An Elegant Riposte

Fiction writers today are facing a Brave New World. The time when an author could be, for the most part at least, assured of critical judgment based on his creative talents and writing ability alone appear to be drawing to a most disheartening close; and new criteria of quality are being established by the mainstream cultural elite. To some literary critics, especially those on the political Left, it no longer matters if what is written has inherent and objective worth, insofar as they believe this even to be possible, or if a work accurately exposes a facet of the human condition. Instead, a minefield now awaits authors, with editors, reviewers and ever-reliable Twitter mobs waiting to catch a writer out for “wrongthink”. This most reprehensible atmosphere in literary circles has culminated in the new offence of “cultural appropriation”.

This review appears in the April edition of Quadrant.
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