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A review by roseofoulesfame
A Love Letter to Europe: An Outpouring of Sadness and Hope - Mary Beard, Shami Chakrabati, William Dalrymple, Sebastian Faulks, Neil Gaiman, Ru by Melvyn Bragg, Tracey Emin, Simon Callow
4.0
I'm well aware that part of the reason I like this is because it's an echo chamber for me (although I didn't agree with everyone's take, it's very clearly a book for Us Traitors What Voted Remain), and there is also the fact that a lot of the stories come across as super-privileged...
BUT
The thing that really struck me while reading this was the fact that, one day, a bunch of Eton-and-Oxford-educated Tory unprintables decided that they got to be the men of the people while all artists and intellectuals were deemed to be inherently poncy liberals who were out of touch with reality and I'm left thinking...
Who keeps making it so it's so mm mm difficult to be an artist unless you have some kind of privilege?
Who keeps society structured in such a way that art is viewed as something for the middle classes upwards?
And how exactly does BrExit remove barriers to being able to study, work and travel in places that help expose us to other cultures and widen our worldview?
Anyway, four stars, would reread.
BUT
The thing that really struck me while reading this was the fact that, one day, a bunch of Eton-and-Oxford-educated Tory unprintables decided that they got to be the men of the people while all artists and intellectuals were deemed to be inherently poncy liberals who were out of touch with reality and I'm left thinking...
Who keeps making it so it's so mm mm difficult to be an artist unless you have some kind of privilege?
Who keeps society structured in such a way that art is viewed as something for the middle classes upwards?
And how exactly does BrExit remove barriers to being able to study, work and travel in places that help expose us to other cultures and widen our worldview?
Anyway, four stars, would reread.