Do you have "good taste" or just a superiority complex? 

“We’ve known this since Aristotle’s time” is basically just reinforcing the idea of good taste being used as a tool to keep power structures in place. You can critique a work without dividing it into books that people with good taste would like and books that people with bad taste would like.

​@@sydneydenham5778 so now people cant even speak the truth. if u cant go through a book unless there is 70% porn, yes u are a person with bad taste.

Yes! Language is so impactful and important! If we put everything on a binary, we really do flatten our experience. Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much for watching!

"yes i love books where its basically porn no i dont have an inferior taste chuddddd"

Not really, there are so many objectively horrible books that one can love for all the wrong reasons !

That is SO GOOD! Thank you for sharing! I'm definitely going to have to read the whole essay.

Amazing! I'm happy you rediscovered your passion for reading.

BEAUTIFUL! Thank you so much for sharing :)

sally rooney mentioned!! i adore her writing style as well. fell in love with it 🫂🤝

I am honored 💌 thank you for watching!

Very well put. Thank you so much for sharing such a thoughtful comment! I think a lot of people will relate to what you outlined :) I'm also so glad that this video resonated with you! In researching/writing for this video, it really helped me to trust my taste again.

@@hunteriskindacool Pleasure's all mine💌. I'm so looking forward to devouring more such content!🤩 And thanks to YOU again! ^_^

It’s funny how you wrote all this, doing the silly generation bashing and speaking on academia and their “relativism” that you neglected the actual point of the video and the real, substantial points it made. I don’t even understand half of your argument or what it is addressing because it’s built on a fictional narrative you created stuffed with strawmen. You don’t even properly understand the idea of a canon, something that has only existed in realm of English literature since the late 19th century and mainly to commodify learning through university degrees. The most traditional and standard vein of academia as far as literature is concerned is that of the editor or the archivist: preserving texts and producing accurate transcriptions.

@@nezahuatez if you don’t understand something feel free to ask and I’ll try my best:)

Absolutely! Couldn’t agree more :) I feel like you can divine a lot of meaning from Romance, YA, or Romantasy. Encouraging people to read anything that they connect with is always top of mind for me! Thanks for watching ☺️

Thank you for taking your time to share your thoughts and add to the discussion! I really enjoyed reading through ☺️ Totally agree on all fronts! I’ll definitely try to be more nuanced in my next video. I like your elaboration on the difference between literary criticism and personal taste-especially about how culture can build both taste and critique standards.

@@hunteriskindacool Oh darling, thank you for the video and for reading and replying to my comment :) it is really really exciting to see literature discussions that go beyond booktok and that have so many interesting and good insights such as yours.

Great addition to the discussion--thank you! I also like how Brandon Sanderson put it in one of his lectures where he said, "a book isn't finished until it's read. I am the screenwriter, and the reader is the director, set designer, the special effects..." It's so cool how people can divine so many different meanings from the same book. Thanks for watching :)

Thank you so much for watching :')

Thank you so much 🥰 Your comment means so much to me! I completely understand what you mean. I also felt like I couldn't engage in discussion because I didn't have the right "vocabulary" to discuss books in a way that seemed "correct". I'm also still learning how to be more open about my experience when I read, because like anything, it's so subjective! And there's something so special about sharing the ways in which we connect to things. Thank you for watching and for the lovely comment!

Thank you so much!

Goodnight Punpun is currently on my TBR! Excited to dip into the world of manga :) Thanks for watching and for leaving a thoughtful comment!

Thank you so much for leaving such a thoughtful comment, and for sharing your own personal experience :) "You don't learn opinions, you create them" !! I love this statement!

@@MariusMoonbeam Thank you for sharing your thoughts! We are very aligned in our thinking on this topic :)

Thank you so much! That means a lot :)

Thank you so much! I am definitely doing more book reflections in the future, but I prefer essay style where I do a deep dive on one book at a time :) stay tuned for that!

@@hunteriskindacool yes and I am currently reading How High We Go In the Dark before watching the video!

@@Aerithrocyte I hope you like it!

Thank you so much for watching! I appreciate it!

@@hunteriskindacool happy to love🫶

Thank you so much for watching!

Yes! Books can serve as clarifying exercises that give us insight into all the infinite ways one can be human.

