El poder de lo cuqui

by Simon May, Albert Fuentes (Translator)

May parte de la idea de que lo cuqui no es solamente un capricho estético o una moda del momento, sino uno de los factores que explican nuestra época: una expresión de los miedos y las inquietudes que nos provoca la transformación constante política, económica, tecnológica del mundo en que vivimos. Nos refugiamos en las cosas cuquis porque la realidad es fea, y lo cuqui es un antídoto y una forma de control cuando la certeza y el malestar se abren paso en nuestras vidas. Ese es, a grandes rasgos, el poder de lo cuqui: mostrarnos con detalle el tipo de sociedad en que vivimos, protegiéndonos de paso contra sus efectos desasosegantes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Audiobook, Art, Anthropology

176 pages, Paperback

Published December 9, 2019

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

How incredibly disappointing. I came into this book with high hopes -- I truly believe in the radical power of cute. Girls so often wield cuteness as a weapon or use it as a shield. It's a topic that fascinates me and I love learning about. And yet... Simon May knows nothing about what it is to love cute, or even what makes things cute. He seems to struggle with differentiating things that are objectively cute (Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse, puppies) and things he personally finds cute (Kim Jong-Il, a painting of a monk cutting hemorrhoids off another man). He fundamentally does not understand kawaii -- kawaii isn't just a translation of the word "cute," it's about cute for cute's sake. Hello Kitty is kawaii -- she exists simply to be cute. There's something so radical in that. And yet he compares her to ET or Donald Trump.

May's thesis seems to work like this, as I understand it, although he really gives the audience the run around: People are fascinated by cute. People are fascinated by "unpindownable" things such as hermaphrodites or war or gods. Therefore, people with ambiguous gender, war, and godlike people are cute.

NO! If you think Donald Trump and Joseph Stalin are cute, I frankly don't know what to tell you. He'll say these things without backing it up, too... "Stalin is cute." Leaving the audience to go: huh? What makes you say that? Then May moves on, convinced his opinion was enough to sway the audience.

Lastly, and most disappointingly, he leaves out the perspective of women and children. He asserts cute is genderless (even saying Hello Kitty seems genderless... were her bow and dresses not enough for you? Do you need cartoon eyelashes to convince you?), and yet the world knows we associate cute with women. We just do. Babydolls and frilly dresses and sparkles and doe eyed unicorns are all cute, and we associate these things with girls. You can't ignore that for your thesis, Simon May. Cute does have power, but to be frank, it seems you'll never understand why.

[Vonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not care enough to write a longer review than this sentence: 1/3 boring academia that even academics would even be confused by, 1/3 useless facts and notes, 1/3 ridiculous nonsense (like "Germany does remorse, Japan does cute"), 100% information that could be conveyed in an essay rather than rehashed endlessly.

[sameera]

i came for the cover. we need lucky cats on more things

✨i didn’t appreciate him calling hello kitty deformed and garish.

✨the really long lists of comparisons/adjectives lost me tbh.

✨author talked about some interesting things but it didn’t feel like we had the same definition of cute.

slump: i reread multiple parts but still barely processed anything. guess i haven’t been in the mood for reading.

[Thomas Tobin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a collection of ill-fitting examples that are brought out over and over to support the thesis that cute describes liminal "both/and" sorts of things. It's a soupy hodge-podge of digressions on top of digressions. The whole thing coheres only if a) one reads the notes at the end and b) one is already familiar with the tropes and resources in the notes. Meh. Deeply, utterly meh.

[Xylia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could’ve certainly been pared-down to a 15-20 page academic article. There was a lot of repetition yet the author also seemed to jump all over the place. The best part of the book was the cute cover.

[Ester Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

In all honesty, I listened to this because Anthony Head was the narrator for the audiobook. His voice? 5/5 stars. The book itself? Not so good.

[Giuliana Matarrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Qual è il segreto dei Labubu, mostriciattoli antropomorfi che fanno impazzire piccoli e grandi? Perché Luigi Mangione lo consideriamo sì, un assassino, e però la sua casella postale in carcere è piena di lettere di ammiratrici? Sembrano due cose che non hanno nulla a che fare l’una con l’altra e invece sono unite da un concetto, quello della cuteness, di quando squittiamo “che carino” anche di fronte a qualcosa che non è rassicurante tout court e che anzi, nasconde una inquietante potenza nel suo essere apparentemente indifeso. E questo saggio lo spiega per bene.

