Recently my students have started to use the word "extra" as an adjective meaning something like "over the top" or "ostentatious." Today we look at "extravagant," a word that approximates this new slang but one that also has its own fascinating etymology related to "wandering" and "straying." To help us understand the idea of extravagance, we take a look at Susan Sontag's "Notes on 'Camp'"—it's an essay that instead of giving a clear definition of campiness sketches the aesthetic of kitsch and excess.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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