Thank you so much!

Thank you for watching!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! This video was not meant to discourage people from reading classics. This video was meant to unveil the power structures behind the idea of "good taste" as outlined by the article I referenced by Josh Cook! I do have an issue with classifying the human experience as "universal". Historically we've seen that books lauded as award winning or classics are typically told from one particular point of view (white men). I do think that there has been a paradigm shift in our culture now that allows for more diverse voices to be heard, which is great! I do think it's important to call out, "though there are experiences we could describe as universal, though we’re all born, we all die, we all eat and drink, people in power have often used good taste to argue that their interpretations or versions or perspectives on those universal experiences are “normal” or the “standard,” and to judge art created from different interpretations, versions, and perspectives to be inferior" (to quote Josh Cook again). Your second point that generally reduces non-classics readers to being lazy or stupid is a flimsy argument in my opinion, and ignores socioeconomic implications of access to literature. Not just access to the books themselves but the knowledge, exposure, and language needed to both read and understand these works. If we maintain the notion that people who don't read classics are lazy or stupid, we are actively making people inferior, which is exactly my point. Instead of shaming people for not reading classics, we should be uplifting and encouraging them to do so. Also, does a genre novel’s being recognized as a classic mean that it’s no longer a genre novel? Does Pride & Prejudice count as a romance novel? Does The Hound of the Baskervilles count as a mystery? Does Frankenstein count as a sci-fi/horror novel? All of this to say, classifying all romance novels as bad or dumb is a very broad stroke. I think romance novels or "guilty pleasure" movies can have a lot to say about autonomy, desire, love, and self worth. Now that the internet has democratized publishing and we are inundated with content of every kind all the time, we of course have to be discerning and critical of anything we consume. But I will not judge people for reading what they want to read. I will instead encourage readers to explore and expand their tastes, because I truly believe that reading widely shows us the infinite ways that we can be human.

@@hunteriskindacool you didn't get any of my points. First of all there are universal human experiences. And intentionally oversimplifying them to prove a point doesn't really work. If I tell you "my partner left me, I thought we would always be together but now I have lost all my sense of stability. I constantly feel anxious and get panic attacks. It gets on way of me doing my job which increases my anxiety since I depend only on myself now" , you won't need to know my gender , my political viewpoints , my social economic status , etc. to understand what I am going to, maybe relate and feel empathetic towards me . When I read a book that stood test of time to be considered classic , I don't read a point of a view of a white man or a white main character. I read stories of people who go through certain life experiences, overcome them or let those circumstances completely change or destroy them and hopefully get something that I can carry along with me. Also what is the obsession with white men? Many white men stood against their peers trying to fight against injustices of their times. Some intentionally refused to write about the upper class and brought the hardships the working class has to face trying to make a change. There are also so many classic writers who are not white men. And they are just as diverse! I don't understand your argument on the accessibility of literature and language barrier. We are living in a world where any kind of information is accessible especially for an English speaker. And most literature is translated to English since that guarantees the widest audience. Also most English speaking countries are quite advanced in a sense that you have functioning libraries and digital libraries (which is such a dream but probably won't happen in my home country any time soon!). As for people not understanding classical literature because they are stupid and lazy. If you reread my comment you can see that I said it's fine and it's normal since both are traits that can be overcome if the person desires to! Learning any new skill or coming across any new knowledge is going to make you feel stupid. The easiest way would be to give up and go back to your comfort zone. But if it's something important for you (in this case literature) and you work on yourself and push through , the reward will be immense. The stupid romance book doesn't refer to a novel like "pride and prejudice" and I know you know that and so do most people you can read and heard a thing or two about world literature. I was taught that "there is no shame in putting aside a book that you don't think you are smart enough for and come back to it later when you have a better understanding of what it is trying to say. And then you can decide to agree or disagree". Maybe that's where the word stupid came from and maybe in English it's to harsh , but it is something that was meant to encourage a reader to continue reading and if they can't figure it out on their first try , there was always another time! As for people to like to put others down , they will always find a way to do so and shouldn't be taken as a norm to build a literature traditions on!

Thank you so much!

