Horse Hockey

Whatever criticisms one may have of that essay, these lines are a pure gem!

"The ugly rebelled against the beautiful, the noble, and ugliness has since come to be valued over beauty. Ugliness and ugly clothing in particular are now considered to be indications of a good soul. Ugliness implies pity for others who are ugly."

Last edited by captainpreppy (2007-04-09 19:39:41)

Cool article, Horace. Thanks for that.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but does this idiot actually equate WASP "culture" with that of Ancient Greece!

Also, I don't mean to sound like too much of a literary critic, but doesnt anyone else sense some latent racism in this passage:

"Yet this culture, too, like all great cultures before it, would come to an end. It neither expected nor could withstand the slave revolt in men's fashion. The ugly rebelled against the beautiful, the noble, and ugliness has since come to be valued over beauty. Ugliness and ugly clothing in particular are now considered indications of a good soul"

And that bit about archways and content seen through form.  This man can discuss neither fashion nor aesthetics nor philosophy with any skill whatsoever.

I still can't get over the bit about the "slave revolt" whereby ugliness conquered all that was once beautfiful.  This is the same sort of windbaggery and doucebaggetry that i hear when people try to defend legacy practices at Ivy schools.  And since when does one's choice of clothing have even the slightest to do with "nobility"?

The article only takes the subject of the Andover Shop--with an opening like a novel--and then turns into a poor man's Nietzsche.

If that's the sort of literary/esthetic criticism that Harvard now produces, it's insulting.

Last edited by Incroyable (2007-05-07 13:24:35)

It's like a hodge-podge of Clement Greenburg's "Avant-Garde & Kitsch", Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Kant, Ortega y Gasset mixed in the blender to produce a self-consciously traditional manifesto. It's Post-modernist in the worst sense even when he overtly attempts to subvert the PoMo paradigm.

In suitable irony, here is our junior philosopher mentioned on the website that features Manton's various articles:

http://www.I'm being a wanker at the moorg/projects/pageID.288/default.asp

If someone like him could become a Deputy Editor at a famous university publication, then Howard should be writing on the New Yorker staff!

Last edited by Incroyable (2007-05-08 02:09:16)

This is HILARIOUS!  I wasn't expecting him to be a KID.  But come to think of it, he writes like a kid, a kid with a very gifted vocabulary but nothing to actually say.  I wonder if he actually dresses like someone who shops at the Andover.  In light of recent developments it seems as if the essay may be total BS composed by a kid who wanted to write about a Harvard landmark but doesnt actually know anything about it. 
Speaking of which, where exactly is the Andover shop?  I've probably walked by it 500 times.  it doesnt sound like the sort of place i would shop, but I am in the market for a seersucker suit.....