From Time Out Chicago (5 out of 6 stars):
Drawing from a variety of inspirations—including works by Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, David Lynch, Chingy and the textile art of women in war-torn countries—this slender volume takes a look at brutality in American art, exploring the ways it shapes our attitudes toward a violent world.
The Abu Ghraib torture photos are a constant reference point in the book, and Griffith is just as curious about the public reaction to the images as he is about his own. His style and approach occasionally make the work read like a blog (“I’m standing under a streetlamp at the end of my street dressed as Captain James T. Kirk”), but the sensation consistently fades as Griffith finds new ways of getting to the marrow of a dizzying number of films, writings and life experiences.
Discussing The Exorcist, he writes: “The images of the little innocent girl writhing in pain… are truly grotesque images because they connect us with a point in the distance. [The Exorcist is] about a culture whose faith has been bred out of it—like chickens whose wings have been bred off, O’Connor famously said.”
Asking key questions about the state of our country’s faith and humanity without the crutch of an agenda, this book is a massively forceful piece of criticism.
Drawing from a variety of inspirations—including works by Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, David Lynch, Chingy and the textile art of women in war-torn countries—this slender volume takes a look at brutality in American art, exploring the ways it shapes our attitudes toward a violent world.
The Abu Ghraib torture photos are a constant reference point in the book, and Griffith is just as curious about the public reaction to the images as he is about his own. His style and approach occasionally make the work read like a blog (“I’m standing under a streetlamp at the end of my street dressed as Captain James T. Kirk”), but the sensation consistently fades as Griffith finds new ways of getting to the marrow of a dizzying number of films, writings and life experiences.
Discussing The Exorcist, he writes: “The images of the little innocent girl writhing in pain… are truly grotesque images because they connect us with a point in the distance. [The Exorcist is] about a culture whose faith has been bred out of it—like chickens whose wings have been bred off, O’Connor famously said.”
Asking key questions about the state of our country’s faith and humanity without the crutch of an agenda, this book is a massively forceful piece of criticism.