"People don't like the true and simple; they like fairy tales and humbug"
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Goncourt lands the insult with a shrug of elegance: people claim to want honesty, but they shop for enchantment. “True and simple” sounds like virtue, yet he frames it as a hard sell - plain truth has no costume changes, no satisfying arc, no villain you can boo on schedule. “Fairy tales” aren’t just children’s stories here; they’re a whole cultural technology for making reality emotionally legible. “Humbug” sharpens the blade. It’s not innocent escapism but a willingness to be fooled, even a preference for the well-packaged lie over the awkward fact.
The line comes from a writer steeped in 19th-century realism and the Goncourt project of pinning society down to its textures: money, manners, boredom, appetite. In that context, it reads less like misanthropy for sport and more like a professional complaint. The realist’s job is to present life unvarnished; the public’s job, apparently, is to ask for varnish. His target is a bourgeois culture that fetishizes sincerity while rewarding theater - a society where sentimentality and spectacle do the work that evidence and nuance refuse to do.
The subtext is uncomfortable because it implicates the reader. Goncourt isn’t only calling out dupes; he’s diagnosing a market. Fairy tales win because they flatter, simplify, and absolve. Humbug wins because it offers the luxury of certainty. The “true and simple” loses because it asks you to live without that luxury.
The line comes from a writer steeped in 19th-century realism and the Goncourt project of pinning society down to its textures: money, manners, boredom, appetite. In that context, it reads less like misanthropy for sport and more like a professional complaint. The realist’s job is to present life unvarnished; the public’s job, apparently, is to ask for varnish. His target is a bourgeois culture that fetishizes sincerity while rewarding theater - a society where sentimentality and spectacle do the work that evidence and nuance refuse to do.
The subtext is uncomfortable because it implicates the reader. Goncourt isn’t only calling out dupes; he’s diagnosing a market. Fairy tales win because they flatter, simplify, and absolve. Humbug wins because it offers the luxury of certainty. The “true and simple” loses because it asks you to live without that luxury.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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