Pretentious ambition can be more satisfying than solid professional storytelling

Evidence

I agree absolutely with Phillip Challinor when he writes that “Artemis 81 stands as a brilliant example of the way in which interesting pretentiousness can be a good deal more satisfactory than solid professionalism and good old-fashioned storytelling.” Like much Seventies culture — and Artemis 81 really belongs to the “long Seventies” that ended circa 1982 — it deploys pretentiousness as a visionary force. To use a musical analogy, Artemis 81 combines the overblown ambition of prog with the cool Ballardianism of post-punk. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 647

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s running critique of capitalist realism and cultural nostalgia themes across this book — connects to: Philosophical ambition and messiness outweigh polished but shallow philosophizing — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 912; British humour conventionally punishes ambition rather than carrying the unsettling grotesque — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1133
• SEED: An essay rehabilitating ‘pretentiousness’ as a visionary creative force against professional competence

Broader Connections

• Philosophical ambition and messiness outweigh polished but shallow philosophizing #corroborates (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 912