Shorn of dissent, Britain's high culture is little different from The X Factor
Great writers used to pit themselves against the world. Today their successors fight for a glut of awards, fellowships and festival appearances and the result is creative bankruptcy
You might want to disown the shallow vulgarity of the Christmas season's celebrity-fest, but it's going to be difficult. Tonight, as The X Factor judders towards its climax, with Strictly… pirouetting in its slipstream, Ant and Dec having gibbered over their prisoners in the jungle, and piles of celeb memoirs and cookbooks hogging the front tables of bookshops, what newspaper can be immune to the danse macabre of self-exposure? Then roll out the hand-wringing commentary about a society cursed by the obsession with fame.
From: Books: Books + News | guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 13 December, 2009
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