[Lada Moskalets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Для терміну cute немає відповідника в багатьох мовах, втім є відповідник у японській - „кавай”, Японія і Америка є творцями і прихильниками культів великоголових і великооких милих ведмедиків, котиків та покемонів. Оскільки автор філософ, то розглядає це в категоріях влади та підкорення - як милі товстенькі створіння, Мікі-Маус, Hello Kitty та Пікачу розхитують усталені ієрархії та конкретні ідентичності? Естетика Cute є помітним явищем нашого часу, яке часто хибно приймають за інфантилізацію суспільства. Натомість, автор бачить hello kitty та інше як вияв непевності і розмитості. Cuties не мають чітко визначеної гендерної ідентичності чи віку, їх важко віднести до якоїсь категорії, вони начебто беззахисні перед нами, але можуть виявляти владу через маніпуляцію невинністю. Автор дає волю фантазії і ділить світових політиків на cute і не-cute (Черчіль, Трамп, Кім-Чен-Ір cute, Обама і Кім-Чен-Ин ні) - хоча всі визначення покладаються радше на суб’єктивному чутті та появі рефлекторного „мімімі”.
Історичного контексту тут трохи замало, але, наприклад, є про феномен „кавай” у Японії, який автор бачить як намагання японців показати свою беззахисність після Другої Світової.

Мені сподобалася ідея загалом - але автор надто часто пише загальними словами без прикладів, тому губишся і не розумієш що конкретний брелок з hello kitty має спільного з іграми в домінування. Частина про історичний і культурний контекст також трохи нагадує висмикування фактів, що підходять під ідею

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were three things that caught my eye about this book: the cover, May’s reference to Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” in the first page of the introduction and the chapter heading: “Cute and the Monstrous: The Case of Donald Trump”. These three things sufficed to announced that this book would be a philosophical take on something trivial that the author brilliantly uses to explore a deeper aspect of our culture and if it was anything like Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” I would thoroughly enjoy it. Perhaps because my expectations were so raised I ended finding the book a little short of them. May’s does a brilliant job at discussing the more common aspect of cute, the sweet yet compelling side of it. He gives a wonderful explanation of it in the context of the two countries at its forefront, the US and Japan, using it to flesh out the “cult of the child” in the US and Japan’s coping mechanism after the traumatic defeat in WWII. He also does a wonderful job of communicating the nuances of cuteness and even exploring the weird sadistic aspect of it (wanting to squeeze something cute). After masterfully dealing with these aspects, I felt that May became too ambitious and stretched the meaning, or understanding, of the word cute to propose an explanation of Donald Trump’s appeal. This felt too much of a stretch to appear “relevant” in today’s political culture. Nonetheless, the book does a great job at exploring the nuances, historical context and deeper implication of the rise of cuteness in the world culture.

[Elizabeth Judd Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe a 2.5, but I’ll round up rather than down. This small book seems to simultaneously throw up a lot of ideas and not really say much at all. The definition of cute is discussed as anything uncanny, in-between (ie not pretty or ugly, male or female, etc,), and something which feels vulnerable or perhaps makes us feel vulnerable. We get lots of writing about the cult of the child, Hello Kitty and a couple Japanese artists and the idea that big heads and eyes are cute, but also unnerving. Then we get not very well explored ideas—can dictators and politicians be cute? Is Trump cute because of the odd way in which he presents himself (dyed hair and exaggerated mannerisms)? Who knows, because these ideas get about 8 pages spread across two very short chapters, while the ones previously mentioned get discussed over and over. Also, this book feels like it needed to reach a word count, and as a result sometimes feels like a thesaurus was overused. The long sentences where cute is discussed as uncanny, not sweet, childlike, dark, light, androgynous, dangerous, and on and on and on make reading it a bit tiresome.

To recap: some interesting ideas, not all very well explored. OK but a bit tedious.

