“It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about.” ArtCultureLiteratureSnobberyIntellectual Snobbery Book:Normal People Source: Normal People
“The problem with museums [...] is that there's far too much art, so that no matter how well you plan your route or how noble your intentions, you will always find yourself walking irritably past priceless works of profound genius looking for the bathrooms. And you feel slightly cheapened afterwards, like you've let yourself down - at least I do.” ArtMuseumsGalleryD Orsay Book:Beautiful World, Where Are You Source: Beautiful World, Where Are You
“Connell’s initial assessment of the reading was not disproven. It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about. Even if the writer himself was a good person, and even if his book really was insightful, all books were ultimately marketed as status symbols, and all writers participated to some degree in this marketing. Presumably this was how the industry made money. Literature, in the way it appeared at these public readings, had no potential as a form of resistance to anything.” ArtLiteratureCapitalismRadicalismClassismIntellectual Snobbery Book:Normal People Source: Normal People