James Elkins

James Elkins

After 19 years of work, my experimental novel called Five Strange Languages is being published by Unnamed Press. It’s a very large, complex project in five volumes. The first one, Weak in Comparison to Dreams, is out, and there’s also a vinyl record to go with it. The second, A Short Introduction to Anneliese, is coming out this summer.

I’m posting weekly contests on social media. Anyone who can guess the hidden allusions gets a free copy. Test your literary knowledge! Here is a list of contests that are currently open. If you can identify one, email me for your copy.

Five Strange Languages is a single mega-novel. Lots more information here (scroll down).

I have uploaded 75 short videos on art theory to Youtube. These are for art students. They cover media, politics, gender, the sublime, skill, formal analysis, craft, time, narrative, Eurocentrism, style, research, the body… lots of subjects.

[Updated January 2025. Pages with information about the novel update live.]

Recent uploads: the books Pictures and Tears, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?, How to Use Your Eyes, and an essay on the complicity between torture and formal analysis. Another entire book free, on Academia: What is Interesting Writing in Art History? It’s on ways to write experimental art history.

 

The thirty short chapters in the book have instructions on how to see these things, with all words for all their parts. The idea is to draw attention to parts of the ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) world that we look at too quickly, or fail to notice altogether.

This is a book of solitary seeing, exercises and opportunities to slow down and look at the world more carefully.


Sand grains. A great deal can be seen in sand, using only a magnifying glass. It takes an average of 200 million years for a mountain range to erode and be swept down to the ocean. Some grains of sand have been on that journey several times, from mountain to ocean beach, to rock, uplifted to mountain… the sense of time in single grains of sand can be hypnotic.

4 Responses

  1. Dear Mr. Elkins I’m very thankful you let us download writings for free, I am researching about observation and creativity as a way to renovate (not inly innovate) our world perception and sense of wonder.
    I would like to ask you if you have ever written something about art education in schools, (I’ve read already “why art cannot be taught”) but in particular about how to help students about be aware and curious about what images influence our lives.
    I’m currently writing a research paper about it.
    Anyway, thanks again and keep writing!

  2. What an awesome eye opener. Thank you. I’ve been using what I call my 3rd eye, in photography, to do what Mr. Elkins explains in his book. Plan to get a couple of copies for some young folks.

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