Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences

Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences examines visual and thematic patterns that emerge across art, photography, history, politics and culture. Through a series of essays, Lawrence Weschler traces unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated images and phenomena. The book presents side-by-side visual comparisons, from Renaissance paintings to modern news photographs, revealing striking parallels in composition, color, and form. Weschler's analysis moves between centuries and contexts, finding resonance between classical artworks and contemporary media. The collection follows Weschler's journeys through museums, news archives, and historical records as he documents these visual echoes. Each essay builds upon the previous ones to create an expanding web of connections. The work invites readers to consider how human perception creates meaning through pattern recognition, and explores the ways visual culture repeats and references itself across time. Through these convergences, the book examines deeper questions about collective memory and universal human experiences.

Readers appreciate Weschler's ability to draw unexpected visual connections across art, politics, and culture. Many note his talent for finding patterns and similarities in seemingly unrelated images, with several reviewers mentioning the Colin Powell/Velazquez comparison as a standout example. Common criticisms include that some connections feel forced or stretched too far. Multiple readers mention the essays become repetitive and the concept works better in shorter doses. What readers liked: - Thought-provoking visual analysis - Clear, engaging writing style - Quality of reproduced images - Historical and cultural insights What readers disliked: - Some connections appear superficial - Length of certain essays - Occasional political digressions Ratings: Goodreads: 4.0/5 (384 ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (31 ratings) "Like having a fascinating conversation with a brilliant friend" - Goodreads reviewer "Sometimes the parallels seem random rather than revelatory" - Amazon reviewer

Ways of Seeing by John Berger This collection of essays connects art history to modern media through unexpected visual patterns and social meanings across time periods.

Typologies by Bernd and Hilla Becher The photographers' systematic documentation of industrial structures reveals hidden visual relationships and patterns in architectural forms.

An Eye for Art by Kenneth Clark Clark examines recurring visual motifs throughout art history by tracing connections between seemingly unrelated works from different centuries.

The Art of Looking by Lance Esplund The book links disparate artworks through shared themes, compositions, and cultural significance across multiple periods and styles.

Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Dung Kai-cheung This experimental work merges fiction, history, and visual analysis to uncover connections between maps, images, and cultural artifacts.

🔹 The book won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, celebrating Weschler's unique ability to find visual connections across art, politics, and culture. 🔹 Lawrence Weschler spent over twenty years as a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he developed his keen eye for spotting unlikely parallels between seemingly unrelated images. 🔹 The book's title pays homage to Flannery O'Connor's short story collection "Everything That Rises Must Converge," which itself references the work of French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. 🔹 Many of the visual connections in the book were first published on McSweeney's website as "Convergences," where readers began submitting their own discoveries of similar patterns across history and media. 🔹 One of the book's most striking comparisons links a photo of Slobodan Milošević at his war crimes trial to Rembrandt's painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son," demonstrating how classical artistic poses continue to appear in modern photojournalism.