My Facebook friends are probably tired of my posting links to Freddie deBoer pieces. I do it because he says exactly what I would say if I had his progressive street cred. Here he is on the progressive takeover of criticism:
…it seems to me that the progressive takeover that Curtis describes in sports media has been, if anything, even more comprehensive and obvious in the world of art and culture criticism. This morning I was browsing The Atlantic and I was struck by the degree to which I just expect all of our cultural criticism to function as a checklist for socially liberal politics…”
“…This thinking seems to preclude several different points of view that strike me as legitimate and worth thinking about. Like
- That there are many people with left-wing or progressive political sympathies who recognize that art can be interrogated for its political beliefs but nevertheless want to read art and culture criticism that does not consist primarily of explicit progressive political complaints; …
- That there are conservative or apolitical readers who would like to read more cultural commentary that does not involve an explicit rejection of their politics and who have suddenly found the world of artistic criticism has dramatically shrunk; …
- That everyone already knows what the internet’s opinion will be on Miley Cyrus, on Jonathan Franzen, on Kanye West, on the Entourage movie, and sundry other pre-digested cultural artifacts, and so you’re left wondering why anyone bothers at this point;
- That after years of reading this stuff, it’s become incredibly boring. [emphasis mine]
I wish someone would nominate Freddie’s post for a Hugo so thousands of people would read it.
I honestly think that this is the real issue that has made so many people who don’t give a rip about the Hugos view the Sad Puppies with sympathy. Sympathy, I admit, that they are trying their best to fritter away from within their own ideological silo, but still sympathy. I want to read some literary criticism that is about literature. It’s a darned shame that what I have to choose between is yet one more article about sexism in Star Trek and a game of ‘who can be most outrageous?’ on the conservative side.
I have hope though, in the number of people in fandom who have stated their intention to actually talk about the books they like this year. Surely some of them will have unique and interesting things to say.
