
What is pretentiousness? Why do we despise it? & more controversially why is it vital to a thriving culture? In this brilliant passionate essay Dan Fox argues that it has always been an essential mechanism of the arts from the most wildly successful pop music & fashion through to the most recondite avenues of literature & the visual arts PRETENTIOUSNESS WHY IT MATTERS unpacks the uses & abuses of the term tracing its connections to theatre politics & class From method acting to vogueing balls in Harlem from Brian Eno to normcore Fox draws on a wide range of references in advocating critical imagination & open-mindedness over knee-jerk accusations of elitism or simple fear of the new & the different Drawing on his own experiences growing up & working at the more radical edges of the arts this book is a timely defence of pretentiousness as a necessity for innovation & diversity in our culture