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I think the big cities have a lot of pretentiousness, of course some big cities have more pretentiousness than others.
Pretentious: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas (duh!)
Unpretentious: Portland (Oregon)
I disagree.
Cheesy, tasteless, kitschy, and lacking substance, yes! But I've never thought of Vegas as pretentious. I feel like the Las Vegans know and admit they're living in fake, plastic, Barbie house of a city. As horrid as it is, Vegas at least knows what it is.
Portland, however, is the opposite. The people who live there act like it's a cross between Seattle and the Garden of Eden. Whereas in reality, it's more like a rainier, less diverse Sacramento. For a city full of creative types, it doesn't offer all that much in terms of the arts and culture. Perhaps I have it wrong and I should spend more time there, but those are just my impressions.
Another thing I tend to notice is that the most pretentious people in any given city tend to be the TRANSPLANTS who come there to fulfill an agenda, thinking they are supposed to be that way.
I agree with you on this. The most pretentious people here in Seattle seem to be the transplants.
Cheesy, tasteless, kitschy, and lacking substance, yes! But I've never thought of Vegas as pretentious. I feel like the Las Vegans know and admit they're living in fake, plastic, Barbie house of a city. As horrid as it is, Vegas at least knows what it is.
Portland, however, is the opposite. The people who live there act like it's a cross between Seattle and the Garden of Eden. Whereas in reality, it's more like a rainier, less diverse Sacramento. For a city full of creative types, it doesn't offer all that much in terms of the arts and culture. Perhaps I have it wrong and I should spend more time there, but those are just my impressions.
Portland, however, is the opposite. The people who live there act like it's a cross between Seattle and the Garden of Eden. Whereas in reality, it's more like a rainier, less diverse Sacramento. For a city full of creative types, it doesn't offer all that much in terms of the arts and culture. Perhaps I have it wrong and I should spend more time there, but those are just my impressions.
Portlandia FTW.
I think it's worth reiterating the definition of pretentious: it's passing oneself off as something one is not. In particular, something better, more prestigious or more important.
And most emphatically, pretentiousness is something essentially crass.
The term rose to prominence when petit-bourgeois children of shopkeepers, traders or slumlords tried to join the ranks of the upper class by throwing money at appearances while sneering at those beneath them. Their lives were expensive but lacking refinement. They sought external validation by insisting they only associate with the 'right' people, and so gained a reputation for being comically ungracious. God forbid, went the thinking, that the powerful people with whom I now identify should think I used to be one of those.
And they're still around in enormous numbers in the contemporary United States. Vulgar snobbery, unfortunately, is the dark corollary of the American Dream. We see plenty of it here on C-D.
(Hilariously, many members of the nouveau-riche would look down on members of ancient, upper-class families who live relatively modest lives. Now that's pretentiousness on steroids.)
In the context of a city, I'd say the label of 'pretentious' can be slapped on any place that attracts people who roll their eyes when another place or a certain class of people is mentioned. But even that's too broad. So let's trot out some examples.
1. The di*khead living in the rump of Queens who chortled at the mention of visitors from rural Nebraska. (Yes, this one happened.)
2. The transplant, who's been paying $4000 a month to live in the West Village for the past few years, declaring that pub is too 'bridge-and-tunnel' for his taste
3. The well-heeled tech worker who insists that the proletarian triage nurse is wasting his time because he's clever enough to consult doctor google. Could we get the neuro-surgeon in here now please? I want to speak to someone who can actually fix my problem.
So, pretentious cities would include:
* NYC. To the n-th power
* San Francisco
* Los Angeles
* Portland
* Austin
* Seattle
* DC
In the unpretentious list, I'd put:
* Burlington
* El Paso
* Pittsburgh
* Buffalo
* Cleveland
* Cinci
* Des Moines
* Omaha
* NYC. To the n-th power
* San Francisco
* Los Angeles
* Portland
* Austin
* Seattle
* DC
In the unpretentious list, I'd put:
* Burlington
* El Paso
* Pittsburgh
* Buffalo
* Cleveland
* Cinci
* Des Moines
* Omaha
In other words, coastal cities that are basically superstars of economic wealth and/or usually have all kinds of well-known attractions are "pretentious."
Whereas cities in the middle of the country that fly under the radar in almost every way are "unpretentious."
In other words, coastal cities that are basically superstars of economic wealth and/or usually have all kinds of well-known attractions are "pretentious."
Whereas cities in the middle of the country that fly under the radar in almost every way are "unpretentious."
I wonder why? Hmm...
No, I'd consider Denver, Dallas, and Atlanta Pretentious too. Although they don't necessarily fly under the radar all the time.
I know Albuquerque is far too humble to ever be pretentious. Rio Rancho, now that's a different story.
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