The title of the post is too good: "Oh boy, you probably think you're very clever, with that literary T-shirt and all."The site, purveyor of “Quality Profanity T-Shirts,” offers shirts emblazoned with literary references of varying subtlety. These include advertisements for products such as Soma, the wonder drug from Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” and companies like Calpurnia’s Cleaning Service, named for the housekeeper in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The selection of literary references ranges from Hammett to Hornby ti Hemingway, all across the taste spectrum. “Hey,” they say, to anyone in the room who picks up the allusion, “want to get coffee with somebody who knows the names of several characters from ‘A Farewell to Arms?’”
Because one thing is common through all the designs: If you haven’t read the books referenced, or at least sat through a lecture on them, you won’t understand. And that’s the problem with literary gear in general, writ rather large. As loath as we are to use this word, it’s pretentious: It takes on pretense a certain knowledge, a certain set of tastes, and is presumably shocked when that pretense is proved false. It’s like a secret handshake that you’re making with everyone who comes into contact with your spiffy new shirt, and you’re walking along laughing at everyone for not knowing every step. We must draw the line somewhere, right? What's next, ties adorned with the original text of "The Epic of Gilgamesh?" Boxers featuring the work of Chaucer?
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The Case Against Literary Attire
Apparently book-themed tee shirts have become a kind of fashion statement. Peter Enzinna rebels against this latest development in the sartorial-literary worlds, and the website, Meanfellas, which is making it happen:
