M U L L A duel of ideas

The ethics of looking

John Berger  vs  Teju Cole

Berger said that the way of seeing is a moral act — that to look at a painting or a person is to take a position you can defend or fail to defend. Cole's Open City makes the act of looking the entire substance of the novel. Both insist that the eye, like the tongue, has obligations.

What did you look at yesterday that you owed more attention than you gave?

Whose side are you on?

Want more duels like this?
Read another now →
Mull is a public library of idea duels.
Browse all