"When something startlingly new comes up, young people, especially, seize it. You can't complain about that. I think its heyday has passed, but it's had an effect and will continue to have an effect"
About this Quote
Abrams isn’t praising novelty so much as disarming the reflex to moralize it. The opening move - “young people, especially, seize it” - frames cultural change as generational physiology: not decadence, not betrayal, just appetite. “You can’t complain about that” is the quiet scold aimed at anxious gatekeepers who mistake their own discomfort for judgment. A major critic is telling other grown-ups: don’t confuse surprise with decline.
The second half pivots from tolerance to historical sense. “I think its heyday has passed” carries the seasoned critic’s trademark demurral: he’s willing to concede the arc of fashion without declaring a corpse. That’s the subtextual tightrope. Abrams refuses both the booster’s hype and the reactionary’s obituary. The phrase “startlingly new” acknowledges how movements arrive: not as careful amendments to tradition, but as shocks - modernism, the new criticism, poststructuralism, whatever “it” is in the moment. Abrams’ genius is keeping the referent vague enough to apply broadly while staying rooted in a recognizable cultural cycle.
Most revealing is the last clause: “it’s had an effect and will continue to have an effect.” That’s not nostalgia; it’s an argument about afterlives. Even when the trend cools, its techniques, taboos, and permission structures linger. The remark doubles as a defense of criticism itself: the job isn’t to crown the latest thing or denounce it, but to track what it changes - in taste, language, institutions - long after the crowd moves on.
The second half pivots from tolerance to historical sense. “I think its heyday has passed” carries the seasoned critic’s trademark demurral: he’s willing to concede the arc of fashion without declaring a corpse. That’s the subtextual tightrope. Abrams refuses both the booster’s hype and the reactionary’s obituary. The phrase “startlingly new” acknowledges how movements arrive: not as careful amendments to tradition, but as shocks - modernism, the new criticism, poststructuralism, whatever “it” is in the moment. Abrams’ genius is keeping the referent vague enough to apply broadly while staying rooted in a recognizable cultural cycle.
Most revealing is the last clause: “it’s had an effect and will continue to have an effect.” That’s not nostalgia; it’s an argument about afterlives. Even when the trend cools, its techniques, taboos, and permission structures linger. The remark doubles as a defense of criticism itself: the job isn’t to crown the latest thing or denounce it, but to track what it changes - in taste, language, institutions - long after the crowd moves on.
Quote Details
| Topic | Change |
|---|
More Quotes by H. Abrams
Add to List
