ABSTRACT
Taste implies tact and the observance of decorum by a people in harmony with themselves and their fellows, and having an appetite for excellence. Taste is profoundly affected by the politics of the day. A politics that brings peace and some measure of democracy is essential to the exercise of taste. The author suspects Professor Frankfurt of having lived a protected life, which he may never have moved in rough American circles. In sum, Professor Carey, meet Professor Frankfurt, since his title nicely describes What Good Are the Arts? Both Frankfurt and Carey become modern-day clercs guilty of a certain betrayal by playing to an ill-informed, non-elite majority. They are joined by a curious collection of essays, To Hell with Culture: Anarchism and Twentieth-Century British Literature. A fickle anti-aesthetic gives amusing work occasionally, but viewed from traditional areas of taste, it seems amateur and crude.
