The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing Paperback – July 15, 1997

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.

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.

By paying careful attention to language, Elkins almost transcends the linear logic of prose to get at the complex, ambiguous nature of seeing. Sometimes he writes in a free, stream-of-consciousness way, and his musings can become oddly tangential, but he's always honest, humble, and sincere, and often he pierces through the obvious to capture the subtle ineffability of his subject.Some of the most stimulating parts of the book for me were the discussion of the power of objects; the idea of the visual field as containing complex topographies that attract and repel a viewer's attention; the inextricable connection between seeing and blindness; and, the centrality of the body and the face in human vision.Although the process of seeing is a mystery whose complexity will remain forever unfathomable, Elkins helps readers to enter into the mystery and to make us more aware of the vast beauty, subtlety, and complexity that we often fail to see in the world around us.

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 haven't read much of this book, because it contains images of the most awful thing I have ever seen, the 'death by a thousand cuts'. These pictures still haunt me, and the author uses them, claiming that they are disturbing because they represent somebody who is halfway between being alive and dead - I disagree - they are disturbing because they are scenes of an atrocity inflicted on a living being. (The victim was a woman who allegedly committed adultery in China, I'm not sure when the photos were taken but they look quite old).Those four pictures have destroyed any faith I ever had in human beings, they will probably do the same to you if you are unfortunate enough to ever see them.

I'm fascinated by this book since it tackles art and subject from several important perspectives -- aesthetic, philosophical, anthropological. The figure-field reversal is not often treated in such detail or with such interesting illustrations. The first image of a eunuch is extremely haunting and well placed to begin the discussion of our objectifying the world and often forgetting the humanity of those who we picture or study.I asked Elkins if I could borrow his title for a solo art show (this was several years ago) and he was gracious to allow me to do so. I mention this because I found Elkins to be one of those aware adventurers in the quest for who we are (and who we think we are) as defined by those objects in the world that stare back upon us.

This is not a review, but an account of my experience of reading Elkins' book. I found that my way of looking at the world shifted. The feeling of the writing seemed a blend of inner thoughts/feelings being shared with the reader. A gift for anyone interested in reconsidering what they think they know about their own eyesight. Elkins is a true teacher. (Apologies for the pretentious "real name" middle intial and suffix...trying to find a way to change that on Amazon)