, 11, 57–58
—Violence, 74
“
More praise for
The Art of Cruelty
A New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book of 2011
“The questions that Nelson raises about what it means for artists—and audiences—to delve into cruelty need to be addressed, thought about, discussed, debated. . . . [Nelson] forces us to think for ourselves—which, as Margaret Fuller knew, is often the critic’s greatest gift.”
—Susie Linfield, New Republic / The Book
“This is an important and frequently surprising book. . . . Nelson’s opinions can be quirky and hard to square with one another, but they never fail to be interesting. . . . Hopping like a jackrabbit between genres and media, including forays into the swamps of pop culture, Nelson is strongest when at her most rageful, writing with controlled fury at the anti-intellectualism and crassness of the present. . . . This book [is] unpredictable and original.”
—Laura Kipnis,
New York Times Book Review
“The Art of Cruelty is not a book for the squeamish or even the passive reader. It will upset and confuse, and even delight at times.”
—Rachel Syme, NPR Books
“[Nelson’s] open-mindedness toward questions of catharsis and its demands is what makes her book so fascinating. . . . Nelson is right to urge that we overcome our scruples and preconceptions and listen to what they are trying to tell us. Her struggles to follow her own advice are a useful reminder of just how hard that can be.”
—Alan Wolfe, Slate
“This is criticism at its best: evocative, plainspoken, with an unwavering point of view. As Nelson darts from artwork to artwork, using the lens of cruelty to shine her own particular light, there is a joy in both her conviction and her questions.”
—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
“Nelson is not trying to settle questions of law or policy; in fact, she isn’t much concerned with settling anything. What she wants to do is simply think her way carefully and creatively through an area in which sloppy sloganeering and crude moralizing have shut down the more interesting discussions before they could get started.”
—Troy Jollimore, Boston Globe
“In a world increasingly polarized by fundamentalism of various kinds, Nelson makes a compelling case for taking a new look at cruelty.”
—Patrick Langley, Times Literary Supplement
“Nelson . . . breathes life into debates about representations of violence. . . . Recommended.”
—K. L. Brintnall, Choice
“The book’s strength lies in [Nelson’s] frank, disarming and absolutely personal way of doing theory. Not only does this inevitably draw the reader in but it makes for a good read.”
—Eva Aldea,
Times Higher Education
“Maggie Nelson’s fascinating and supremely intelligent account asks what the point is of cruelty in art, with reference to these contemporary horrors and cultural representations of them.”
—Lesley McDowell,
Herald (Scotland)
“The gory, brutal images that swamp modern culture are stupefying and dehumanizing—or maybe not, argues this richly ambivalent study. . . . Nelson’s erudition and wide fluency in artistic and philosophical traditions yield many subtle, insightful readings.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Vivid prose that doesn’t hesitate to enthuse and extol one moment, while happily dispensing damning criticism where it’s due the next.”
—J. J. Charlesworth, ArtReview magazine
“[Nelson’s] generalizations can ring so true that they’re like hearing your own half-realized truths in someone else’s mouth. . . . Nelson is so strong on this last point—pondering how artists of cruelty hold our attention even as they strive to offend and terrify us.”
—Parul Sehgal,
Bookforum
“[Nelson has a] complex, fluidly expressed sensibility. . . . The Art of Cruelty is hard to stomach. It is also going to be hard to forget.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A fine survey recommended for any literary or artistic collection.”
—Midwest Book Review
Copyright © 2011 by Maggie Nelson
All rights reserved
First printed as a Norton paperback 2012
“Lustmord” by Jenny Holzer. Copyright 2010 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” by William Carlos Williams, from The Collected
Poems: Volume II, 1939–1962. Copyright 1944 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “The Ivy Crown” by William Carlos Williams, from The Collected Poems: Volume II, 1939–1962. Copyright 1953 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Her Beckett” from Decreation by Anne Carson. Copyright 2005 by Anne Carson. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Brief excerpts from various Sylvia Plath poems from The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath, edited by Ted Hughes. Copyright 1960, 1965, 1971, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath. Editorial material copyright 1981 by Ted Hughes. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers (from “Getting There,” “Fever 103,” “Elm,” “Tulips,” “The Surgeon at 2 a.m.,” “Lesbos,” “Three Women,” “Little Fugue,” “The Detective,” “Lady Lazarus,” “Daddy,” “The Rabbit Catcher,” “The Jailer,” “Event,” “Poem for a Birthday,” “The Moon and the Yew Tree”). Brief excerpts from “Ariel” and “Years” from Ariel: Poems by Sylvia Plath. Copyright 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 by Ted Hughes. Foreword by Robert Lowell. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers and Faber and Faber, Ltd.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
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Book design by Dana Sloan
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nelson, Maggie, 1973–
The art of cruelty : a reckoning / Maggie Nelson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-393-07215-0 (hardcover)
1. Cruelty in art. 2. Art—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Title. II. Title: Reckoning.
N8217.C792N45 2011
700'.453—dc22
2011001828
ISBN 978-0-393-34314-4 pbk.
eISBN 978-0-393-08223-4
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