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Bad Taste Nathalie Olah

Bad Taste By Nathalie Olah

Bad Taste by Nathalie Olah

Reviews:
£13.80
Condition - Very Good
Out of stock
Very Good

Summary

A bold and original exploration from a renowned radical thinker, exploring the consequences of our obsession with image and taste

Bad Taste Summary

Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness by Nathalie Olah

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.

Bad Taste Reviews

Nathalie Olah is one of the sharpest social critics of the post-crash era and Bad Taste doesn't disappoint. At once vulnerable and biting, Olah lays bare the ways in which culture war is submerged and prettified class war.

She reminds us that capitalism, far from giving us what we want, conditions us to accept a narrowed view of what is possible, lulling us to forego pleasure and connection in favour of austerity and toil.

* Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won't Love You Back *
Olah is Britain's foremost culture writer. * Vicky Spratt, author of Tenants *
Provocative, vital and rigorously argued . . . Bad Taste deftly moves between aesthetics and politics, the playful and the polemical, with a nuanced attention to power and meaning in everything from a fake Renoir painting to Frasier Crane's fluffy hair . . . I finished Bad Taste with a sense of joy and possibility, witness to the thorough dismantling of a set of sexist, racist and classist criteria which have long put a limit on society's self-expression and desires. * Rebecca Birrell, author of This Dark Country *

Bad Taste is a searing polemic about the ways that money, power and social class shape our lives.

But Olah is just as sharp when it comes to critiquing aesthetic trends, and the book is also a witty, erudite and engaging history of food, fashion, interior design and other forms of visual culture.

Like much of the best political writing, it makes complex ideas accessible without ever dumbing them down.

* James Greig, editor at Dazed *
Nathalie Olah is one of the most interesting, creative and vital critical minds of her generation. Bad Taste is a gorgeous dissection of the culture we live in. * Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise *
A terrifically clear sighted and often very funny interrogation of the oddities of 'taste' and its political implications. * Francisco Garcia, author of We All Go Into the Dark *

About Nathalie Olah

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.

Additional information

GOR013479026
9780349702261
0349702268
Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness by Nathalie Olah
Nathalie Olah
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Dialogue
20231109
240
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Bad Taste