Ed Driscoll

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Epatering Les Bobos

July 27, 2009 - 12:40 pm - by Ed Driscoll

As I wrote a few years ago, “Leftwing artists specialized in Epater Les Bourgeois for much of the 19th and 20th century to the point where everyone who could possibly be disgusted is now barely able to simulate the aura of the penumbra of amusement.”

But that doesn’t stop them from trying. After all, how else will they get into the Bobos’ paper of record? Ann Althouse quotes the increasingly clapped out Gray Lady:

“New York magazine derided [Dash Snow] for making art by ejaculating on copies of The New York Post….”

“… he blew up that section of the article, ejaculated on the copy and displayed it at an art show in Los Angeles.”

Yawn.

A few years ago, James Lileks wrote, “If art contains sh**, we should take it at its word.” Or any other bodily fluid, for that matter.

More on the fallen Snow, dead of an O.D. at age 27:

Mr. Walls distinguished Mr. Snow from working-class addicts like William S. Burroughs, Herbert Huncke — and himself. “It was like his money never ran out,” Mr. Walls said. “When it came to doing drugs, he could do these marathons for days and days on end. In my day, in Huncke’s day, in Burroughs’s day, when we wanted a fix, we had to go work — we couldn’t just sit around getting high for three straight weeks.”

Hence our “Return of the Primitive” archives.

Update: For which this bright spark –whose efforts bring an entirely new meaning to “If I Had A Hammer” — is eminently qualified to join…

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1 Comments, 1 Threads

  1. 1. aclay1

    Now it’s the bourgeoisie that is “entrain de s’epater” – lot’s of similarity to Snow’s art.