"You can argue about taste, but not about the wisdom and relevance of this book!" - Samira El Ouass
Anyone who has ever experienced their favourite film being belittled or read a review of their favourite book will know the deep feeling of resentment that such an attack provokes. Outraged, you want to disagree, defend the novel or the film - and thus also yourself. The literary scholar Johannes Franzen sees arguing about taste as an important cultural technique and brings together a wealth of controversies and scandals from the literary, film and music scene, from "Madame Bovary" to "Breaking Bad", from "Lolita" to Rammstein. He analyses in an entertaining and clever way why we develop strong emotions such as enthusiasm and anger, love and shame in relation to novels, songs, computer games or series and why conflicts about these feelings are so important and productive.
"Franzens book sheds light on the social and political dimensions of aesthetic phenomena and – perhaps even more importantly – the aesthetic dimensions of politics and society." - Die Zeit
"Johannes Franzen presents a captivating theory of conflict that will significantly shape our understanding of culture. Intellectually profound and highly exciting." - Carolin Amlinger
