What is middlebrow?

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how would you define the "middlebrow" in culture and what are its traits? Does it exist other than as verbal ammunition for snobs?

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(sorry for exclusively UK examples but I'm on dodgy ground otherwise)

the independent newspaper? literary theory? stephen fry? julie burchill?

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

barnes and noble.

― ethan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not tacky, but not elegant. In the snob sense, what they imagine people in offices would do with their time. Lowbrow = Legally Blond. Highbrow = Some crazy indie-flik. Middlebrow = The Score. Generally implies dull, not lumpen-dangerous nor avant-explosive.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sebastian Faulks seems to me to be the epitome of 'middlebrow' - tasteful literary style poured over empty, boring, 'safe' content. Something that reassures - that clings onto ideas of 'quality' - without ever being vulgar, stupid, ugly.

― Andrew L, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

without the 'crazy indie flik' specifed, i must say i would choose 'legally blond'.

― ethan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought middlebrow was was Noel Gallagher had?

oh dear, what a low brow comment

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thread mutation in five posts, a new record? I have that most horrible of situations, neither a monobrow nor two distinct brows, but a wispy patch in the middle which I freely admit to removing when it bothers me. Yech!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is a very interesting qn and a pity I think that it got posted on a Friday when the collective brain of ILE is sluggish. I used to use middlebrow a lot as an easy insult and got called on it (by I think Josh) and realised I didn't really know what I was meaning either. There's elements of safety and risklessness and tastefulness, definitely. I think Andrew's come closest so far, and actually when I try to think of something middlebrow I think of the rows and rows and rows of dreary-looking 'literary fiction' we used to have in the bookshop which would always have a pullquote along the lines of "Haunting and evocative" - London Evening Standard.

― Tom, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cooking shows, parkinson (the show, not the disease), enya

― Geoff, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...all published by Bloomsbury and edited by me.

When you think about it, you could class almost EVERYTHING as middlebrow - with, say, only Keiji Haino as highbrow (minus the quiet, pastoral bits in the later work) and only the especially pornographic parts of Richard Allen's Skinhead novels as lowbrow. But this thought is really vile.

I don't think middlebrow exists.

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm with Alasdair. I think it's just cheap 'a little education is a dangerous thing' type nonsense. Sebastian Faulks has been called middlebrow so many times that I'm starting to think it's one of those things people hear and then repeat dinner parties.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dinner parties are EXTREMELY middlebrow.

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

parkinson (the show, not the disease)

ha ha ha, middlebrow diseases no 1: consumption

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Emma, quite. I love Dinner Parties. Young, thrusting ones where you get a soundtrack of Badly Drawn Boy and Travis are the best of all!

And andrew, sorry if that looked if I was being all 'ner ner' at you. I'm sure you came to that conclusion yourself re:Faulks. I was just trying to point out how often I hear it. Which may in fact prove its validity.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

so, would gout be a highbrow disease?

and Rickets a low brow one?

just curious......

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sturdy, meaningful, but easy to digest

― gareth, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My dad gets gout and he's from Birmingham which undermines the highbrow status of gout. Though he thinks it is and my insane grandpa (who also gets it) has an authentic 'gout stool' which is like a mini rocking chair for the foot.

I used to have 'dying of consumption' romantic fantasies as a (very young) girl, featuring the lovely heroine (me) in white frilly nightie with loving family gathered at my bedside spongeing my weary brow and spooning broth betwixt my feebly parted lips. I think I skipped the coughing up blood bit which is very unromantic.

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick - no prob. Rest assured that discussing Sebastian Faulks at dinner parties is a v. v. low priority for me. Faulks simply came to mind because my big posh boss was reading his new one the other week, and he told me it was "perfect summer reading for the English middle classes who don't like to try too hard", or words to that effect. Still think middlebrow is a useful attack word to describe those bits of the culture - see also Merchant/Ivory - that are considered 'morally'/aesthetically superior to mass/pop cult, but which are in fact no more deep/meanginful/truthful than 'Enders. Think it nicely nails a certain kind of cultural pretension...

― Andrew L, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had those fantasies too. I thought I was the only one.

