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The Ugly History of Beautiful Things
Essays on Desire and Consumption
0 of 1 copy available
April recommended reading by the New York Times Book Review, Vanity Fair, Goodreads, Jezebel, Christian Science Monitor, All Arts, and the Next Big Idea Club
One of Curbed's and Globe and Mail's (Toronto) best books of the spring
A most anticipated book of 2023 by The Millions
Katy Kelleher has spent much of her life chasing beauty. As a child, she uprooted handfuls of purple, fragrant little flowers from the earth, plucked iridescent seashells from the beach, and dug for turquoise stones in her backyard. As a teenager she applied glittery shimmer to her eyelids after religiously dabbing on her signature scent of orange blossoms and jasmine. And as an adult, she coveted gleaming marble countertops and delicate porcelain to beautify her home. This obsession with beauty led her to become a home, garden, and design writer, where she studied how beautiful things are mined, grown, made, and enhanced. In researching these objects, Kelleher concluded that most of us are blind to the true cost of our desires. Because whenever you find something unbearably beautiful, look closer, and you'll inevitably find a shadow of decay lurking underneath.
In these dazzling and deeply researched essays, Katy Kelleher blends science, history, and memoir to uncover the dark underbellies of our favorite goods. She reveals the crushed beetle shells in our lipstick, the musk of rodents in our perfume, and the burnt cow bones baked into our dishware. She untangles the secret history of silk and muses on her problematic prom dress. She tells the story of countless workers dying in their efforts to bring us shiny rocks from unsafe mines that shatter and wound the earth, all because a diamond company created a compelling ad. She examines the enduring appeal of the beautiful dead girl and the sad fate of the ugly mollusk. With prose as stunning as the objects she describes, Kelleher invites readers to examine their own relationships with the beautiful objects that adorn their body and grace their homes.
And yet, Kelleher argues that while we have a moral imperative to understand our relationship to desire, we are not evil or weak for desiring beauty. The Ugly History of Beautiful Things opens our eyes to beauty that surrounds us, helps us understand how that beauty came to be, what price was paid and by whom, and how we can most ethically partake in the beauty of the world.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 25, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797159836
- File size: 255507 KB
- Duration: 08:52:18
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 20, 2023
Science writer Kelleher (Handcrafted Maine) delivers grimly illuminating essays about the unseemly processes that produce beautiful goods. She examines what’s required to bring such luxuries as gems, makeup, marble, mirrors, pearls, perfume, and silk to market and contemplates their appeal. Musk, she notes, used to be harvested by killing deer and extracting their pungent glandular sacs; natural musk has largely been replaced by chemical substitutes, but studies suggest these artificial fragrances disrupt hormone functioning and might cause tumors. Waxing philosophical about the draw of mirrors, she links the madness that came over early mirror makers, who inhaled the fumes of the mercury they melted to create reflective surfaces, with the “insidious” “cultural obsession with looks” that mirrors enabled. Kelleher eloquently interrogates the allure of luxury items even as she remains clear-eyed about the damaging social expectations that drive their value, as when she admits she gets a “thrill” from makeup shopping despite knowing it’s motivated by unrealistic beauty standards that cause women to “exercise our desire until it becomes the strongest muscle in our hearts.” The author’s perceptive analysis and self-reflection raise intriguing questions about consumerism, aesthetics, and gendered understandings of beauty. The result is a thoughtful offering as precious as the goods studied. -
August 1, 2023
Art, design, and science writer Kelleher (Handcrafted Maine) offers a series of essays examining the underside of beauty. These essays, narrated with clarity and emotion by Cindy Kay, speak to people's instinctive desire for beauty and the manufactured desire for specific things deemed beautiful. Kelleher combines science, history, and memoir to describe desirability and the ugly truth about how beautiful things are made and obtained. The book delves into the history of products often considered beautiful, including glass, gemstones, cosmetics, textiles, mirrors, pearls, perfumes, and more. Beauty comes at a cost, however. The author piercingly describes how these luxury items damage the earth, exploit those who obtain raw materials, and benefit only a privileged few. While these items may provide pleasure, Kelleher emphasizes that the natural world is already full of beauty, and it is possible--and necessary--to experience beauty without possessing it. VERDICT A fascinating look at the history of beautiful things and how they came to be considered so while implacably revealing the ugliness beneath the veneer. Thought-provoking and earnestly narrated; recommended for all collections.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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