The Painted Word had angered whichever portions of the intelligentsia had not previously been hostile to Mr. Wolfe. As Mr. Buckley points out, the book mercilessly dissects "a social phenomenon, the hold of a few art critics on art fashion and the grotesqueries to which a middle class is willing to submit in order to distinguish itself from the philistia whence it came." One sample from Mr. Wolfe: "The game of Jeopardy is played by giving someone the answer to a question and then they have to give you the question. And this is what art became after 1945. The paintings became the answer-it's a puzzle picture-to the question. Start with Abstract Expressionism; Pop Art was the same thing; Minimal Art, Op Art, Conceptual Art, and so on. Now, this is something, despite the demurs of many, many people within the field of art- It's absolutely a new situation. There's never been a situation before in which you have to say, 'Yes, but what's the theory?' when you look at a painting or piece of sculpture."