I’m a little disappointed by some of the responses to this (not Matt’s, which I take to be plain wit). But there is obviously a long tradition of studying low culture, mass culture, kitsch, & etc., and we ignore this latest aesthetic category at our peril. To pretend otherwise is anti-intellectual.
Feb 4, 2026 22:38I’m happy to see serious people engaging.
Just to say that this has evolved into a pretty solid exchange, and if you haven’t read the comment threads you should.
Certainly slop is worth being taken seriously as a category, aesthetic maybe, but also as a vector of politics & a product of material conditions. On the latter fronts this publication is lacking, even to the point of being performatively contrarian & bad faith.
What strikes me is how dated (or, perhaps, simply of a previous era) are the references
