When Algernon makes this statement, he seems to imply that journalism is a field filled with relatively uneducated people (who have not been "at a University") and that these people believe, nonetheless, that they are qualified to offer critiques of modern literature or anything else, really. Algernon's claim that literary criticism is not really Jack's "forte" and that he should leave it to those folks who review books for the papers -- a generally untrained,...
When Algernon makes this statement, he seems to imply that journalism is a field filled with relatively uneducated people (who have not been "at a University") and that these people believe, nonetheless, that they are qualified to offer critiques of modern literature or anything else, really. Algernon's claim that literary criticism is not really Jack's "forte" and that he should leave it to those folks who review books for the papers -- a generally untrained, uneducated, unenlightened group -- is an example of irony. We would expect him to connect the ability to accurately critique literature with someone who has received a higher lever of education, as Jack evidently has, instead of someone who hasn't. Therefore, Algernon seems to have a relatively low opinion of journalism in general -- that it is a profession filled with individuals who believe that they are qualified to do something that they are not actually capable of doing -- and a similarly low opinion of literary reviewers in particular. However, it is possible that Algernon is also pointing a finger at the university education in general, claiming that it actually makes us less qualified to do serious mental work rather than more (also ironic).
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