Daring to Marvel

A weekly reflection on a topical issue. Howard Jacobson on self-censoring and the language of appreciation.

"How long", asks Howard Jacobson, "before the protocols of looking forbid our looking appreciatively at anyone?"

He explores the enormous difficulties surrounding the language of appreciation, "no matter whether the viewer in question is a mechanic ogling a pin-up in his workshop or an art critic pausing at a wall of French nudes in the Wallace Collection".