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Tori Amos's Boys for Pele

Series: 33 1/3
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( 214 ratings, 69 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Tori Amos's Boys for Pele by Amy Gentry offers a thought-provoking exploration of Tori Amos's third album, released in 1996. The book delves into the complex and often conflicting reactions to Amos’s music, focusing on the theme of disgust—the discomfort women are culturally conditioned to feel about their bodies and artistic tastes. Combining memoir, criticism, and aesthetic theory, Gentry analyses how Boys for Pele exemplifies Amos's fearless embrace of the unsettling, highlighting the album’s unique ability to challenge conventional beauty and explore darker emotional landscapes.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in feminist criticism, music studies, and art theory, as well as fans of Tori Amos seeking a deeper understanding of her work’s cultural impact.

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A compelling study of Tori Amos's landmark album and its relation to the concept of disgust.

A compelling study of Tori Amos's landmark album and its relation to the concept of disgust.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

It’s hard to think of a solo female recording artist who has been as revered or as reviled over the course of her career as Tori Amos. Amy Gentry argues that these violent aesthetic responses to Amos’s performance, both positive and negative, are organised around disgust—the disgust that women are taught to feel, not only for their own bodies, but for their taste in music.

Released in 1996, Amos’s third album, Boys for Pele, represents the height of Amos’s willingness to explore the ugly qualities that make all of her music, even her more conventionally beautiful albums, so uncomfortably, and so wonderfully, strange.

Using a blend of memoir, criticism, and aesthetic theory, Gentry argues that the aesthetics of disgust are useful for thinking in a broader way about women’s experience of all art forms.

Series: 33 1/3

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics praise Gentry's work for its incisive feminist critique and deep engagement with the polarising nature of Amos's album. Amanda Wicks of Vulture notes the book's deft explanation of how the album juxtaposes ambitious arrangements with unsettling themes to help women reevaluate difficult experiences. The Austin Chronicle describes the book as a vital examination of the simultaneous disgust and fascination provoked by certain women artists. Jessica Hopper lauds Gentry’s fearless feminist insight and calls the book essential reading for those passionate about music and its makers.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781501321313

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 November 2018

Country: United States

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 120.0mm

Height: 162.0mm

Weight: 166g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Amy Gentry is the author of the thriller Good as Gone, a New York Times Book Review “Editors’ Choice.” She is also a book reviewer and essayist whose work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Austin Chronicle. Amy has a doctorate in English and lives in Austin, Texas.

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