The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing

Delivery was fast and efficient and the product came to me in great condition, also just in time for my trip, which was the reason for purchasing the book in the first place. I had already been reading this book as a loan from the library, so I knew what to expect in terms of the content, but I was impressed by the quick delivery and good condition of the book.

James Elkins is a masterful writer. His work is very philosophical, though he is an art historian. I heartily recommend all of his books, but The Object Stares Back is my favorite. The books makes me sad, angry, creeped out, proud, excited... Elkins is masterful, clear, and insightful. He forces you to reconsider your ideas about what it means to see and to be seen. Great book.

James Elkins gives a lot of interesting speculation on the experience of seeing, but unfortunately, he fails to give much linkage of his subject to the experience of making and seeing art, which is curious in that the author is an art historian. He attaches a lot of importance to the idea that conventional seeing is a form of "blindness," that is, that conventional day-to-day seeing is extremely limited, but, again, he seems to be uninterested in the ways that artists remove these limits, both for themselves and their audience. So much of the writing is about how the author himself sees and does not see, that eventually I became bored, as one usually does listening to one person talk on and on about his own limited experience of a subject.

It was in great shape and delivered on time. It's an enjoyable read too. I can't wait to find out what other works James Elkins has.

LOVE this book. Have read it two times and am teaching out of it this semester.

Please do not buy if you are scientifically inclined. If you really want it, I can send you mine. I have to look and find it though, because it occupies a lot of space.Why am I saying this?Well, I have absolutely no problems with art critics, and no problems with scientists. But when I see an artistic/critic scientist wannabe (and vice versa), it makes me cringe. It is not that the combination is not possible; it is that some people try to project something that they are not, and honestly, it takes quite a bit of time to become competent at (either, let alone both). The point is that there is a total lack of rigor when providing scientific explanations. The author is the type of people that want to make quantum mechanics something esoteric and mysterious. I had to put the book down a quarter of the way because I thought I could spend my time better doing something else. I am really interested in the topics of this book, but unfortunately he is too superficial and pretentious. My shipping offer stands as long as I can find the book.

I remember reading SOMEWHERE-- a textbook on psychology, perhaps??-- that humans absorb about 70% of their world through their eyes. After reading this work, I am convinced it is paradoxically that the real percentage is BOTH less *AND* more than this figure. LESS because we are so often "blind" or unaware of what we see and the very NATURE of what we see and how we see at all. MORE, because so much rests on our ability to see AT ALL, especially in the late 20th century, and especially in our culture, which places such high value on sight (though, perhaps, less value on HOW we see or WHAT is seen). But, again, LESS, because we really don't THINK about what we see or *how* we see... Mr. Elkins, an art historian-- someone TRAINED to see, if you will-- has done much thinking on the topic and theory of sight and what it REALLY means to see. I admit, when I first got this book, I was afraid it would be the sort of dry, academic drivel that one would need to plow through with a dictionary at one's side, coming to the end almost gasping for breath, "there!! <pant, pant> I finished it!!" Not so at all. Mr. Elkins has written an extremely entertaining, thought provoking book on something we all do every day, often for every SECOND of the day (and isn't dreaming a form of seeing, after all, in it's own fashion??), and done it without heavy emphasis on academia, abstract or unknown concepts, or the general feeling-- that I have had in other arenas-- that he clearly wishes us to believe that he is SMARTER than the average reader, and needs to prove it through the use of highly technical jargon or impenetrable metaphor. Again, I say, "not at all." This is a very engaging, thought provoking work that I would heartily recommend to anyone even REMOTELY interested in the ideas behind sight and what is (and is NOT) seen. We do it all the time, every day, from birth to death, in most cases. The least we can do is to listen to a fine thinker like Mr. Elkins and hear HIS thoughts on this complicated, fascinating subject.

I like reading about art from craft to philosophy, but this book was a big disappointment. Too many words for too little substance, fuzzy thinking. He could have made his point in one chapter. If I weren't so lazy, I'd immediately put it back up for sale. Wasted space on my bookshelf, a example of an interesting notion, the kind you might wake up with, that never gets developed. Great title but the book -- stillborn.

A huge disappointment. As an artist I have read a huge amount on visual perception (many books). This added nothing to my knowledge and is plainly wrong in so many areas. Elkins is a revered art critic but this must be his worst work. No wonder it has not gone into a second edition. Just as one example he writes a whole chapter on how we see the face without any mention of the huge amount of science that has gone into it - like, for instance, the brain has a specific area devoted to the perception of faces.

I really wanted to like this book, but the author wandered all over the place and waffled on to such an extent that I gave up part way though. There did not seem to be any clear or coherent logic behind what he was saying, just a mish-mash of statememnts and propositions, and I really struggled to follow the rationale of his reasoning as I read through the book. Just seemed to be a jumbled together collection of subjective thoughts and musings. i don't recommend buying.

This is one of the most inspiring books. You get the whole unexpected range of angles of the World and objects we see. And defenately you'll change the way you see it into the way it sees you all the time. One of the best books of the art/ inspirational ever. Also highly recommend his book - How to use your Eyes, which is incredible. But there's more philosophy included in this one.

I haven't finished reading this because there is so much fascinating ideas on each page and chapter. it is a book to savour and think about...