Nicola Dinan, author
I enjoyed Pretentiousness: Why It Matters by Dan Fox. I am a guilty user of the word pretentious, which the book methodically rebukes over its hundred-and-something pages. Art moves forward because people aspire to things they are not (I certainly feel this as a writer). It’s also a word with deeply classist roots, made even worse by the fact that its meaning is often unclear. Instead of saying pretentious, I now think of other words that more accurately describe why I dislike something, such as vapid, poorly written or ugly.
