BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) hosts a book-club-style discussion of Claire Dederer's book, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma, Thursday, April 9, at 5:30 p.m.
The event is part of the museum's new series, BMAC Reads - Conversations About Books About Art.
In this book, Dederer asks: Can we love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity?
"Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters has incited a cultural conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art," wrote organizers in a news release.
In a 2023 review in The New Yorker, Melissa Febos describes Monsters as "Excellent [...] A work of deep thought and self-scrutiny that honors the impossibility of the book's mission. Dederer comes to accept her love for the art that has shaped her by facing the monstrous, its potential in herself, and the ways it can exist alongside beauty and pathos. Go ahead, she tells us, love what you love. It excuses no one."
A longtime contributor to The New York Times, Claire Dederer is a memoirist, essayist, and critic. Her essays, criticism, and reviews have appeared in such publications as The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Nation, and Vogue. She began her career as the chief film critic for Seattle Weekly.
The April 9 conversation at BMAC will be moderated by Elizabeth Catlin. A resident of Dummerston, Catlin describes herself as a voracious reader and board member of the Brattleboro Literary Festival and Vermont Community Foundation. She is the immediate past board chair at the Brattleboro Retreat and current chair of the national board for Girls on the Run.
Admission is free for BMAC members, $10 for everyone else. Participants are expected to have read the book beforehand. Space is limited, and advance registration is required. To register, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
BMAC Reads is supported in part by a gift in memory of Lorraine K. Wiesen, a lover of books and art.
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