ABSTRACT

James Elkins's How to Use Your Eyes invites us to look at--and maybe to see for the first time--the world around us, with breathtaking results. Here are the common artifacts of life, often misunderstood and largely ignored, brought into striking focus. With the discerning eye of a painter and the zeal of a detective, Elkins explores complicated things like mandalas, the periodic table, or a hieroglyph, remaking the world into a treasure box of observations--eccentric, ordinary, marvelous.

part |129 pages

Things Made by Man

chapter 2|8 pages

How to look at a culvert

chapter 4|6 pages

How to look at

chapter 5|14 pages

How to look at an X ray

chapter 6|6 pages

How to look at linear B

chapter 11|6 pages

How to look at a rebus

chapter 12|6 pages

How to look at mandalas

chapter 15|10 pages

How to look at special effects

chapter 17|4 pages

How to look at a map

part |115 pages

How to look at a shoulder

chapter 18|14 pages

How to look at a shoulder

chapter 19|8 pages

How to look at a face

chapter 20|10 pages

How to look at a fingerprint

chapter 21|6 pages

How to look at grass

chapter 22|6 pages

How to look at a twig

chapter 23|6 pages

How to look at sand

chapter 24|8 pages

How to look at moths' wings

chapter 25|6 pages

How to look at halos

chapter 26|6 pages

How to look at sunsets

chapter 27|10 pages

How to look at color

chapter 28|6 pages

How to look at the night

chapter 29|6 pages

How to look at mirages

chapter 30|8 pages

How to look at a crystal

chapter |5 pages

How to look at nothing