Pretentiousness
Why It Matters: An Essay
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
“A nimble case for pretentiousness as a willingness to take risks.” —The New York Times Book Review Pretentiousness is for anyone who has braved being different, whether that’s making a stand against artistic consensus or running the gauntlet of the last bus home dressed differently from everyone else. Pretentiousness is an essential ingredient in pop music and high art. Why do we choose accusations of elitism over open-mindedness? What do our anxieties about “pretending” say about us? “Fox also cites the work of George Orwell and Susan Sontag repeatedly, and in this book he has written an intellectually rigorous study of culture that echoes the scope of their work. His argument is convincing, and it may leave readers with a newfound respect for the term that gives his book its title.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “This thoughtful essay will be balm to those who dare to be elitist.” —Toronto Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a stirring defense, British art critic Fox delves into the etymology and history of pretentiousness. Class identity, Fox argues, is at the core of pretentiousness. When pretentious is used as an insult, it's mainly "an informal tool of class surveillance," or maybe just a way to call out those above one's own station. Unlike its common synonyms, pompousness and self-importance, pretentiousness, it turns out, is linked directly to the theater and acting. Fox makes clear how certain types of performances and acts are interwoven in the masks or selves that people adopt in everyday life. He argues that the subtleties of who or what gets labeled pretentious pervade our modern lives, and often those who are called pretentious simply "brave being different" in the world by taking "a stand against creative consensus." He explains how his own middle-class upbringing in Oxfordshire left him with the feeling that pretension was something positive. His book stands as a convincing philosophical investigation into a wide-ranging concept that governs much of the way people behave.