― Kerry, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, the dangers of Victorian novels upon the psyches of young, impressionable girls...

Everything bequeathed to us from Victorians is actually middlebrow. So there.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do you remember the episodes of Eastenders circa 1996 when Arthur was in prison, framed by a villain whose name I can't recall, who was simultaneously moving in romantically on a not-unwilling Pauline. The only one who felt the full outrage of the situation was (their son) Mark who wandered the streets in a tortured state of indecision, whether to kick the interlopers head in, kill himself, or if he should have a right bleedin' go at his mum. For a short, giddy, period it was Cockney Hamlet. Eastenders Scriptwriter: best job in the world.

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You could be right, andrew. But I always think of something like Inspector Morse as middlebrow and Morse is great. For me, the Bill is lowbrow and Eastenders is nobrow.

N.B. I don't know what I'm talking about.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

high brow disease - infection of brow piercng? low borw - genital piercing?

― Geoff, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So middlebrow disease = infection of navel piercing (checks) - no, I'm not middlebrow.

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Everything bequeathed to us from Victorians is actually middlebrow

apart from toby jugs.

the way I see "middlebrow" working is more as something cultural that smoothly and neatly underlines a given set of liberal beliefs, that confirms a certain type of punter's received opinions. In this sense Victoriana is scarily off-kilter in that it plays on kitch rusticity / austere religion / jingoistic patriotism, a combination - to todays culturally middle classes - of the insane and the lowbrow?

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

WARNING: GENERALISATION ALERT!!!

Hrmmmm... why is it that middlebrow is such a great British insult? Middlebrow is the intellectual equivalent of being middleclass, in the way that the British view "middle class" as an insult. Mediums and middles are frowned upon, British culture likes only the extremes- the Upper Class (toffs! hate em!) and the Lower Class (to be aspired to, it seems...)

In the States, everyone *aspires* to being middle class, and middlebrow, not sticking out, being average, being normal, being homogenous and the same as everyone else.

Why is it bad? Is it the British fear of being average or worse yet... normal?

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I would think the majority of life would have to be middlebrow, thus renedering the term irrevelant. I'd either be an awful philosopher or a fantastic one, because every time one of these questions pops up, I think, "Um, that's just how life works, no need to stress," and go back to being silly.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Correction: not even British, but simply "Bohemian" or "intellectual" fear of being normal. We all aspire to be great and important writers, thinking that we have great talents and we will stick out and distinguish ourselves. When the truth is, that 90% of educated people aspire to be writers, it is the most normal thing that you can aspire to.

To be upper class, refined, elegant (the Dickon/Momus aesthetic) is an aspiration of the Bohemian. As is to be working class, to be honest, salt of the earth (the Gallagher/Ashcroft aesthetic). But to be middleclass? THat's the worst insult you can call a Bohemian, because of course, it's what we're all trying to escape. Hence middlebrow being the ultimage insult for us.

Sorry, British was a red herring, though class is not.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am not ashamed to say I am middle class. To pretend I am not would make me look even stupider than admitting I am ever could. If I pretended to be lower / upper class would be a complete affectation.

But it doesn't really matter anyway, right?

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes, some interesting stuff raised there, the fear of being middleclass must surely be reasonably recent (last 20-30 years), as class aspirationalism faded. exacerbated in last 10 years? rise of laddism related perhaps, as instruction manual in how not to be middle class. also, the myth of the gallaghers as working class, where did this originate exactly? (from themselves i imagine).

― gareth, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Borges is my man, he had a good solid set of middle class values.

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When the truth is, that 90% of educated people aspire to be writers, it is the most normal thing that you can aspire to.

Cute, but the point is (I don't think) these people want to be writers for any 'look at me - I'm a writer, aren't I bohemian' reason. They want to actually WRITE impressive/important things that no one else is writing. That is intrinsically an individualist stance, no matter how many people it covers.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

plus, the two types of "bohemian": (a) the byronic dandy and (b) the factory floor angry. Aren't writers assuming these well worn personas damned to middlebrow purgatory from the word go?

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(no offence to momus or dickon)!

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They want to actually WRITE impressive/important things that no one else is writing. That is intrinsically an individualist stance, no matter how many people it covers.

