John Bergers Ways of Seeing is obviously a very controversial book, and there were some things I liked, some things I didn’t, and some things that I’d just like to talk about.

I’ll tell you the good first. All in all I thought the book was very well written, not just because Mr. Lipton said all the books we would be reading are good writing, but because I actually thought his way of persuasion and thought was smart. Whenever Berger discusses something or is getting a point across, he uses down to earth arguments, and agrees with both sides of the story in order to let the reader know that he knows what he is talking about. It is cool the way he uses his knowledge in order to persuade the reader in to thinking he knows what he is talking about, and then agreeing with him. It is sort of like scientists in the past, they simply come up with a formula that makes sense and everyone believes it.

The major thing I didn’t like about this piece is not technically the book itself but that it is from 1972. It is somewhat outdated, and although I did like some of the opinions and thoughts expressed in the book I felt like his views of women were misleading although I would completely agree with his view twenty or thirty years ago. His thoughts on the way men, “Act” and women, “Appear” seems completely agreeable if we were not in this decade, and with the way things are going women, “Act” just as much as men do, and from what I’ve seen men, “Appear” just as much as women do. Certainly some of his thoughts are feasible to this day but it seems just a bit too unbelievable.

Overall, I thought the book was VERY interesting, especially the essay about the nudes (no kidding eh?). I liked Bergers content and ways of portraying information, but like I said before some of his opinions were outdated.