A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind

I first discovered Siri Hustvedt on my bookstagram. After reading this book to my dismay I wondered how I have not heard of her. These essays are so thought provoking and satisfying to the curious intellect. She challenges a lot of the dogma in the fields of science especially the dualistic Cartesian methodologies. She notices the patriarchal obsession and affinity with artificial general intelligence and creating a conscious sentient being psychoanalytically is an attack on the feminine. Man to create life without the woman’s body. I can go on and on but you have to read it for yourself. Highly recommended!

I bought this for the title essay and (not having looked as closely at the product description as I should have), I was somewhat taken aback to recieve a very substantial volume of brilliant, beautifully reasoned essays by this incredible writer. When it arrived, I just sort of opened it at random to have a look at what it was all about, expecting to read the title essay and move on. But I couldn't put it down. I'm not kidding. I walked around reading it all the time for almost 3 days! Not since Anne Fadiman's last book have I been as entranced by a work of essays.

I always say, the top reason I read is not to be entertained or moved. I read in the hope of finding out I'm not alone. I haven't finished this large work yet, because I'm savoring it. But in just the first hundred pages I can say with delight, "She gets me." Hustvedt even addresses feelings I never knew I felt, and I am so comforted and grateful. And I'm grateful to Paul Auster in the New York Times book review for recommending this fantastic mind.

Siri Hustvedt is a remarkable writer whose prose is as lyrical as it is deep and thought-provoking. The subjects in her essays are as diverse as can be in the realms of art, sex, and mind. Art and mind have plenty of correlation, as almost anything can have a correlation with the mind. But why did Hustvedt choose ‘sex’ to join art as a companion to mind? This collection of essays is the next layer of thoughts that Hustvedt is releasing for public examination. Her novel ‘The Summer without Men’ was published at a time when questions arose about her marriage with Paul Auster. She also remembers injustices that she has faced such as the accusation that her first novel was actually written by her husband.The answer to the above question is that Siri Hustvedt is a strong, forceful feminist. One can stop here since she acknowledges that term herself in the book, but a little more comment is needed since she does not seem to care much about other kinds of feminists. She exudes the persona and aura that only like-minded feminists count, even though she acknowledges that ‘Feminist theory’ is hardly a bulwark of consensus. There has been and continues to be a lot of infighting’ among feminists. There is no discernment between types of men nor types of women as far as Hustvedt is concerned, there is only them (men), and us (women). This attitude illuminates every page of her book.She assumes that all men are oppressive to women and therefore she has to put them down and criticise them at every turn, and her jabs are cutting. But many of her attacks are on men who lived in a different era; men like C P Snow. She attacks dead artists – Picasso, Max Beckmann, and Willem de Kooning with undisguised contempt not just for the way they portray women, but also for their attitude to women.But why is this necessary? Those are poor subjects for contempt. Their era and personal time on earth are gone. Hustvedt’s trenchant and comprehensive disdain for the male and all forms masculine (though she had a dog named Jack) will alienate not only other feminists but also men who believe in equality – men who believe not only in equality for women, but equality for all and for all things, race, nationality, and wealth. Sometimes the wound gets worse the more it is pricked. The cause against male chauvinists is not won by women becoming female chauvinists. Hustvedt’s way will not change the cause, it changes only the shape of the battle. Hustvedt thinks that misogyny is alive and well because Hillary Clinton is not becoming the President of America because she is a woman. This view smudges a lot of dirt into truth and makes truth-seeking difficult. Women for Trump will counter that Hustvedt is really saying that Hillary must be President because she is a woman. Both views are wrong and are non-egalitarian.Hustvedt has a talent that has not been fully realised, because this book, so brilliantly written, traversing so many ideas, and touching even on her own mysterious neurological symptom (she does not call it a disorder), may only appeal to feminists in her own mould, and to men looking at women looking at men. The vast general public may be weighed down by the constant beating of the anti-misogyny drum. Does Hustvedt care? She may not, but the cause for equality is as universal as it is strong, and people who fight for it, men and women, will not falter under such Hustvedtian-friendly fire. This book is, nonetheless, brilliant, so stay calm and read on.

Of references to the woman’s condition. Three phrases at the end of some essays. Otherwise, a book on critical thinking, with accent on the author’s favorite reads.

I love it! Such an interesting book it’s just what you need to read & need to know.

i am enjoying this book immensely. Get it if you love being a female or a male who wants a female perspective.

Its title made me buy this book. What could I learn from this author yet unknown to me. A woman usually has a different voice and also experiences the world differently from a man. The title promised some sparkling writing and valuable insights. Actually, this 550 pages collection of independent pieces is a roller-coaster in terms of quality of writing and interest. Occasional gemstones can be scraped out of heaps of dense charcoal slag. Siri Hustvedt's insistence about writing about herself is tiresome, Kierkegaard is not a good excuse. Siri H. has a very high opinion of herself, but she is not able to converse with her reader like, say, Montaigne. Too often the reader does not feel he is in good hands. The opening essay, which gives this volume its catchy title does not work without visual access to the paintings of the three artists Siri H. writes about with intensity. In other reprints of her work, the book is best when Siri H. does not talk about herself. This is when you encounter flashes of insights. After a few pages, I stopped reading the dense and turgid 220 pages of Part II about "The delusion of certainty." When it comes to the mind-body relationship Siri H. falls far behind the beautiful clarity and scientific insights on the same issue of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio in his book "Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain. " I did not try to read Part III. The titles did not appeal to me: Shouldn't I expect further intense darkness,self-absorption and ponderous academic writings? When it comes to "Art, Sex and the Mind", which is the (commercial) subtitle of Hustvedt' book, I much prefer to go to a book by Chinese-British writer and film-maker Xiaolu Guo right now..

L'impression est très mauvaise on lit mal les mots. Le papier est très épais et poreaux. Edition du livre très médiocre.

A series of long essays, the most interesting for me was the one dealing with the so called brain mind issue.This part is over 200 pages long and is quite accurate in depicting writers of the far past and the present on this issue.However there is no index at the end of the book so I had to flick through all two hundred plus pages to see that there was no mention of Julian Jaynes and his theory of the origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind.This reference would have added valuable information to how human consciousness might have evolved in pre historic times leading to a belief in an external source of speech eventually attributed to God.The author disagrees with the Cartesian or dualistic model and wisely is more holistic in her approach.Well written and dense with insight this is the kind of book I first check out of the library but then soon after realize it is good enough to actually purchase here online. I got the book delivered to my door for next day shipping at no extra charge due to the prime subscription.Thank you Siri Hustvedt for making this series of intelligent essays available in one volume.Daniel Reicher in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

love hustvedt's essay on louise bourgeois. if you are interested in bourgeois, you should definitively read "my louise bourgeois". must-read!

I fundamentally disagree with some things in this book but I worry that if I met Prof Hustvedt she'd persuade me I was wrong and that terrifies me.

This book is very dedicated. Not complex, but kind of complex for those who do not really understand the sense which the author adores in her life.