Lower case essays on this platform are perforating my sanity. The old crumb of “know the rules to break the rules” is presently glowing in my mind, but the popularity of cultural criticism presented in an almost ‘less-offensive’ way gives me the same icky feeling when the popular kids at school came in wearing glasses when they didn’t need them.

Pop-essayists such as Rayne Fisher-Quann, Eliza McLamb, and Julia Hava all say the same cutesy and occasionally quippy things, yet they individually have hoards of adoring followers who fawn over how ‘articulate’ they are. It’s one ego-stroking exercise too many for my tastes.

A recent article by Ayan Artan adopts this same lower-cased, elusive trendiness; a piece I strongly disagreed with. As it stands, this article has 8,437 likes, when it says nothing revolutionary. Her argument is to advocate for a pretentious attitude to combat this notion of anti-intellectualism that she (among many) believe in. I, however, believe in spreading knowledge to the incurious by exuding a genuine passion, rather than Artan’s belief in positioning oneself as someone 'of culture’.

This article is just another regurgitation of five other essays you can find on the same topic, but the addition of the lower-case lettering seems to warp people’s minds into believing it is an extraordinary feat of cultural criticism. What is most interesting about this phenomenon is the sense of vitriol if you dare critique it. My qualms with this piece (which I have publicly expressed) have seen people call me “weird”, “unkind”, and “bitter”.

I am starting to believe that reading an article in all lower-case gives you an almost drug-induced haze. And some might suggest I try writing such an article, to which I respond: I did. The end result was as disappointing as accidentally breaking the yolk when frying an egg.