The Tyranny of Good Taste

06/07/2007

I am a part of all that I have met.
Alfred Tennyson

Last week I read an article by Joe Queenan ("Why Not the Worst?") in the New York Times Book Review (May 6, 2007) that I particularly enjoyed. Try as I might, I could think of no way to tie it to early childhood education. But I liked it so much I decided to share an excerpt anyway. Queenan starts off by reviewing a book about the fall of Troy that he described as so uncompromisingly bad that it is "a powerful weapon in the hands of those of us who work night and day to resist the tyranny of the good." He continues:

"Most of us are familiar with people who make a fetish out of quality. They read only good books, they see only good movies, they listen only to good music, they discuss politics only with good people, and they are not shy in letting you know about it. They think this makes them smarter and better than everybody else, but it doesn't. It makes them mean and overly judgmental and miserly.... In these people's view any time spent reading a bad book can never be recovered. They also act as if the rest of humanity is watching their time sheets."

Contributed by Roger Neugebauer, editor of ExhangeEveryDay.

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