No, sorry, It's *SO* not. It's individual only in the "let's all be different together" aesthetic. My head is hurting from the paradox, but you're wrong. If they truly wanted to be so individual, they'd find some brave new way to excell that didn't involve such a hackneyed (har har) profession as writing.

And I'm saying "they" and that's not fair, because it's a "we". I am middle class, vaguely boho and have slight aspirations of writerhood. The most middle class thing in the world is to not want to be middle class. Just as middlebrow is something which strains to be both highbrow *and* lowbrow and fails at both.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well if you consider that there's nothing radical or brilliant left to do with the written word, then fine. I don't. I can only reiterate that it's not about being a writer. It's about writing.
― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Me and my italics

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I come back ultimately to the idea that middlebrow is just a tool for sneering. The Guardian says the Independent's middlebrow. The New Statesman would call the Guardian middlebrow. The Baffler would call the New Statesman middlebrow. it's a way of placing yourself by excluding everything you think is beneath you.

there are interesting quirks in all culture. apart from the art of the third reich.

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's interesting quirks in that too. Consider the homoerotic element.

I rather sympathize with Dan's argument. Then again, PBS by its very nature defined a certain form of American middlebrow as I was growing up. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

IMO you find the same homoerotic element in innocent precursors like Bocklin, better painted. I like the story about Professor Troost, the Nazi sculptor who specialised in tastelessly gigantic public monuments - an assistant walks into his workshop - "where is herr professor?" "I am here my boy, inside ze horse's left ear"

― Alasdair, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I *think* the word was coined by Leslie Feidler, who = grate undervalued American literary critic (not least for his book FREAKS, which is about, well, freaks, in circuses and in metaphors: has top pictures of eg JoJo the Dogboy = rowr).

― mark s, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Middlebrow is only an insult when applied to something aspiring to be something other than that or something which you went into expecting it to be something else. Sterling's crazy indie flick example of the high brow could be Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which I watched at an arthouse full of wankers, and hated because I had only two prior standpoints from which to appreciate Japanese cinema - low-brow (kung- fu movies like Fist of Legend, etc) and high-brow (those films where they do nothing but drink tea). My main criticism of that film was how staggeringly middlebrow it was. Yet, had I walked into it at a multiplex intending on spending two hours gazing at Zhang Ziyi, I have no doubt I would have walked out thinking it one of the best films I'd seen all year. So middlebrow is only a pejorative if the object in review cannot be viewed as anything but and does not work as such.

― Otis Wheeler, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hey, I quite liked 'Birdsong'. (and I'm not even 'middleclass')

About 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon': It is low-brow. And enjoyably so. Though I must say, the first time I saw it at a small cinema, I considered it to be a middle-brow movie (lazy rool of thumb: Subtitles = middle-brow). Watching the dubbed version of it on video however - it's no different from 'Monkey!'. Daft, "I shall avenge my Father!!" dialogue and lengthy chop-socky scenes add up to simple, dumb fun.

Low/Middle/High brow as a way of measuring culture - well, anything 'difficult' immediately goes onto the High pile; all gauche, basic entertainment is labelled Low; then there's a vast open space inbetween for the Middle to roam. Which is the majority of culture.

Middle brow = nothing to be scared of (ILE/M = middle brow, surely).

― D*A*V*I*D*M, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ILM = ILE = HIGH and LOW at one and the same time.

Middlebrow = everything not on ILM or ILE.

― mark s, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Middlebrow = All that which I am aware of. Lowbrow = things I'm too out-of-touch for. Highbrow = things I'm too dumb for.

― Sterling Clover, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is a great thread.

I agree with Tom E that he shouldn't attack people for being middlebrow. What surprises me is that a critic as subtle as Tom E ever did.

Forthcoming anthology: TOM EWING: THE UNSUBTLE YEARS.

Alasdair: why did you suggest that literary theory was middlebrow? Or did you not?

Nick D: whence your vehemence re. writing, as vs being a writer? Are you trying to be a writer - sorry: to write? (If so, I'm interested.)

