Saturday, July 18, 2009

James Wolcott on Cultural Snobbery

James Wolcott on Cultural Snobbery | vanityfair.com: "Pity the culture snob, as Kindles, iPods, and flash drives swallow up the visible markers of superior taste and intelligence. With the digitization of books, music, and movies, how will the highbrow distinguish him- or herself from the masses?
By James Wolcott August 2009"

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The title of the article is actually: "What's a Culture Snob to do?"

I do not as a rule consider myself a culture (or cultured for that matter)snob. However I do decry the advent of getting our information, culture and 'enlightenment' from electronic sources. Just as the thought that the ART of writing a letter has gone by the wayside makes my heart heavy, so does the idea that carrying around a honest-to-God REAL tome makes you some kind of freak that is not moving along with the latest technology, makes me want to scream at people on their blackberries, iPods, Kindles and the like and then have them flogged.

It's almost like the scene from the Monty Python skit where the Pythons are all sitting around discussing their horrid childhoods (The 'Four Yorkshire Men' skit) - as if I should say to people 'Now when I was a kid....we used to read books'...as the person recoils in horror....'A BOOK wow - what's that?'

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