The Lowest Common Denomination

Posted 21 July, 2008 in Quotable | 4 comments

“We recognize this mental atmosphere, and its name is anti-intellectualism. Noticeable, too, is the re-emergence of sentiment as the prince of the critical utensils. Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to ‘care about,’ in whom they want to ‘believe.’ Such remarks as ‘I didn’t like the characters’ are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves — a literature of ingratiation. And we will have then reached the destiny that Alexis de Tocqueville predicted for American democracy: a flabby stupor of mutual reassurance. The simultaneous consolidation of ‘dumbing down’ is not an accident. PC is low, low church, like the Church of England; it is the lowest common denomination.”

– Martin Amis, “The Voice of the Lonely Crowd”