LOVE! Thanks for watching friend :)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I think the point I was trying to get at is not dissecting the inherent quality of books, but rather the power we occupy when we assert what books we deem as good or bad. More so on the notion of "good taste" being used as a tool to make others feel inferior. I really appreciate the time you took to write out your reflections and potential areas of further discussion :)

@@hunteriskindacool mmm i dont think you got my point at all :/ im talking about this "good book, bad book" detraction as a huge misnomer. people who say "you cannot read smut all day" dont actually care if you read a book or two like that, we're saying the sensationalization of that is degrading the quality of literature as an industry in real time. like there are repercussions to that. this was never about putting people down-as many bad faith arguments exist you have to realize that there are good faith arguments that actually have merit. i'm really saying theres no use in saying "this is what a GOOD book looks like" because like i said, every book has its fans and its haters that is the NATURE of books. theres not one universally lauded book that everyone says is great-most people first experience classics in school and if you prefer the mortal instruments to wuthering heights nobody is standing there ready to shame you. again, most people enjoy both genres. nobody is ever putting down fantasy as a genre? not when works like Dune are so critically acclaimed? when Game of Thrones was a cultural event? that's a useless argument because it isnt representative of the real world at all. "let people enjoy things!!!" is a new, social media buzzphrase often used to dismiss any sort of real criticism and thats why the US is experiencing this wave of anti-intellectualism as we speak. nobody wants to think critically about the books they read OR the media they consume. how many times have you seen someone say "it isnt that deep" about a real analysis? the world has "the curtains are just blue"-ed themselves into a lack of critical thinking skills and it isnt wrong to point that out. it IS wrong to bury your head in the sand and say, once again, "let people like things." you're misrepresenting the argument altogether and thats evidenced by your failure to understand your audience, too-people who say you cannot read "dark romance" all day aren't the book banning republicans who want to oust whatever the hell "critical race theory" is or any novel in which two women kiss, they're the ones saying to pick up a banned book. you can't like EVERY book but you at least need to diversify your worldview. that's not a bad thing at all.

@@winkcloud I see! Apologies for the misunderstanding and thank you for taking the time to write out your thoughts. I am not using this discussion to back the “let people like things” argument, and I do think we should be critical of the things we consume. Thank you for pointing out other areas of this topic that deserve further discussion!

!!! Thanks for watching friend !!! 🥹

Thank you for the comment and for your thoughts! I see what you're saying but I think we perhaps have missed each other slightly. In the video, I am arguing that taste is highly subjective, but I don't mean that there is no objectivity when it comes to analyzing or critiquing literature based on craft itself. I also believe that we should be critical of all things that we consume! But since I am a mere hobbyist reader--not a critic, nor an academic--I was painting with broad strokes a bit, and trying to discuss how we often look at books on a good/bad binary without providing nuance. Additionally, I agree that sharing what you enjoy reading can be a community signal, which is great! However, I think Josh Cook says it best: "Cultural authoritarianism in literature manifests through the policing of reading choices, often making people feel inferior for not adhering to certain literary standards set by those in power." So my point was not that you can't share the genre, authors, or titles that you're interested in; but rather my point was that if you are sharing your "taste" with others, be wary of the language that you use and the position of power you occupy. It’s not about possessing expertise but about using whatever expertise you have developed to enrich the lives of others. It is not about hoarding whatever influence might come with that expertise but about sharing it with others. Totally agree with your last sentiment! Josh Cook also writes that "declarations of quality, declaring this book “good” and that book “bad” is a fundamental aspect of weaponized good taste, one that brings together assumed authority and those incorrect assumptions of “standard” human experiences. Rather than thinking in terms of “good” and “bad,” I think about books in terms of “success” and “failure.” Does this book achieve the goals I think the author set for it? Does it meet my personal needs? Is it likely to meet the needs of this reader at this moment? What impact could it have on the social, cultural, and literary context in which it exists?" I hope this provides more clarity to what I was trying to say in the video. Regardless, thank you for sharing your thoughts and for watching! I really appreciate the discussion ☺

