Rating: 
Summary: A Philosophy
Review: Andy Warhol is the famous alchemist of reality, forming the most trite, everyday ideas and images and altering them into genuine thought and innovation. On many levels, this book is just a collection of autobiographical text, commenting on people and places within Warhol's social olympia. But after the gossip and celebrity status is digested, the reader is endowed with a substantial, original outlook on sex, money, art, and many other of life's components. It's a fabulous read, with the 'tastiness' of a Vonnegut and packed with irresistably sarcastic humor. This book is a step above an autobiography. It is the essence of Warhol's addictive personality and a journey into the mind of a wonderfully eccentric human being. You don't have to be an art buff or culture addict to enjoy Warhol's genius in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: Andy Warhol managed and chose to live by his own prespective of life.. he set his boundaries and people respected it.. try reading Elijah's cup first.. then you'll understand Andy Warhol more.. the book is interesting,and helps you understand his art work.
Rating:
Summary: Andy Warhol was Andy Warhol
Review: Andy Warhol was Andy Warhol.
This book is Andy Warhol was. Not an autobiography,
an automatic photography. Not "by Andy Warhol,"
"is Andy Warhol." Dig? Dig.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece...
Review: Andy Warhol's philsophies are so witty and insightful that you'll forget who wrote them! The man who only uttered the occasional "uh" and "yes" and "no" in interviews, is really a stimulating author. What flair
Rating:
Summary: Pop Philosophy
Review: Andy's response to an excess of abstract art was Pop Art.
Andy's response to an excess of abstract philosophy was Pop Philosophy.
This book is not so much about Andy Warhol as it is about Warhol making philosophy pop. To make philosophy pop, Andy shared his observations and values, just as to make art pop, Andy shared the Campbell soup he enjoyed so often.
Philosophy has been abstract for so long, we had forgotten it could be anything else. It had belonged to academicians for so long, we had forgotten it could belong to anyone else.
Andy worked with the topics of abstract philosophy, such as love, beauty, time, death, economics and art ... but he rendered them pop by talking about them the way ordinary people talk about them. Not that Andy seemed ordinary but what do you call concerns of pimples (in "Beauty"), not being able to shop on Sunday (in "Economics"), or waiting in line for movies (in "Time"). Views of Andy's but also acts of making topics previously owned by abstract philosophy into instances of pop philosophy.
Pop philosophy can also move beyond the limitations of stuffy abstract philosophy. Andy offers a chapter on something not to be found in academic philosophy: not "Power" but "Underwear Power". The same commercialism found in pop art can be found here in pop philosophy: "Buying is much more American than thinking..."
So philosophy needn't be just about thinking, it can be about our everyday lives: loving, working and buying underwear. Andy liked having loud music on when doing art so he wouldn't think too much. Perhaps thinking too much gets in the way of good philosophy. If your underwear fits well, there may be no need to work out a lengthy critique of dialectical reasoning. But can you accuse Andy of living an unexamined life?
Warhol should not be underestimated. His contributions and challenges to society are not limited to areas he is well known for such as painting, movies, interviewing but extend even to philosophy and the spirit in which we live each day. Warhol lives. If we practice pop philosophy in the manner he suggests in this book, we may find our lives worth living a good deal more than academic philosophers have shown. Forget the doctorate, go to your own school of Warhol.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I actually haven't read the conversations-sections of this book, they seem so boring. But the little-paragraphs-of-observation-chapters, that make up the bulk of the book, are really nuggets of fun and insight. I've read some of them countless times. Warhol is one of the few "serious" artists of the 20th Century who had a great sense of humor. It comes across in this book. The title is meant ironically, so for those upset that it doesn't have more depth, are missing the entire point of the book, methinks. I have a Warhol painting and a signed Warhol print on the walls of my home, so I am a true Andy fan, and recommend this.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read but not great
Review: I agree very strongly with a previous review, "Excellent but with faults" by xosa@hotmail.com. To add to this very accurate previous review, I would say that the book is clever and does give some insight into Warhol's life and times. However the cleverness often becomes superficiality. I have read many other biographies of great thinkers (scientists, writers, artists) and find this work by Warhol comparatively unsatisfying. It has the air of someone (who's work is undeniably brilliant) who is hiding behind a facade and does not reveal any of his true thoughts or emotions. I had expected more from the personal philosphy of an artist of his calibre, but all the same this book is entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, fun, fun!
Review: I love his concepts on beauty, love, success, etc. He knew like few how to look at such concepts with an acid humor, sarcasm, but never forgot to make us laugh out loud!
Rating:
Summary: ANDY: TAKE ONE NOW, ONE AT BEDTIME
Review: I love this book with a passion - ironically, I guess. I was personally a late conversion to pop art and the wry nonsense of the post-sixties media-driven labels fetish. Now, well, if you can't best 'em ...! This deceptively relaxed book is a wondrous construct owing much to Warhol's brilliant assistant Pat Hackett (and maybe editor-nemesis Colacello?) - but it's pure war-and-love torn Andy. It's essentially a glamorous book, a book that dwells on the peacock finery of our weary world, without teasing the darker undercurrents. It's a memoir on the side of the Embattled Gods. Warhol, it has recently been said (Sunday Times, June 2000), displayed an autistic focus on things, and the evidence gushes here, like Sale Day at Macys. Commodities loom large (understatement) in his enjoyment of living. But! But! But! There is also a wider, functional and provocative philosophy that is too fudged by high living bonism. In one unsurpassable poetic passage Warhol (and Hackett) takes us through the sensual circus of an ambling sunny morning in Manhattan. The fragrance of pretzels, the light on Fifth, Chinatown babble, etc. This is an unparalleled, transcendent embracing of the temporal world that helps explain the fugacious intensity of Warhol's pictorial art - and, more universally important, urges us all to take stock of our brief mortal moments, and think again. Warhol in France, in Italy is fabulous. Warhol watching TV is a hoot. Warhol on valium is humbling. Warhol reflecting is who we all should be. Put this on your nightstand and wait till your ego goes Pop. Under the media barrage, uncowed by the soul of this soulless age, there is a shining light.
Rating:
Summary: Andy Warhol: in his own words
Review: I read this book knowing next to nothing about Andy Warhol. After reading it, I feel more or less the same way. Although it is entertaining and a sure quick read! This book is a collection of paragraphs by the late 60's pop artist. It is divided into 15 chapters: Love (puberty) Love (prime) Love (senility) Beauty, Fame, Work, Time, Death, Economics, Atmosphere, Success, Art, Titles, The Tingle, and Underwear. Don't be fooled by the numerous chapters though; this is a very thin book. Each chapter has a topic, some as short as one paragraph long. There's a lot of division but not a lot of content. Most of Warhol's observations on life, some general, some personal, range from interesting and unique decadent philosophies to brief, meaningless nuggets as unnecessary as anything you'll find in a Larry King column. I enjoyed many parts of this book such as Warhol's unapologetic feelings towards spending money (Economics) since such unbridled greed is not something that most rich people are honest enough to admit (and is also specific to the 1970's and 1980's greed and decadence of New York). I also enjoyed but was somewhat mystified by Warhol's thoughts about sexuality and beauty. He seems detached and objective about his feelings about those subjects. Warhol never gives any clues too broad about his preferences- which I find appealing, seeing that it's very unique for a man, even if he's bisexual or homosexual, to not be like "Sex! Sex! Sex!" Unfortunately, the book is written with competence but not great articulateness. The opposite of wordy, it's not quite a quote book, but I'd definitely downgrade the title from "philosophies" to "monologues."
|
