19th January 2012
Quote
I am holding in my hand a document which transcends and seals all the shame of this age and would in itself suffice to assign the currency stew that calls itself mankind a place of honor in a cosmic carrion pit,” wrote the Vienna critic Karl Kraus, in 1921, about an ad for a package tour to the battlefields of Verdun. Lately I think I know how he felt. There are some objects of criticism that are immune from criticism, before which criticism can only fall back in wonder and awe, disarmed and stupid, and such objects seem to come in packs. See one, and soon enough you’re seeing them everywhere. It’s the spirit of the times, the taste of the currency stew; you can’t get it out of your mouth.
— Greil Marcus, ‘U.S.A. Combat Heroes’ in In the Fascist Bathroom: Writings on Punk 1977-1992
Tagged: Greil MarcusIn The Fascist BathroomKarl Kraus
