On Ugliness, by Umberto eco

On Ugliness is the "Mirror Mirror" version of Eco's History of Beauty. Again, Eco uses history, literature and art as illustrations for his little essay-lets on various aspects of the ugly, and in particular the strange way in which beauty and ugliness interact. Is an accurate and artistic portrayal of an ugly thing ugly or beautiful? Is an ugly artistic representation of the beautiful ugly or beautiful? Other themes that he traces through history: the ugliness of the suffering of martyrs and Jesus, Hell and the Devil, monsters as monsters vs. monsters as morality plays, caricatures, satires, witches, sadism, the ill, the mad, decadence, industrialism, kitsch and camp...

Anyway, here are some of the ugly things I liked, including a nice full-page reproduction of Ivan Albright's Dorian Gray in my icon.
( Pretty Ugly things )