cultural snob

Brooks talks about the changes in how we perceive culture over the decades:

"Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, middlebrow culture, which is really high-toned popular culture, was thriving in America. There was still a sense that culture is good for your character, and that a respectable person should spend time absorbing the best that has been thought and said."

He continues, further in the article, to discuss why the "middlebrow" culture died. From adjectives calling this trend "insidious" or "stultifying," by intellectuals, the middle-class moved to appreciate the values of self. Interestingly enough, the clash between these two values was presented in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead between Ellsworth Toohey and Howard Roark. The result in the book may be radical by some accounts, yet the book does ask the question whether both so-called critical and public perception of culture necessarily represses creation and the sense of self? Is culture dictated by society, the media, or character?

The Economist also had an interesting commentary on American perceptions and worries about classes in society: the middle class builds and sustains its meritocracy. Meritocracy, by its very definitions, rests upon the individual. With class deeply rooted nowadays in education, what constitutes culture has changed. Yet are the marks of "culture" based upon higher education or the familial transmission of priveleges and background? However, the NY Times editorial argues that culture is now focused on people, replacing opera and literary analysis in the weekly magazines.

Nowadays, we probably do not look to the upper echelons of society in order to dictate what is classy. Yet a "mass market" best seller list is far different than books that sell well based on literary merit. (Thanks Left Bank Books). Some would argue that it's snobby to dine at trendy restaurants, but isn't it better than the chain restaurants? Why not spend a day at the art museum rather than the local Blockbuster?

Whatever happened to class?