I also forgot to add that the author does not always understand the full context of what he’s writing about—for instance, a painting which references lyrics from a 90’s indie band, which he instead interprets as a really dark take on children’s psychology.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Characterized by worthless pretentiousness” is a phrase used in this book to describe something else, but I rather think it references itself. I bought this audiobook for the narration, and was not disappointed on that front. The subject matter had the potential to be really interesting, but I found the often outdated language and references distracting, the inclusion of figures like Donald Trump nauseating, and overall, I think the author just tried too hard to make his thesis work. Sometimes things are just CUTE and it doesn’t have to be that deep.

[Albert Pijuan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oportunitat perduda

[Vinay Khosla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise and critique of a dominant capitalist-commodity aesthetic category but falls short in intellectual rigor… The idea of Cute’s ambivalence, “unpindownability,” eschewal of power binaries, androgyny are all interesting but never leveraged toward a larger cultural critique that has material or theoretical import beyond ‘the West has moved past reductive binaries of Being and aesthetic value’. I think the argument Cute is an aesthetic category that moves beyond or outside power (and identity) as the dominant paradigm for understanding relationality is the main contribution of this little book — even if it the point made most passingly and with the least elaboration. I also think there is some confusion between Cute ‘objects’ agency vis-a-vis their ‘subjects’ and this Cuteness as strategic/aesthetic value conferred by a capitalist production complex which optimizes commodity consumption. Yet, of course, this consumption is reflective of a shifting cultural aesthetic valuation if we eschew easy narratives of false consciousness and the infantilization of ‘the consumer’. Overall interesting book that I would love to see treated in a more rigorous and academic manner (as opposed to public facing cult. crit., but I suppose that’s what Ngai’s ‘Zany, Cute, Interesting’ is)

[sinepudore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abbiamo una visione profondamente distorta della sensibilità cute quando la interpretiamo semplicemente come un'estetica infantilizzante dell'impotenza. E la fraintendiamo ancora di più leggendola innanzitutto come desiderio narcisistico di controllare, sfruttare o violare oggetti familiari e non minacciosi. Infatti anche se avesse qualcuna di queste caratteristiche - e per alcuni seguaci del Cute può averle, ovviamente - significa molto altro. Le sue forme effimere e fluttuanti celebrano con spensieratezza l'intuizione che gli oggetti ordinari, non importa quanto familiari o insignificanti, sono ostinatamente perturbanti; e che, malgrado tutti i nostri sforzi per sentirci sicuri, a casa nel mondo, siamo dei disadattati che vivono nell'incertezza.
#quote

[كيكه الوزير · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inspired by Susan Sontag’s Notes On ‘Camp’, so just in time for this years Met Gala. Read Emily Hill's Review in the Spectator -it's my sentiments exactly.

[Adna · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my honest opinion: The only thing cute about this book is the cover.

I mean regarding the content the author was all over the place. What do Stalin, Kim Jong Il, Bush and Trump have in common? According to the author they are all "cute". Cute, according to the author is everything that is "mysterious and different". The author talks about child labor, abortion and bunch of other topics that have "contributed" to the cute phenomenon.

[Peio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una premisa interesante (analizar el impacto de lo cuqui en la sociedad contemporánea), que a pesar de tener uno o dos capítulos salvables no es más que uno de esos libros que podrían haber sido un gran artículo, pero prefirieron ser un libro olvidable.

[Atlrs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly theorized.

[Sobrri]

i could deal with Kim Jong-il being called cute but adding Donald Trump to that was going one step too far

[Bicha :D · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was like a geography class, the subject is interesting, but it was told in the most annoying, obnoxious and tedious way possible *she said in a cute way*

[Christopher Gilstrap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent book exploring the phenomenon of cuteness from an academic/philosophical standpoint. Fascinating chapters about the role of cuteness in American and Japanese culture, from Mickey Mouse to Hello Kitty, kawaii, and beyond. Pop culture/media analysis is a strong suit of this author.

But when he makes the case that Donald Trump is successful because he is cute, that's where it went off the rails. Too much of a reach. The thesis is that cute things are cute because of inherent contradictions in their existence, and the author managed to convince me that there's SOME truth to that, but him using this thesis to logically call Trump cute is a sign that it was missing the point. Most of the time I just felt like saying "It's not that deep, man" to the points the author was making.

