Matthew Perpetua on Lily Allen (not that it matters too much):"Vapid, cynical, hyper-consumerist neo-celebs of the Paris Hilton/Heidi Montag variety are utterly loathsome, but when we tear into them in comedy and art, it can often seem too easy and overly mean-spirited in way that eclipses any righteousness we could hope to claim in calling out their grotesque antics. Yes, they are clearly villains in the context of our culture, but on scale, they’re more like the Goombas in the Super Marios Bros. games — cannon fodder along the path to the Big Bosses."
Super Mario Brothers seems to have created epistemological categories for a whole generation of Americans (and Britons; see Lanchester, op. cit.). Shouldn't somebody get to work on an ethical system based on this game?