Ah what interesting points! It's really interesting to me when we talk about objective criteria-I'm personally not of the mind that books are 'good' based purely on subjective measures, but neither am I totally convinced by the objective argument (ever the fence-sitter, very annoying!). One way that we can think about this is just to get to the heart of the issue I think: what are the objective criteria for a book's goodness? Lots of critics, throughout history and today, have argued endlessly about it: the Ancient Greek were obsessed by the idea of catharsis (but today we are not so much, bad-feelings being released is de-emphasised overall, and we don't really even think of this as a criteria), the first scholars that studied 'literature' as we know it were obsessed by the idea of the 'natural unity' of the work, which later the modernist critics disavowed. The postmodernists took a jackhammer to everything and said all of those previous criteria were illusory. Ultimately, what are the objective criteria? There's a lot of disagreement over what should be counted or discounted, and even on the stuff that most critics agree with (e.g. quality of prose) there's wide dispute of what counts as 'good' or 'bad'. Famously Virginia Woolf hated 'Ulysses' for its absurd density, but many many scholars believe it to be one of the most interesting and insightful prose ever written. Terry Eagleton talks about it really well in his ‘How to Read Literature’, but to proceed with the book, he has to set some arbitrary criteria that not everybody would agree with. He takes them as objective, but they are no more objective than somebody else's preferred criteria. What is legitimate and what is not? While Eagleton is well-respected, his opponents are also-this is one way that you can't be a fence-sitter (darn to be me!).

@@aperson3817 Thank you so much for your thoughts! This was such an amazing addition to the conversation. I definitely want to check out Eagleton’s work :) Within this video I don’t think I presented a conclusive answer to this argument. I wanted to highlight how we as individuals could be more inclusive when talking to peers about the books we read! There are so many ways this discussion can branch off into more nuanced areas so I really appreciate those who have taken the time to add to the conversation ☺️

Also it’s a little ironic that you deride the idea of good and bad taste in this video yet include tons of b-roll of books you own, pretty much all of it being critically acclaimed and highly respected works of art. Show us the real potboiler crap if you wanna make a point!!

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I actually think that YA, Romantasy, smut and even fanfiction have plenty to say--even if they are indulgent. These genres appeal to readers because they can say a lot about self worth and autonomy. The message of these books could simply be that certain bodies are deserving of pleasure. I also think that fanfiction plays a HUGE role in representation--how amazing is it that a fandom loves a story so much that they take it upon themselves to create an extension of that world that is more inclusive! That is so exciting and cool! To me, all of the things I've listed are valuable :) I hear you! It can be frustrating as a reader to see that a lot of newer books are just mashing together popular tropes and storylines without bringing something fresh to the table. However, I feel like this critique should be aimed at the publishing industry rather than at readers. I totally agree on the importance of diversifying what you read! What we read can show us all the infinite ways that one can be human! So it's incredibly limiting to only read one genre. To me that's like eating the same food for the rest of your life lol. However, I also recognize that people have limited time and the world is literally on fire so I really just love when people read anything at all! My goal as a reader is not to police the reading choices of others, but to bring along as many people as I can into the wonderful realm of books ☺ Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for watching! I really appreciate it!

