Tyranny of Cute
Our children are slaughtering each other in our schools and on our streets; more and more Americans are expressing hate and intolerance for other Americans who belong to different ethnic, religious, gender or lifestyle groups; and every day, this society becomes more and more enmeshed in the self-righteousness of narrow beliefs and interests. So how does a professor of literature respond to the situation? With a little tome about categorizing appearances. Of all the things that tyrannize us, “cute” is not near the top of the list.
La Belle observes that “cute” is usually reserved for things diminutive in stature or importance, proclaiming that once something is “cute,” it can never be “profound or ironic or intellectual.” Cute little treatise, Jenijoy.
DONALD J. HUNT
Simi Valley
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