Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences

Lawrence Weschler has collected convergences throughout his life. With EVERYTHING THAT RISES: A BOOK OF CONVERGENCES, he offers his thoughts on these resonations in a series of essays that are both personal and universal.

Weschler has a distinct knack for seeing in the floating lips of a Man Ray painting or in a photograph of a solitary cloud the backside of a nude Venus but his ruminations are much broader than art history. His agglutinating mind embraces poetry, Einstein, cuneiform tablets, prisons and politics. He skillful links these seemingly disparate subjects with one common element – his human response to them. The connection of imagery and ideas seems strangely familiar even if one has not previously considered these show more particular images juxtaposition. It might be human nature to find strange correspondences between things but few have the breadth of knowledge to link such wide-ranging subjects and fewer still would describe them with Weschler’s easy elegance. His musings offer delightful possibilities rather than prescriptions and he stops short of any forced conclusions.

Of particular interest are Weschler’s his discussion with photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who documented the World Trade Center site, in which he finds the beauty and stylistic echoes of Vermeer and early Civil War photography. Also moving is Weschler’s changing response to a photograph of a father and daughter as he and his own daughter reach the relative ages of those in the photograph.

This pleasing volume is bound (with the customary McSweeney’s care for design) in black cloth and features color reproductions of the paintings or photographs mentioned in the essays. It is an aesthetic delight to read. The short essays make it an ideal work to pick up and set down and I suspect I will return repeatedly to this unique book show less

Once Weschler started seeing relationships between images from disparate sources, he started seeing such relationships, and others (between stories and images, stories and stories, etc.) everywhere. He began to write these 'convergences' up over the years in a series of essays which eventually were collected and published by the good folks at McSweeney's.

Some of the connections seem a bit of a stretch and, at first, simply coincidence. Many may be coincidence, but the characteristics that tie these images and stories together are often numerous and repeated across centuries, leading Weschler (and this reader) to conclude that there are, at least, certain characteristics shared by these tools for passing on human experience which show more contribute, at least in part, to their power and timelessness.

The first essay, related to 9/11, is a bit too easy, since the emotional impact of this recent event remains strong in most, if not all, of us. But that doesn't minimize the value of what Weschler has to show us in these images (and their stories). After the first three essays, I was sold on the premise and felt that I was reading a book that provided a very special way of looking at the world and its images. Like any collection of essays not originally written as a single work, there are some which don't stand up quite as well as others, but overall, these are a fine collection of observations on today, history, art, image, and how humans percieve their world and the events that surround us.

Highly recommended.

Os. show less

Once Weschler started seeing relationships between images from disparate sources, he started seeing such relationships, and others (between stories and images, stories and stories, etc.) everywhere. He began to write these 'convergences' up over the years in a series of essays which eventually were collected and published by the good folks at McSweeney's.

Some of the connections seem a bit of a stretch and, at first, simply coincidence. Many may be coincidence, but the characteristics that tie these images and stories together are often numerous and repeated across centuries, leading Weschler (and this reader) to conclude that there are, at least, certain characteristics shared by these tools for passing on human experience which show more contribute, at least in part, to their power and timelessness.

The first essay, related to 9/11, is a bit too easy, since the emotional impact of this recent event remains strong in most, if not all, of us. But that doesn't minimize the value of what Weschler has to show us in these images (and their stories). After the first three essays, I was sold on the premise and felt that I was reading a book that provided a very special way of looking at the world and its images. Like any collection of essays not originally written as a single work, there are some which don't stand up quite as well as others, but overall, these are a fine collection of observations on today, history, art, image, and how humans percieve their world and the events that surround us.

Highly recommended.

Os. show less

After the first couple of essays I was forced to conclude that Weschler has an over-active imagination. It's an interesting imagination and he sees lots of interesting connections, but I'm more inclined to credit other reasons to the convergences than he does, such a fundamentals of human aesthetics that we don't understand, not to mention pure coincidence.

Really fascinating series of essays about how artists unconsciously echo each other in the images they use. Lots of great illustrations.
My favorite was the photo of the welder guy next to the painting of Mars (the god, not the planet).

Weschler writes compellingly about connections you might think of as a bit of a stretch at first. He'll have you looking at the world in a new way by the time you've read through the first series about the World Trade Center, though. With a beautiful binding and incredible color reproductions throughout. -Cory

Do you ever hear a new word or come across a certain concept or image and then seem to see it EVERYWHERE you go? This book is all about those convergences, and the author specifically pulls things from art, photography and other images. The text is interesting if you get into it, but it's also really fun to just browse the pages and look at the images, noticing all the connections.

Reviewed by: Betsy