Culture January 1, 1

Why do we turn on art in general or pick a particular art to denounce? In the case of the distinguished French author Pascal Quignard, hatred grew from the ashes of love. In The Hatred of Music, this former devotee decries music as a once-glorious art now degenerated into a torturous surround sound that deserves only contempt (and La Haine de la musique, originally published in 1996, appeared five years before the advent of iTunes). The ten theses that make up his erudite diatribe proceed by way of clipped readings of Biblical passages, classical texts, feudal fables, and obscure etymologies.