A decade later, however, this indulgent attitude changed: the same phenomenon was reanimated and harshly criticized in the essay Masscult and
Midcult by American critic Dwight Macdonald.
A seminal takedown of "middlebrow" culture may be found in Dwight Macdonald, "Masscult &
Midcult," in Macdonald's Against the American Grain (375).
Yes, Dwight Macdonald famously excoriated the enfeeblements of "mass cult and
midcult," and Irving Howe regretted "This Age of Conformity," but from today's perspective, when we look back at the offerings of the Book-of-the-Month Club and projects such as the Great Books of the Western World, their scorn looks misplaced.
La cultura alta e il
midcult possono aiutarsi a vicenda, sdoganando l'una verso un pubblico di non addetti ai lavori, e rendendo l'altro fruibile anche in chiave scolastica e accademica (si pensi a Il formaggio e i vermi di Carlo Ginzburg, a Baudolino di Umberto Eco).
Worse still, it is "
midcult", recalling Dwight Macdonald--i.e., "unexceptional art whose highbrow trappings convince consumers they are putting real cultural work into consuming it." Finally, striking at the very heart of the series as historical fiction, he scornfully notes the "ostentatious intrusion of historical events" which, far from being organically absorbed into the action, are "showy Moments for the readers/viewers." (4)
There's a wonderful essay by Macdonald called "Masscult and
Midcult" where he argues that intellectuals should never dumb themselves down for the masses.
He discusses early critiques and aesthetic statements, Macdonald at Partisan Review, Politics and culture, a theory of mass culture, and masscult and
midcult. He does not provide an index.
It's
midcult disguised as masscult, but Talulla Rising fails to totally satisfy either cultural polarity--too silly to take as completely serious, too competently written to dismiss." DREW TOAL