David Wengrow, The Origins of Monsters: Image and Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction. The Rostovtzeff Lectures. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2020. xviii + 162 pp. ISBN 9780691202396 (paperback). USD 35.00

Abstract

Resumen: While The Origins of Monsters is not by any means a new book (it was published in 2013), its recent paperback re-issue provides us with an excellent opportunity to discuss its contents, especially since the original hardback and ebook printing had such an impact on researchers from various fields and generated a great deal of discussion. Dozens of reviewers published generally positive remarks and a “book club” was organised to debate this book. But however extensive and stimulating this feedback may have been, the new issue is an exact reproduction of the original text. Whilst this may be so for editorial reasons, it also serves as a strong indication that both Wengrow and his publishing house are confident that the original text did not need any revisions. I would like to examine, in the next few paragraphs, if this is indeed the case.