​@@hunteriskindacool Hi, I am so happy you took the time to read my comment! I am speaking from personal experience and what I see in my day-to-day. And of course, my opinion. Tl;dr: No, I disagree, you need to diversify your reading then you can call yourself a reader. If you only read the same stuff, especially if it is smut, over and over, then you are just indulgent and doing the equivalent of self-pleasuring or brainrotting. I am by no means a literature snob and I have written and published a lot of fanfiction works in the past, gosh, 10 years... and I do notice a pattern of decreasing quality in fantasy, romance, and YA especially. It reads like fanfiction. I am not saying it as an insult, I am saying I rather be reading the free writings of a familiar fandom online than spend 20 dollars on the same quality of work about characters I could care less about. Not saying every book in that genre is bad or terrible. Hate U Give, the Outsiders, and Perks of Being a Wallflower are beyond excellent novels. But you really cannot compare those to arguably most YA. (Personally, most YA reads awfully and the attempts at discussing dark topics are abysmal and honestly cringe). Everyone is copying everyone, books are becoming tropified. You blame the publishers, but they are doing what they think we want and what appeals to the bookish community, and its working in their favor if those subpar series or novels are reigning in money. I am most concern with booktok and the seasonings being added to books (I mean the spice ratings) as I have seen it with my own eyes minors buying spicy books just because it is popular and marketing exposure really does have a huge affect. The parents do nothing nor should they be expected to because as a society we consider reading to be "smart" and "intelligent" so they in fact encourage it. In normalizing female gooning we risk warping our perception, whether it is a minor or an adult, on sex and love (I started seriously reading at 11, and unfortunately fell into reading smut which 100% as, a now psychology major, I see has negatively affected me and my future relationships). If a man watching PornHub everyday is detrimental to his mental health than wouldn't a woman reading only smut have similar effects? It's not cute to base off your personality on reading smut. Just how it's not cute for a man to make porn their identity. To a lighter topic, I am very bitter. When I started reading at 11, I was very in-tuned with Booktube. I would watch several different booktubers, small and big, and see their recommendations. I see the same books being read and I thought that they must be great, so I begged and got them. I tried to read them and I thought there was something deeply wrong with me. Why do I hate Six of Crows, why do I hate Shatter Me, why do I hate Simon vs the Homo Saipan Agenda, why do I hate Red Queen, and literally every popular book I bought? Everyone else keeps talking about it, and I spent so much money on books that were practically forced fed to me on every video I watched. I actually stopped reading published works because I thought I was stupid and stuck to fanfiction. It was only when I was 14 and my 8th grade teacher lent me the book Fight Club (honestly shouldn't have read it at that age, but at the same time I was deep in my smut phase) that I realized two things: YA sucks and I actually love reading. I had over 30 books of trash that I spent god knows how much on because of the constant exposure from booktube and now booktok and my young naive mind. I see the same problem of the same books being recommended over and over again. There is no diversity, only this hivemind of what I should like too. It made me question myself for a long time and I honestly feel like this is driving people away from reading. Thank you for your time in reading this if you did! I did love your video by the way, just because I disagree doesn't mean I can't appreciate the work that went into it. I wish you the best!

@@some_numbers Thank you again for taking the time to reply! I think it's wonderful that we can have this discussion :) Thank you for sharing your personal experience as well! I was definitely painting with broad strokes in this video and wanted to highlight the issue with making others feel inferior in the name of "good taste", but I definitely understand your thoughts about the detrimental affects of reading ONLY spicy books/smut/romance. I'm not on spicy book-tok, nor do I really interact with other creators recommending those books so there was a blind spot for me there. This conversation about over indulgence to the point of detriment really reminds me of Huxley's Brave New World! Maybe I'll do a more nuanced video on this topic using Brave New World as a comparative guide to explore this conversation more. I really appreciate the nuanced discussion!

I will keep calling myself a reader while only reading romance. Now a days you can consume content in so many different formats and there is simply certain things that I will never care to read about nor do I want to try. A reader is someone who reads, regardless of the genre. I personally think that a lot of these types of takes are heavily rooted in misogyny since they mainly target genres that women are enjoying "en masse" and the conversation around smut often feel like just another way to slut/s*x shame women. I must say comparing women who read books with some smutty scenes to men with a p*rn addiction is absolutely insane… there is a huge difference in the way the content is even presented, so this again goes back to the conversation on misogyny and slut shaming women. While these genre can be indulgent, all lot of these books can have deeper meaning, lessons to teach etc… but again it is being downplayed because these are genres that mainly women enjoy so they’re not taken as seriously (in a way it’s the equivalent of people downplaying "chick flicks"). I also think that one of your main issue above all else what that you(!) were pressuring yourself into liking certain things based on what other people were enjoying… you cannot blame other people because you influenced yourself into "joining the bandwagon" and it did not work for you. Also minors interacting with spicy content is not something new, if they weren’t getting these books they would instead be reading fanfics that are just as spicy and ultimately it is the parents problem and no one else. Spice rating are just another way to categorize books which can be helpful because some people simply do not want to read super smutty books. I think that at some point some of you need to stop pretending that you have these takes because you care about women’s mental well-being and simply admit that you just want to sh*t on their reading choices because it makes y’all feel better. All that to say, it smells like internalized misogyny in here.

@@alibrasworld Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I really appreciate it! Access for minors to explicit content could be an entirely different conversation but I do agree that the onus should be on the parents! I also agree that genres more widely enjoyed by women seem to catch the most heat.