I'm not sure whether I appreciate Nick D's disdain (if that's what it was) for dinner parties where they listen to Travis. Presumably Nick D would rather listen to 'Daft Punk' and 'The Avalanches'. Having heard the latter on TotP, I can now state that both are rubbish. So are 'Air'.

Middlemarch: is that middlebrow?

― the pinefox, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pinefox, I am working on the Great Hampstead Novel. It will be defiantly middle-brow, evocative and haunting.

― Nick, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, there was a time when Tom would get on alt.music.alternative and loudly and rudely declaim that if people didn't like what he had to say, then they could ride his baloney pony. He's much better now, though. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alasdair: why did you suggest that literary theory was middlebrow? Or did you not?

Pinefox, I was just being snobbish. But I do remember my university days when every student was trying to ape a bit of bad yale deconstruction, and the yale deconstuction(ists?) were doing a cack handed job of showing off that they knew some bad translations of Derrida and friends. (see theodor gasche - "the tain in the mirror" for a more involved critique of the way deconstruction has been simplified and misunderstood by English depts - if you haven't already!)

New Historicism / Yale D's seem to me extremely middlebrow in that they simplify and corrupt elegant and abstruse philosophical ideas in the name of career progression - and most importantly - pretentiously pretend that they aren't. Others, e.g. Stanley Fish seem middlebrow in that he has one very, very simple, banal idea that he disguses with a wanky attitude. Please convince me otherwise though, and I'll try and do the same with you for Boards of Canada. ;-)

― Alasdair, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 82 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

multibrow vs omnibrow: FITE!

― Hunt3r, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:29 (eight years ago)

Sund4r, I don't know if it made its way to your local art house, but Gump was a winner of multiple Academy Awards (aka highbrow movie prizes).

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:31 (eight years ago)

i think the oscars are as middlebrow as it gets. titanic? english patient? come on

― global tetrahedron, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:33 (eight years ago)

american beauty lol

― global tetrahedron, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:33 (eight years ago)

i still think that plastic bag was cool f the haterz

― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:34 (eight years ago)

Middlebrow is a basic bitch.

― Yerac, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:35 (eight years ago)

Mmm, I'm not sure you understand. These are awards they give to the best movies of the year.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:35 (eight years ago)

I might reference both pain olympics and the films of Lav Diaz in the same breath

― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:36 (eight years ago)

the only things i remember from AB are the plastic bag and kevin spacey jerking it in the shower

― global tetrahedron, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:36 (eight years ago)

Ha, Old Lunch

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:37 (eight years ago)

i still think that plastic bag was cool f the haterz

― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, March 2, 2018 10:34 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's the major reason i don't pick up trash on the sidewalk. Vaya con dios, bolsa de plastico.

― omar little, Friday, 2 March 2018 18:41 (eight years ago)

lmao

― Google Atheist (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, 2 March 2018 18:42 (eight years ago)

that plastic bag should've won best supporting actress (yes plastics bags can be female sorry if that makes me an "SJW snowflake")

― It's not delivery, it's Adorno! (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:05 (eight years ago)

“Middlebrow” is a word for describing the tastes of people whose favorite director is Stanley Kubrick

― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:44 (eight years ago)

I like to think of myself as more unibrow

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:53 (eight years ago)

“Middlebrow” is a word for describing the tastes of people whose favorite director is ~~Stanley Kubrick~~ Paul Thomas Anderson

― grawlix (unperson), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:54 (eight years ago)

Xp Oh of course someone already said that

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 2 March 2018 20:54 (eight years ago)

Ox Gallstones for sale

― mark s, Friday, 2 March 2018 20:56 (eight years ago)

'Middlebrow' is a word for describing the tastes of people who think the earlier Fast & Furious movies are better than the later Fast & Furious movies.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Friday, 2 March 2018 21:14 (eight years ago)

Old Lunch bringing the fire

― mh, Friday, 2 March 2018 21:22 (eight years ago)

Glad to have triggered this

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, 2 March 2018 21:33 (eight years ago)

to me "middlebrow" is something designed to appeal to a broad range of people. marvel movies are "middlebrow". so is doctor who. a symphony orchestra playing the beatles is "middlebrow".

in contrast "highbrow" is something designed to appeal to a specific cultural subgroup. the narrower the subgroup the more "highbrow" it is. expensive beer is "highbrow". lp reissues of library music are "highbrow". magazines with subscription-only websites are "highbrow".

lowbrow is tits, fart jokes, racism, and people being kicked in the nuts. it's possible for something to be "lowbrow" and "highbrow" or "middlebrow" at the same time.

