There is a class war being waged in the literary world. The highbrow and the middlebrow are unable to see eye to eye. The literary elite claim that the middlebrow are reading books all wrong, they have no respect and patience for the transformative experience of reading properly. The middlebrow doesn’t see what the big deal is – reading is reading, isn’t it?
There are two major points of tension that prevent highbrow society from accepting the middlebrow as a legitimate cultural group. The first is the lack of initiative the middlebrow show when dealing with all things literary. Instead of reading what speaks to them, instead of engaging with the book via browsing (à la O’Brien) and befriending (à la Edmundson), the middlebrow follow cues.
These cues can come from book clubs, recommended-reading lists, literary prizes, or even celebrities. The creation of Scherman’s Book-of-the-Month Club was met with hostility from the culturally influential not necessarily because of the threat posed to their own power, but as a reaction to the imposition of any kind of centralised power at all. These editors of magazines, authors, and other members of the literary elite took up arms against a club which they interpreted as the literary version of the totalitarian state, creating mindless followers out their subscribers.
It is notable that Radway mentions no such complaints stemming from the club members themselves. It seems as though the middlebrow have no problem with being led. Books to the intelligentsia are significant cultural artefacts that reflect not only one’s taste, but a person’s very identity. But how is it possible to judge an individual’s taste, their conception of themselves, if they are indiscriminately reading the same thing as everyone else?
The second point of tension comes from the lack of middlebrow interest in the book world as a whole, and consequent lack of reverence for that which the elite hold sacred. Being given the pre-packaged ‘best book’ each month leads to a very limited field of cultural vision. This is distressing to highbrow readers, especially as their own cultural capital is undervalued as a result. There is a fear that greater part of society will question whether you’ve read this ‘best book’ first and foremost, and only as an afterthought consider how well-versed you are in the culture and canon proper. By narrowing the scope of the literary world, the middlebrow dismiss hundreds, thousands of books and authors that are revered in highbrow culture. It is the large-scale equivalent of being told that the books you care for don't matter, to the extent that they are not even worth looking into. To the devoted reader, this can be offensive, hurtful, or simply extremely irritating.
I completely agree with your mention of how irritating and offensive it is when people dismiss texts that are valued so highly within our literary world. I hate to see books treated as empty commodities, spoken of in terms of amounts of copies sold and not in terms of artistic merit. I think though, that those are also characteristics of the low-brow. I don't really feel so annoyed or threatened by the low-brow, I feel that it's a separate entity that exists in a different realm of easy gratification. I think it's the invasiveness of the middlebrow that is threatening to the position of the high-brow and therefore elicits such an emotionally-charged reaction.
ReplyDeleteI hate when professional-managerial-type people start telling me about all these great books that are so amazing and demand that I jump on the bandwagon and read them too. I don't mind that they lack individuality and all read the same books. What bothers me is their self-righteous pride in their literariness because they read all the new books advertised in the Spectrum and on First Tuesday Book Club and on the ABC Radio book show.
I am a student of literature and I don't feel literary at all. The world of the high-brow makes me feel nervous and humbled and uneducated. But reading is a means through which I define myself, it is of great significance to my identity. To have my literary values brushed aside by brash casual dabblers who think they know better than me really infuriates me. But maybe what I hate most about them is really a quality that I'm ashamed of in myself.
People buy orange penguins because the books are a cheap alternative and they can feel intellectually superior because they're reading Jane Austen instead of the new Dan Brown but treat it in the same way, as just a fun way to spend a few leisurely hours engrossed in an exciting story. But I've done this too, reading books because they made me feel smarter because I'd read them. I guess the middlebrow really just wants a taste of the high-brow to see what all the fuss is about. While I feel that the middlebrow can irritate and challenge me, I don't understand why the high-brow needs to keep itself distant. The middlebrow are not the enemy. They are not seeking to replace the high-brow, they respect its existence, often not really knowing what it is. They often attempt to access it in different ways, but I don't think ever to usurp it.