"Low expectations"? This article is about the specific language of literary allusion used to describe the solutions to competitions based on discerning subtly different incenses. Does that sound easy to you?
I don't think you understand what nobility was for. The point of aristocratic culture is to mediate alliances between powerful families. This:
> There has never been a group of people, in any time or place, who were so driven to display their sophistication and refinement. It wouldn’t do to merely put out a few sticks of incense; no, you would have to prove that your taste was more exquisite, your judgment more refined, your etiquette more oblique.
is the micro-politicking which undergirded macro-political moves like marriages, trade deals, and wartime alliances. Like a bird with colourful plumage, competence in this "frivolous" game represented having the wealth and power to spend all your time thinking about incense. Being good at this stuff was part of the job, and it mattered.
If your point is that aristocracy is a ridiculous system, sure, I don't disagree. But these people were not fooling around.
"Low expectations"? This article is about the specific language of literary allusion used to describe the solutions to competitions based on discerning subtly different incenses. Does that sound easy to you?
I don't think you understand what nobility was for. The point of aristocratic culture is to mediate alliances between powerful families. This:
> There has never been a group of people, in any time or place, who were so driven to display their sophistication and refinement. It wouldn’t do to merely put out a few sticks of incense; no, you would have to prove that your taste was more exquisite, your judgment more refined, your etiquette more oblique.
is the micro-politicking which undergirded macro-political moves like marriages, trade deals, and wartime alliances. Like a bird with colourful plumage, competence in this "frivolous" game represented having the wealth and power to spend all your time thinking about incense. Being good at this stuff was part of the job, and it mattered.
If your point is that aristocracy is a ridiculous system, sure, I don't disagree. But these people were not fooling around.