All things are too small: essays in praise of excess - becca rothfeld

An acclaimed debut authors glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in culture in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from topics such as Sally Rooney, sadomasochism, and women who wait All Things Are Too Small is brilliant cultural critic Becca Rothfelds soul cry for derangement: imbalance, obsession, gluttony, ravishment, ugliness, and unbound truth in aesthetics, whether were talking about literature, criticism, or design.

In a healthy culture, Rothfeld argues, economic security allows for wild aesthetic experimentation and excess; alas, in the contemporary Anglophone West, weve got it flipped.

The gap between rich and poor, privileged and oppressed, yawns hideously wide, while we stagnate in a cultural equality that imposes restraint.