Alex
15 Apr 2009, 03:43 PM
Have you ever been bewildered by a modern literary work, or wondered whether the modernist stuff on exhibition at an art gallery is a fraud, or tried listening to a "serious" piece of music that seems indistinguishable from cacophony? Have you ever suspected that you might be an "outsider" in the appreciation of works of art who has been duped by the "insiders"? A book I've been reading offers a theory about your perplexity.
The thesis of this book* is that modernist literature, art, and music can be understood as a hostile reaction to the large reading public and the thirst for "culture" created by late nineteenth century educational reforms. It's argued that the deliberate obscurity and experimental qualities of much modernist writing, painting, etc., are intended to demonstrate contempt for the newly literate masses and to exclude them from cultural experiences that have always been and should continue to be, the preserve of intellectuals. In other words, obscurity and esotericism are the instruments by which works of art have been rendered unintelligible to the vulgar masses and reserved for the cognoscenti.
Among the "pioneers" of modern culture (G.B. Shaw, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B.Yeats, T.S Eliot and others are cited) a loathing of common humanity has been expressed that, according to the thesis, can be traced to the notions of Nietzsche.
Here are just three examples of how the English literary intelligentsia reacted to the threatening phenomenon of mass culture : H.G. Wells spoke complacently of the newly emerged mass being destroyed by plague and atomic bombs. Yeats hoped they might perish in a catastrophic war against the educated classes. D.H.Lawrence imagined a huge lethal gas chamber in which the masses could be exterminated.
To sum up: Popularization is an enemy of the "sophisticated sensibility" which is why an untutored multitude is feared by intellectual patricians and must be excluded from the sanctuaries of High Culture or, better still, entirely eliminated. So, if you're a member of the striving semi-educated masses, you now understand why Finnegans Wake is such hard going and watch out for those intellectuals who detest you................
*The Intellectuals and the Masses by John Carey
The thesis of this book* is that modernist literature, art, and music can be understood as a hostile reaction to the large reading public and the thirst for "culture" created by late nineteenth century educational reforms. It's argued that the deliberate obscurity and experimental qualities of much modernist writing, painting, etc., are intended to demonstrate contempt for the newly literate masses and to exclude them from cultural experiences that have always been and should continue to be, the preserve of intellectuals. In other words, obscurity and esotericism are the instruments by which works of art have been rendered unintelligible to the vulgar masses and reserved for the cognoscenti.
Among the "pioneers" of modern culture (G.B. Shaw, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, W.B.Yeats, T.S Eliot and others are cited) a loathing of common humanity has been expressed that, according to the thesis, can be traced to the notions of Nietzsche.
Here are just three examples of how the English literary intelligentsia reacted to the threatening phenomenon of mass culture : H.G. Wells spoke complacently of the newly emerged mass being destroyed by plague and atomic bombs. Yeats hoped they might perish in a catastrophic war against the educated classes. D.H.Lawrence imagined a huge lethal gas chamber in which the masses could be exterminated.
To sum up: Popularization is an enemy of the "sophisticated sensibility" which is why an untutored multitude is feared by intellectual patricians and must be excluded from the sanctuaries of High Culture or, better still, entirely eliminated. So, if you're a member of the striving semi-educated masses, you now understand why Finnegans Wake is such hard going and watch out for those intellectuals who detest you................
*The Intellectuals and the Masses by John Carey