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Elkins 'Essay: History Doesn' T Kill Me

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I am not sure if I agree with Elkins when he says history kills. From a physical standpoint, history literally can’t kill you. It can definitely bore you, but it will not kill your physical self. Now from a mental standpoint, history could indulge you, take over your mind and in some rare scenarios drive a person insane, but again, history itself cannot kill you. So when Elkins states on page 107, that history kills but kills slowly, I disagree. However, I do find his quotes comparing history to being equal to a drug very compelling. He says, “Like a drug, history takes me out of myself, saves me from myself. It’s safe, it’s calm, it’s entertaining. It’s very pleasureful. It has all the traits of a deadly drug. History is an addiction and there …show more content…

It can be a form of “escape” into a totally different world that is only a figment of ones own imagination. While there are texts and books that tell us what occurred in the past, we are still able to indulge ourselves in this “historical drug” and put any sort of twist or interpretation that we, as readers, find more appealing. Art history, by definition is just the study and interpretation of all studies, paintings or sculptures in relation to art. Elkins states his point fairly straight forward. He essentially states that one must have an educated background and have studied the particular painting or sculpture before seeing it face to face. Elkins makes a great analogy when he says that studying a particular piece beforehand is like a face to face meeting in the library. If no studying has taken place before hand, when you get to the picture, it is as if you are looking through books and bookshelves trying to figure out what it is displaying. He discusses in the chapter the key importance of knowledge and education. He says, “Without knowledge, you’re just ignorantly guessing. Without knowledge you’re either wrong or on a much simpler bases than the artist really had in mind.” I personally agree with this

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