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by Jonathan Crary.
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 2000.
ISBN: 0-262-03265-1.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613-0362, U.S.A. E-mail: ballast@netins.net


The premise of this book is fascinating, in the sense that it says that attention (that aspect of perception that enables us to focus on portions of our surroundings and delay or neglect the remainder) and what we consider as acceptable ways of "paying attention" have changed substantially in the past 150 years. One consequence, says its author (who wrote a briefer lauded book on Techniques of the Observer), is the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder (or ADD), an arguable dysfunction that is now said to explain (and, perhaps, to defer responsibility for) the inability of school children to concentrate, listen, pay attention, or follow rules, in a culture that is "founded on a short attention span, on the logic of the non sequitur, on perceptual overload, on the generalized ethic of 'getting ahead,' and on the celebration of aggressiveness." In essence, this is a narrative history of perceptual attention from 1880 to 1905 in art (Manet, Seurat and CÚzanne are discussed in detail), psychology, philosophy, neurology, cinema, and photography, with comments on the present day. Sadly, while acknowledging the prevalence of sporadic attentiveness, the book uses opaque language and paragraphs so drawn-out as to ensure that the volume will only be read by specialists. Grappling with its density, we thought of what Oliver Wendell Holmes said, that "there are professors in this country who 'litigate' arteries. Other surgeons only tie them, and it stops the bleeding just as well." (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review 15, No. 4, Summer 2000.)