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Books

Pretentiousness isn’t such a crime

A bit of silly affectation is part of growing up — and it’s less pernicious than weary cynicism, according to Dan Fox

20 February 2016

9:00 AM

20 February 2016

9:00 AM

Pretentiousness: Why it Matters Dan Fox

Fitzcarraldo Editions, pp.155, £12.99, ISBN: 9781910695043

Aversion to pretentiousness was probably an English trait before Dr Johnson famously refuted Bishop Berkeley’s arguments for the immateriality of the world by booting a stone. There are plausible historical reasons for this. Suspicious of the Catholicism of neighbouring Ireland and France (where words were thought to contain spiritual power even if they were not understood), the English easily adapted the Reformation’s injunction to simplify scripture into a more general doctrine of ‘say what you mean’.

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