by Jon Lackman | 10 February 2009 | Theory
In caa.reviews, Charles G. Salas reviews Victor I. Stoichita’s The Pygmalion Effect: From Ovid to Hitchcock:
Stoichita shows that simulacra are not quite the alien threat some think they are. It turns out that we have been living with them all along, albeit without attending to them much … The framework of this book would not be so frustrating if the content were not so fascinating … at every stop the remarkable erudition of the author is evident. The works themselves—be they sculptures, paintings, poems, photographs, or film—receive insightful analysis that alone justifies the reader’s effort, and the illustrations are gorgeous. The originality and scope of Stoichita’s thought is sensed in seeming asides, such as his pointing out that later reaction to the Romance of the Rose is unthinkable without the earlier work of van Eyck, or in his comparison of the film Vertigo (1958) to both the multiples of Andy Warhol and the Barbie doll. Historically minded readers may wish for more attention to social and cultural context and for more evidence that earlier works made a difference to later ones, but it is always the relationship of the work to the theme(s) that comes first here. Between stops, however, the trip is a bit of blur. The author jumps from work to work as in a video game, soaring over the abyss on winds of attractive but amorphous concepts impossible to find footing in such as “creativity” and “desire” … Originality and subtlety are expected of Stoichita, and his efforts in The Pygmalion Effect do not disappoint. Whether the book as a whole will satisfy more traditionally historically minded readers is another matter.
