Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness

(Hardback)

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Description

This book is not a taste, nor an anti-taste, manual.

This is an interrogation of the importance we place on seemingly objective ideas of taste in a culture that is saturated by imagery, and the dangerous impact this has on our identities, communities and politics. This book is dedicated to understanding the industries of taste. From the food we eat to the way we spend our free time, Olah exposes the shallow waters of 'good' and 'bad' taste and the rigid hierarchies that uphold this age-old dichotomy.

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How did minimalism become a virtue, and who can afford to do it justice

When did blue-collar jackets become a fashion item

Who stands to gain from the distinction made between beauty, and sex

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Bold, original and provocative, Bad Taste is a revelatory exploration of the intersection between consumerism, class, desire and power, and a rousing call-to-arms to break free from the restrictive ways we see those around us.

Author Bio

Nathalie Olah is a journalist and cultural critic whose writing is published by the New Statesman, Guardian, TLS, Five Dials, Jacobin and Tribune. She holds a BA in English Literature from Oxford and an MA in Postcolonial Studies from the University of Sussex. In 2015, she moved to the Netherlands to work for a research organisation adjacent to the Dutch government. She credits witnessing the humiliation of the Greek people by EU bureaucrats, along with the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis in Britain, as shaping her politics and the disillusionment with neoliberal economics.