# Ways of Seeing by John Berger

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Ways of Seeing by John Berger and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as an accessible, influential way to think about art and media; critics say its claims lack scientific grounding.

## Why people recommend it

- Influential in media and art criticism (2 comments): "And they've led to all manner of supposition about art, history, feminism, and human behavior." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50057705)) "the Ways of Seeing which did become influencial in media and art criticism" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50058552))
- Helpful context on the original series (2 comments): "It was written after the original series aired, and gives more space to some interesting topics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50050480)) "I find it helpful to understand how it was initially made and then how modern society treats it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50061230))
- Valued by readers without critical training (2 comments): "Just because our education system does a poor job of teaching critical literacy doesn't mean other people aren't getting something out of this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50057896)) "I'm a big fan of Ways of Seeing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50055763))

## What people warn about

- Dense, hard-to-follow writing (3 comments): "it's sort of incomprehensible word slop that I doubt many of the people recommending it got anything from at all" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50055017)) "Just scanned it and not getting anything of this word salad." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50057870)) "I found Berger's writing pretty hard to digest." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50047785))
- Claims lack scientific grounding (3 comments): "The idea that we can draw much knowledge about the owner of the painting of a fat woman, simply from the painting, is just not based in any science." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50054655)) "invented a whole movement that I think doesn't carry any scientific weight" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50047696)) "That's not very well grounded in science." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50055040))
- Marxist framing distorts conclusions (3 comments): "I'll give an example of how Berger's Marxism leads him astray." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50062181)) "his Marxism spoils everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50055899)) "that supposition is Berger's" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50054956))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud](https://hackerapproved.com/p/understanding-comics.md): 5 recommend
- [The Masters of Pixel Art](https://hackerapproved.com/p/masters-of-pixel-art.md): 3 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140135154?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780140135152) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ways of Seeing by John Berger", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ways-of-seeing/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).