Anodyne
Friday, February 04, 2005
 
John Latta pauses over Samuel Johnson's ingrained distaste for non-reflexivity:

"Endless admiration for Dr. Johnson’s 'instinctive revolt against the intellectually modish.' What W. Jackson Bates labels as Johnson’s strengths as a critic of literature: “his refusal to be intimidated by the spurious ‘authority’ of fashion; his scorn of the ‘cant’ of those who are conditioned by attitudes simply because they are current; his tendency to walk immediately up to the tyranny of stock response in the prevailing mode of thinking, and to push directly through it in order to see what is on the other side.” (Empty verbiage, 'cultural critique' in the form of old saw-blades whining, earnest old Panama hats, recticulated string bags of airy profundities, the usual pumpernickel and dough.)"
- posted by cjb @ 9:44 AM


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