Lorraine Daston wrote a terrific book about ten years ago with Katherine Park entitle Wonder and The Order of Nature. That book examines the crossover between art (wonder/imagination) and science (nature/reality)in the Enlightenment. A spectacular book! I'll surely read this new book and presume it will continue the discourse that will tell us more about the merging of the "Two Cultures". WC
--- On Wed, 10/15/08, Frances Kelly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: Frances Kelly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Request for Report or Reply > To: "Aesthetics List" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2008, 8:16 AM > If any listers have some insights on this book, please share > them. > > "Things That Talk: Object Lessons from Art and > Science" > Collected essays by editor Lorraine Daston > Zone publishers, new 2007, paperback, 250 pages, 6x9 inches > > US list price $22.00 to sale price $15.00 > > Product Descriptions: > Imagine a world without things. There would be nothing to > describe, nothing to explain, remark, interpret, or > complain > about. Without things, we would stop speaking; we would > become as > mute as things are alleged to be. In nine original essays, > internationally renowned historians of art and of science > seek to > understand how objects become charged with significance > without > losing their gritty materiality. True to the particularity > of > things, each of the essays singles out one object for close > attention: a Bosch drawing, the freestanding column, a > Prussian > island, soap bubbles, early photographs, glass flowers, > Rorschach > blots, newspaper clippings, paintings by Jackson Pollock. > Each is > revealed to be a node around which meanings accrete > thickly. But > not just any meanings: what these things are made of and > how they > are made shape what they can mean. Neither the pure texts > of > semiotics nor the brute objects of positivism, these things > are > saturated with cultural significance. Things become > talkative > when they fuse matter and meaning; they lapse into > speechlessness > when their matter and meanings no longer mesh. Each of the > nine > objects examined in this book had its historical moment, > when the > match of this thing to that thought seemed irresistible. At > these > junctures, certain things become objects of fascination, > association, and endless consideration; they begin to talk. > Things that talk fleetingly realize the dream of a perfect > language, in which words and world merge. > > Essay Contributions: > Lorraine Daston, Peter Galison, Anke te Heesen, Caroline A. > Jones, Joseph Leo Koerner, Antoine Picon, Simon Schaffer, > Joel > Snyder, and M. Norton with Elaine M. Wise > > Review Revelations: > "Dense with erudition and pleasingly light on its > scholarly > feet." > - Kirkus Reviews > "This collection is a feast for students of art, > modern Western > history, and philosophy. Recommended for academic and > university > libraries..." > - Francisca Goldsmith, Library Journal > "What is fascinating in this collection is the diverse > ways in > which the authors, whose backgrounds and intellectual > styles > differ significantly, attempt to comprehend not just their > fascination with certain objects but also to describe > meaningfully the objects' widespread uses. Important, > useful, > beautiful things are in this sense things that matter. > Things > that matter have meaning. And meaningful things are things > that > talk." > - Miguel Tamen, University of Lisbon
