What W. David Marx thinks about taste
Tokyo-based American writer; author of Ametora (2015), Status and Culture (2022) and Blank Space (2025).
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
W. David Marx did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
4 dated positions, 2023 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what W. David Marx has said — not written or endorsed by them.
The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.
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Their wordsBut as Veblen explained, the "good taste" of each era is correlated with the particular makeup of elites.
↗Good Taste is Not What’s Oppressing Us in 2026culture.ghost.io 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsToday the taste for “high art” has become extremely marginal, almost exclusively limited to a particular subset of knowledge workers.
↗Good Taste is Not What’s Oppressing Us in 2026culture.ghost.io 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 3 years earlier
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Their wordsPeople in similar social positions tend to have similar tastes (so-called “taste worlds”), and the social hierarchy elevates some tastes as “good” and disparages others as “bad."
↗On Taste and Congruenceculture.ghost.io 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsWithout congruence, there cannot be good taste.
↗On Taste and Congruenceculture.ghost.io 2nd of 2 in this piece
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