Fear, Reverence, Terror
We are surrounded by images, fairly drowning in them. From our cell phones to our computers, from our televisions at home to the screens that light up while we wait in the grocery store checkout line, images of all kinds are seducing us, commanding us to buy!, scaring us, dazzling us. "Fear, Reverence, Terror" invites us to look at images slowly, with the help of a few examples: Picasso's Guernica, the "Lord Kitchener Wants You" World War I recruitment poster, Jacques-Louis David's Marat, the frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, a cup of gilded silver with scenes from the conquest of the New World. Are these political images, Carlo Ginzburg asks? Yes, because every image is, in a sense, political – an instrument of power. Tacitus once wrote, unforgettably, that we are enslaved by lies of which we ourselves are the authors. Is it possible to break this bond? "Fear, Reverence, Terror" will answer this question.
About the Author
Carlo Ginzburg is professor emeritus at Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of many books, including "The Cheese and the Worms", "The Night Battles", and "Myths, Emblems, and Clues".
