Life — August 1933 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Contents Noted" - Life Magazine Book Review Column This page features Kyle Crichton's book review column for Life magazine. The main cartoon at bottom shows a couple viewing an artwork in a gallery, with the caption "It was good enough for LIFE, wasn't it?" The joke satirizes Life magazine's own cultural authority and taste-making power. By the mid-20th century, Life was influential enough that its approval (or appearance in its pages) could validate art or culture for middle-class Americans. The cartoon mocks this phenomenon—suggesting that people blindly accept things simply because Life endorsed them, rather than forming independent aesthetic judgments. The column itself reviews current books, establishing Life's role as cultural arbiter of what Americans should read.