{"id":578,"date":"2008-10-28T14:10:28","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T21:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2008\/10\/the_scribbling_class_the_yawni\/"},"modified":"2008-10-28T14:10:28","modified_gmt":"2008-10-28T21:10:28","slug":"the_scribbling_class_the_yawni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2008\/10\/the_scribbling_class_the_yawni.html","title":{"rendered":"The scribbling class, the yawning ass"},"content":{"rendered":"


It’s always bothered me when critics call a work or performer “boring,” but now Susan Sontag, in her 1965 essay “One Culture and the New Sensibility” (from Against Interpretation<\/i>), helps put my finger on why: <\/p>\n

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The charge of boredom is hypocritical….Boredom is only another name for a certain species of frustration. <\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


The moment a critic declares (through her nose) that she is bored, she’s abdicated her responsibility: to illuminate causes, not just effects. “Boring” is like “wonderful” or “marvelous” or “splendid”–it says nothing except that you liked something or didn’t, and that you are so self-evidently justified in your taste (because you are you, and you are marvelous) that you needn’t bother to say more. <\/font>That’s why teenagers, with their uncanny ability to make the most of adults’ worst traits, love the b<\/i>-word: they understand “boring” annuls all argument and holds the listener at bay. <\/p>\n

<\/font>For a critic, it’s also stingy, backing away right when the writer needs to move in. It’s arrogant, asserting, “I am so much better than this dance\/this performer that I will not deign to explain.” <\/p>\n

Explanation is a humble thing–what subordinates do, never their bosses. “Boring,” on the other hand, is the aristocrat of response: a seeming explanation that tells you nothing (why Sontag calls it hypocritical). By means of indolence, the critic asserts her dominion over the reader and the art.  <\/p>\n

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It’s always bothered me when critics call a work or performer “boring,” but now Susan Sontag, in her 1965 essay “One Culture and the New Sensibility” (from Against Interpretation), helps put my finger on why: The charge of boredom is hypocritical….Boredom is only another name for a certain species of frustration. The moment a critic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}