You Forgot Your Monocle

Why does art always have to be so pretentious? Why can't we simply look at something and say "hey, that's cool"?

Have you ever tried to read an art magazine? It's almost as if the contributors are competing to see who can write the most incomprehensible article.

It reminds me of an episode of Futurama where Fry falls into billions of dollars and to celebrate, Fry and his friends, Leela and Bender, throw a party. At the party they are all sitting around drinking cognac, smoking cigars, and wearing top hats. Then Leela and Bender have a conversation off to the side.

Leela (wearing top hat) : "I know Fry’s rich, but do we really have to wear these top hats?"

Bender (wearing top hat) : "Maybe you don’t understand just how rich he is -- in fact, I think I’d better put on a monocle."

Image via The Futurama Point

It's just like this in the art world. No one knows exactly how they should act or what they should say, so they all just try to act as upscale as possible even if it all crumbles into a pile of babel. They all ignore the emperor's naked butt for fear that they won't get their piece of the pie.