Do you have 'good taste' or just a superiority complex?

The concept of "good taste" in literature has historically been used to reinforce power structures, marginalize communities, and maintain existing privileges by promoting a narrow standard of what is considered "good" or "bad" literature. Check out the LitHub article that inspired this video!
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The J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature: RF Kuang Lecture
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#literature #goodtaste #booktok #hunteriskindacool

[hunteriskindacool]

Hi friends! Something I forgot to mention was that this discussion is not meant to discourage critical reading. Being critical of anything you consume is incredibly important. Rather, I wanted to highlight how "good taste" can often be weaponized. Josh Cook says it best at the end of his article: "Ultimately, perhaps the biggest difference between the humane good taste I’m trying to cultivate and the weaponized good taste used as a tool of cultural authoritarianism is the latter is something you have and the former is something you do. Humane good taste is a practice. It’s not about possessing expertise but about using whatever expertise you have developed to enrich the lives of others."

[krishnaanand]

I’ve also been seeing this weird complex some people have about non-fiction over fiction, as if non-fiction cannot be meaningless or poorly written.

[MeganPugh]

this video is so refreshing. I find that I can't watch a lot of booktubers because they make me feel almost ashamed for some of the books I enjoy. I think critical reading is so important and should absolutely be encouraged, but sometimes it's ok to just read books that make you feel good

[marklavarias]

"The best books are the ones that you love" Indeed!! I'm in love with my favs!! Thank you for this 💕💞

[pathsource]

Just because the concept of good taste is weaponized doesn’t mean all tastes or works of art are created equal. We’ve known this since at least Aristotle’s time.

[TrendyWebAltar]

One of my favourite ideas about this is from the art historian Dave Hickey, who once wrote: "Bad taste is real taste, of course, and good taste is the residue of someone else's privilege." (Dave Hickey, Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy)

[mareeabee]

I love James Joyce for his playfulness and artistic freedom, Cormac McCarthy for his unsparing vision and haunting, distinctive prose, and Anne Rice for her unapologetic romanticism and angst! Octavia Butler is my favorite SF author, I love her ideas and the way she conveys them so thoroughly with astute prose. I also love Sally Rooney’s detached prose and amazing character work (and spiciness).

Great video :)

[SR-nosr]

I was a voracious reader but then became friends with book snobs and I kind of quit reading as it wasn't fun anymore because I felt pressure to read only respected books.

I quit being friends with them and now zi'm back to reading how I did before.

[victormaranhaorocha]

There's truth in what you are saying, but we can't deny that there is also a lot of objectivity in art

[sylwiaoles]

sometimes i do miss the times when i didnt have the internet and later when i was not surrounded by bookish social media and was so happy with my reading :/

im a reader who literally doesnt care if the book is written amazing i love 1984 or tolkien or jane austen but i also loved reading Ice Planet Barbarians sldkjkljsd books are just great! all of them

[HkFinn]

Sort of…within reason. Demarcations can be too severe, and snobbishness is certainly a real thing. And it’s also possible that an author could be uncanonised because of their race/sex etc (though tbh I find this difficult to imagine in a modern eng lit department). But being so relativistic that as to deny the existence of a canon, or any differential in worth etc is it’s own extremely tendentious position. So you end up in this bind where Stephen King is great literature because…you like it? This is useful if you do read pop novels solely and feel bad about. It tells you what you want to hear, and has the added bonus of putting you on the correct side of some political movement. But if you actually care about literature, or any art, do you want it to be the standard position that there’s no qualitative difference between a restaurant menu and a great work of literature?
Btw another thing worth pointing out, is that this is not a radical position. It’s the standard among academics younger than 50. The vast majority of younger academics are now believers in relativism and adherents of modern ideas about art. There are few if any defenders of the canon in important academic positions. The reason you’ve even heard of Harold Bloom is because he was the last prominent example of his type, and he died a while ago in his 90’s. So be as relativistic as you like, but keep in mind you’re not a radical and you’re not challenging authority, you’re actually in authority and are the finger wagging elite, chastising those few left who do believe in a canon and the value of a received critical consensus. You won so much, you became the conservatives.

[mona-fyoj]

Look, I stayed away from fantasy books for such a long time because I wanted to seem cool. Not this nerdy kid who likes magic and dragons. I gaslighted myself into thinking reading tedious classics and slow paced litfic would make me seem cool and like I have "good taste", when in reality it was just middle school all over again in my head, where people with nerdy interests are automatically boring and embarrassing. How stupid.