Also, the book never went into any kind of detail about the role of cuteness in human sexuality, which I felt was a glaring omission. Why is saying "I saw a cute guy at the mall" very different from saying "I saw a cute corgi at the park"? What role does cuteness play in sexual desire, both positive and negative? Why does desire for cuteness appear again and again in various forms of sexual fetishes and predatory relationships? The author went on and on trying to convince me that fascist dictators are cute, but barely touched on cuteness as it relates to sexuality, which is one of the PRIMARY uses of the word in modern parlance!

Finally, I really struggle with the whole concept of things being labeled "kitsch." I think kitschiness is an inherently snobbish idea and we need to stop using the term to describe things made by humans (things made by AI? Maybe. But that's another essay). And therefore I felt it was unnecessary for the book to spend so many pages contrasting "cute" from "kitsch" because I don't think kitsch is a meaningful category in the first place.

[La Maga de la Triste Figura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aparentemente uno puede pensar que va a tratar temas tan frivolos como lo "Cuqui", pero toma como excusa esta estética para plantearnos con seriedad temas tan trascendentales que diseñan la sociedad en la que vivimos, como son la tiranía de la identidad y las relaciones de poder.

Para mí, hay capitulos que sobran, que por culpa de ellos casi dejo de leer el libro, como son los que a partir de la idea de "Cuquismo siniestro" pretende encontrar aspectos cuquis en dictadores como Kim Jong-il o en personajes como Donald Trump. Y como repite este concepto una y otra vez, y la lista infinita de dicotomías, que ya directamente me saltaba. Además, sin olvidar la idea del autor de que lo "kawaii" de Japón se puede tratar de un intento de cambio de imagen internacional tras la segunda guerra mundial, con fin de no dar motivos para volver a ser bombardeado...

Menos mal que no dejé el libro por la mitad, porque capítulos como el de la infancia sacralizada o el del culto a la sinceridad y de su deliberada búsqueda de una expresión precisa de un suspuesto mundo "interior", me parecieron super reveladores.

En fin, citando al autor: "somos en realidad unos inadaptados sumidos en la incertidumbre".

[Diego Gómez · Rating 3 out of 5]

gurl
to call kim jong-il cuqui is one thing but dOnaLd tRUmp?!?!?
tiene muchos puntos interesantes pero me cuesta quedarme con algo consistente.
también entiendo que es lo que dice este tio, que lo cuqui nace de la inconsistencia y ambigüedad entre conceptos; pero en cuanto a base teórica sobre la que desarrollar un marco cuqui se me queda rarito ns. y creo que este mismo es el problema, el querer enmarcar teóricamente algo tan subjetivo y extrapolable como el cuquismo.
anywayssss, fantasía que el examen que tengo mañana en parte sea sobre este libro, amazing.

[Raquel Poyatos · Rating 4 out of 5]

No sé qué espera la gente del libro, pero a mí me parece lo que es: un ensayo que abarca todos los extremos de lo cuqui ¡Me ha dejado loca! Desde la familia Kim de Corea del Norte hasta Hello Kitty. Me parece muy acertado y me ha hecho reflexionar sobre algo que me causa absoluto placer y que normalmente se da por hecho.

[Benji · Rating 3 out of 5]

'But what if Cute is a miniature Trojan horse in the citadel of power: in the intellectual citadel that for over three centuries has increasingly interpreted even the most altruistic, compassionate, freedom-giving human relations in terms of power and the will to power?
What if its real 'master trope' is not personification strategies understood as projections of power, whether for good or ill, but rather playful unpindownability: the carefree evocation of uncertainty as a fundamental characteristic of life and world? '

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. A good short read for artists, similar to In Praise of Shadows. Ignore the reviews in which people have knee jerk reactions to dictators being called cute (uncanny cute), or to having their fandom disected, ha!

[Lula Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Análisis del cambio de paradigma que nos trae el nuevo siglo. Muy interesante.

[Huguillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado pero creo que podría durar perfectamente la mitad y decir lo mismo; es interesante. :p

[Silvia Amalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

*meme di Paris Hilton che legge e non capisce*

[Nuria Sánchez]

No puedo puntuar con estrellas porque todavía estoy debatiéndome con qué me ha parecido. Hay cosas que me chirrían mucho y otras que me hubiera gustado se profundizasen más, pero bueno