Pretentious entry
I wrote a letter to Imprint today, in response to this column.
Here is the letter:
As I browsed through the online version of this fine newspaper, a sudden shock befell when I clicked on a seemingly innocuous link titled "Animal House is no longer an option." "Flabbergasted" is perhaps too mild a word to describe my feelings on the contents of said article.
I felt vexed by the egregious piece introducing Chris Moffat as a self-styled "Art Snob" who feels it his prerogative to enlighten the hapless populace about true culture. While Mr. Moffat may well be educated enough in the discourse to claim the title (although the pedestrian names he flaunted as indicators of his erudition do leave the question wide open to debate), why does he feel it would benefit the intellectual sphere to admit the unwashed masses into our midst? Nay, I say! If I wanted to be a part of a group that accepts anybody with a pulse, I would've joined Imprint! Pretentiousness is a quality to be savoured, like fine 1961 Bordeaux, not distributed to the hoi polloi in metallic kegs named "Bubba."
However, further contemplations led me to the conclusion that Mr. Moffat's column - should he keep his pledge to indoctrinate the entirety of campus in the way of the hoity-toity - would not possibly be understood by the simpletons that compose the majority of this campus. There is even a glimmer of hope in my eyes that a shrewd diamond in the rough or two will sieve out of the riffraff and join their rightful society. Thus, it would appear that Mr. Moffat can, indeed, only benefit us, not hurt us. It is my dream to one day sip Grand Yunnan tea while debating the influence of Schopenhauer on Tom Waits in the confines of a University of Waterloo Intelligentsia club. Moffat, do not let my dream die.
Kirill Levin
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I might be a bit biased, but I think it's one of the best letter I've ever seen Imprint receive (right after the Russian grad student from last term). Hopefully, it will be printed this week as either a letter or a community editorial.
But the pretention doesn't end there! My dad was late picking me up from the bus stop so I went into the mall and immediately headed towards the clearance book store. Due to some bizzare rift in the cruelty of life, this store actually carries good classic books occassionally (I have recently bought Jack Kerouac's On the Road there, for example). Today, I was simply overwhelmed by the fact that they had a whole bunch of the Penguin Great Ideas books for $3 each!!!
A detailed list of all the books I bought follows. Keep in mind though, when it comes to the Great Ideas series, I've decided to eventually buy all of them, regardless of how I feel about the actual books.
Great Ideas:
Michel de Montaigne - On Friendship
Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents
Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own
Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Thomas Paine - Common Sense
Jonathan Swift - A Tale of a Tub
John Ruskin - On Art and Life
Seneca - On the Shorness of Life
Edward Gibbon - The Christians and the Fall of Rome
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract
Penguin Classics:
George Orwell - Burmese Days
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
So that means I now have to read Freud, proto-feminist diatribe and a pamphlet bitching about taxes. Why? Because a little penguin told me it's important.
Here is the letter:
As I browsed through the online version of this fine newspaper, a sudden shock befell when I clicked on a seemingly innocuous link titled "Animal House is no longer an option." "Flabbergasted" is perhaps too mild a word to describe my feelings on the contents of said article.
I felt vexed by the egregious piece introducing Chris Moffat as a self-styled "Art Snob" who feels it his prerogative to enlighten the hapless populace about true culture. While Mr. Moffat may well be educated enough in the discourse to claim the title (although the pedestrian names he flaunted as indicators of his erudition do leave the question wide open to debate), why does he feel it would benefit the intellectual sphere to admit the unwashed masses into our midst? Nay, I say! If I wanted to be a part of a group that accepts anybody with a pulse, I would've joined Imprint! Pretentiousness is a quality to be savoured, like fine 1961 Bordeaux, not distributed to the hoi polloi in metallic kegs named "Bubba."
However, further contemplations led me to the conclusion that Mr. Moffat's column - should he keep his pledge to indoctrinate the entirety of campus in the way of the hoity-toity - would not possibly be understood by the simpletons that compose the majority of this campus. There is even a glimmer of hope in my eyes that a shrewd diamond in the rough or two will sieve out of the riffraff and join their rightful society. Thus, it would appear that Mr. Moffat can, indeed, only benefit us, not hurt us. It is my dream to one day sip Grand Yunnan tea while debating the influence of Schopenhauer on Tom Waits in the confines of a University of Waterloo Intelligentsia club. Moffat, do not let my dream die.
Kirill Levin
------------
I might be a bit biased, but I think it's one of the best letter I've ever seen Imprint receive (right after the Russian grad student from last term). Hopefully, it will be printed this week as either a letter or a community editorial.
But the pretention doesn't end there! My dad was late picking me up from the bus stop so I went into the mall and immediately headed towards the clearance book store. Due to some bizzare rift in the cruelty of life, this store actually carries good classic books occassionally (I have recently bought Jack Kerouac's On the Road there, for example). Today, I was simply overwhelmed by the fact that they had a whole bunch of the Penguin Great Ideas books for $3 each!!!
A detailed list of all the books I bought follows. Keep in mind though, when it comes to the Great Ideas series, I've decided to eventually buy all of them, regardless of how I feel about the actual books.
Great Ideas:
Michel de Montaigne - On Friendship
Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents
Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own
Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Thomas Paine - Common Sense
Jonathan Swift - A Tale of a Tub
John Ruskin - On Art and Life
Seneca - On the Shorness of Life
Edward Gibbon - The Christians and the Fall of Rome
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract
Penguin Classics:
George Orwell - Burmese Days
James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
So that means I now have to read Freud, proto-feminist diatribe and a pamphlet bitching about taxes. Why? Because a little penguin told me it's important.