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:40 (eight years ago)

a symphony orchestra playing the beatles is "middlebrow".

That's lowbrow, John Tavener is middlebrow.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:43 (eight years ago)

... Brian Ferneyhough is highbrow. Etcetera.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:45 (eight years ago)

P sure tits are not specific to any one cultural stratum

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:47 (eight years ago)

That's lowbrow, John Tavener is middlebrow.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.)

relativism is middlebrow

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:49 (eight years ago)

Yeah but who is lowbrow designed to appeal to?

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:51 (eight years ago)

I don't have any John Tavener or Brian Ferneyhough, so I don't know where that leaves me. Am cool with tits though.

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:53 (eight years ago)

Yeah but who is lowbrow designed to appeal to?

― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.)

people who like tits, farts, and watching people get kicked in the balls

also racists

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:56 (eight years ago)

i have no interest in brian ferneyhough but michael finnissy is good.

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 March 2018 00:57 (eight years ago)

"Cassandra's Dream Song" is p cool imo.

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:07 (eight years ago)

More tits in highbrow stuff tbh

Only way they get ppl in

― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:10 (eight years ago)

Anyway marvel is obv lowbrow

The scorching takes on marvel are middlebrow

― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:11 (eight years ago)

Benny Hill>>Gaspar Noe>>Some fucking paedo>>Von Triehard

― calzino, Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:16 (eight years ago)

Anyway marvel is obv lowbrow

The scorching takes on marvel are middlebrow

Truth bomb

― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:26 (eight years ago)

Wait deems are you sleeping at all

― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:29 (eight years ago)

Shakespeare simultaneously high and lowbrow

― Mordy, Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:32 (eight years ago)

It's only half one mum

― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 March 2018 01:35 (eight years ago)

🤖

― Hunt3r, Saturday, 3 March 2018 02:53 (eight years ago)

I resent the notion that lobrow is the sole province of racism. Like hibrow might as well be called whiteprivilegebrow, really.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Saturday, 3 March 2018 03:26 (eight years ago)

And Marvel movies are at least somewhere between lo- and midbrow. Not very many farts or terds.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Saturday, 3 March 2018 03:28 (eight years ago)

I think everyone has already told rushomancy that they are wrong tbf

― things you looked shockingly old when you wore (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 March 2018 03:34 (eight years ago)

Sorry, my response was delayed by the midbrow entertainment I was enjoying.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Saturday, 3 March 2018 04:03 (eight years ago)

When are we going to address the elephant in the room

― F# A# (∞), Saturday, 3 March 2018 06:06 (eight years ago)

the circus?

― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 3 March 2018 06:09 (eight years ago)

The Elephant in the Room was a good movie, probably hibrow (black and white always helps). John Hurt didn't look much like an elephant to me, but a title that doesn't make sense is another hallmark of hibrow.

― Did you ever see a doffin, did you (Old Lunch), Saturday, 3 March 2018 14:17 (eight years ago)

An interesting phenomenon, not much touched on yet, is when popular lowbrow entertainment is 'discovered' and reinterpreted into middlebrow or even highbrow terms, much as French intellectuals took Jerry Lewis movies and reframed them as works of high artistry and meat for the intellect. Or Warhol, Roy Liechtenstein, & the whole Pop Art movement. Or Marshall McLuhan. The lines between these distinctions are very shifty and impermanent.

― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 3 March 2018 21:07 (eight years ago)

lowbrow is highbrow all the time, whether the french get involved or not; it's only middlebrow that stays that way

― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 3 March 2018 21:20 (eight years ago)

Unlike its radio show, The New Yorker is not quite middlebrow. New York magazine is middlebrow.

― Moo Vaughn, Saturday, 3 March 2018 22:04 (eight years ago)

― A is for (Aimless)

or you know shakespeare

― ziggy the ginhead (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 March 2018 22:06 (eight years ago)

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