[jungkooksboozybud]

The subject of good art, be it books, music, or paintings, is something I consider really subjective. I've watched tons of book tubers recommending novels as 'actually good novels, ' which inconspicuously made me question my taste in books. And it's not just books but also the sort of music I consume that made me debate my own taste because, being a novice, I obliviously narrowed down my vision to those exclusively considered 'elite' by others. Thankfully, all of that changed when I finally started to prioritize the arts that resonate with me and myself. Irrespective of whether they're 'elite' or not, good art for me is the one that resonates with my life. And that in no way is meant to inferiorize the taste of people who like art that doesn't appeal to me. Everyone's choice should be equally revered, and inclusivity must always take the lead.
Thanks for bringing up this topic on how people weaponize the idea of "good taste" for cultural authoritarianism. It's indeed a thing that needs to be neutrally discussed and it's great that you highlighted this!

[moodforaday-rlww]

Really interesting discussion. Personally I tend to read books that are usually considered in the category of classics, however, it is important to understand that academic elitism and various historical circumstances have caused damage to the image of certain genres, styles or voices, and them not being considered in the realm of what is generally believed to be good literature. Personally i think that people should be able to enjoy whatever piece of literature they want, after all, not everyone reads for the same reason, which means that the activity of reading can be something different for each person, and that has to be respected.

[morraquelee]

Your channel feeds the intellectual hunger I'm currently going through 🙌🏻thank you for your awesome work!

[spulp]

Hi ! really liked the video - and i do see where you are coming from, discussing the inherent ideas of 'good and bad taste' in media - i think you missed a few important points, especially to contextualize how our tastes, as communities, are built.

Good and bad literature isn't subjective, its much more of a relative question, since what incorporates the canon of literature depends upon its context, such as time periods; for example, Jane Austen was once considered bad literature for it was 'vulgar' to the general public, and nowadays she's considered one of the biggest writers of her time. And yes, unfortunately for many centuries this notion was predominantly built upon the views of white men, but it was and its still very cultural, no one's taste is built in a vacuum outside of context.

Beyond that, as a English graduate, I just think that its important to point out to young audiences that there is good and bad art and that these notions aren't personal and that literature analysis and criticism exist for a reason.

Another thing is that without the reaffirmation that literature criticism isn't about personal taste, it opens margins for speeches reinforcing that 'any book is a good book' and that those who criticize the lack of ambition in readers - especially young ones - are just being mean or hateful, when in fact its a much more complex question. Classics - and mind you, that doesn't imply 'old literature' since we do have plenty of modern classics - are studied and put in a higher ground for a reason, and its important to ensure that young readers understand that.

[aperson]

I have to say, I like this video a lot :) Whenever people talk about 'taste' I am always struck by the fact that so many novels are scorned almost purely because they are widely enjoyed by women—for example romantasy or YA. The blatant sexism is one reason I’ll always defend these genres from people ‘better taste’, regardless of whether I personally enjoy them. And also, I’m just glad that some people are reading at all—there has really been such a decline in reading in the last few decades that I’m just glad that people are enjoying the act!

[MariusMoonbeam]

This is such a good discussion.

There are books that I will never consider literature no matter what anyone says, and all books aren’t literature either. But no one will convince me that Colleen Hoover is a good writer or is a necessary author in her genre. Either way, read what you want and engage critically with it. The things you enjoy don’t have to be considered “good” but understanding what exactly it is you’re engaging with is important. One of my favorite movies is Hairspray and I thoroughly enjoyed Sarah J. Maas’s books—despite all the hate they get—when I was reading the books. As I got older, I understood that they weren’t the “best” books but I still enjoyed them. And thats what matters.

Re: Booktok, I do feel like the pushing of “spice” in books is dangerous because most of these books cater to children in some way either through how their covers are designed or how they’re labeled as YA despite the adult content found in them. Most books do have something to say and even if it’s “bad” you can find something in the book that resonates with you.

[katgreer]

Yuuup. This. This. This. I'm so tired of people shaming others for what they like to read its so annoying. 😒 like i don't even like a majority of booktok books but im not gonna sit here and shit on other people for enjoying them. Smh.

[elena]

Great video! I'd also like to add that many people who want to pick up reading start with cold hard classic because it's what's deemed "good" in general and end up not finishing the book or consider reading boring. It's not that those classics are "bad", but often they are very old and written in a way that modern readers don't understand as fast/ easy. I know some of those people and I'm always a bit frustrated with them not just picking up books, they actually want to read. Not a book you want to be able to say you read, but one you want to actually read. It's essential "gatekeeping" reading to only talk about classic and/or difficult books. Let people have fun, it's a hobby after all and if someone wants to become a reader they need to find out what they actually enjoy.