Controversy is a strange thing. Unlike rage or disgust, you can’t feel controversy – it’s not an emotional response to a work of art. It is, at best, an abstract, group phenomenon, a manifestation of the hive mind, something that you can take part in somehow (details are hazy). At worst – and I think this is the case nine-tenths of the time – it is entirely contrived, imagined, a Jabberwocky invented by yellow press that can pursue targets that aren’t actually causing any rage, disgust or hurt feelings.
Posted on Thursday, 4 February 2010
