The Very Stupidity of Things

I kind of dig this Trilling fellow. Look what he says about the reason why material objects should not be despised:

The very stupidity of things has something human about it, something meliorative, something even liberating. Together with the stupidity of the old unthinking virtues it stands against the ultimate and absolute power which the unconditioned idea can develop.

I’m not sure we have gained all that much by relinquishing the free and beautiful literary criticism of the 1950s in favor if the highly formalized 15-footnotes-to-a-page approach of today.

I know I just made myself a pariah among my colleagues when I said I don’t hate Trilling but I can’t help it, I do enjoy his writing.