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From Lowbrow to Nobrow by Peter Swirski
Swirski begins with a series of groundbreaking questions about the nature of popular fiction, vindicating it as an artform that expresses and reflects the aesthetic and social values of its readers. He follows his insightful introduction to the socio-aesthetics of genre literature with a synthesis of the century long debate on the merits of popular fiction and a study of genre informed by analytic aesthetics and game theory. Swirski then turns to three "nobrow" novels that have been largely ignored by critics. Examining the aesthetics of "artertainment" in Karel
- GenresNonfiction
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First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2017
Peter Swirski’s From Lowbrow to Nobrow is a typical culture study that doesn’t limit itself to literature alone. It also involves a survey of book publishing and selling, and a discussion of genres, aesthetics and others. What is the tenor behind all this? In a word, doing justice to popular fiction that has become too predominant to ignore.
“The death of the book?” so begins his study. Swirski soon proves it a modern myth by the use of ample and convincing data indicating that far from dwindling the book publishing and selling have kept growing either in absolute number or per capita since WWII. But why this myth? Surely because that growth is contributed to for the most part by popular fictions that too often do not count as “books” in the eye of cultural elitism. Hence, He sets out to expose the cultural myopia and bigotry entertained against ubiquitous popular fiction and at the same time turn down many a groundless critique on popular fiction. He doesn’t stop here. He goes one step further by defining aesthetics of popular fiction that necessarily is of different kind from that of the highbrow. Finally he analyzes three popular fictions by American or European writers to illustrate how popular fictions come to embody aesthetics or what he calls “artertainment”. Justice is done.
This time Swirski pushes forward with his study slowly but surely, towards making his points. And the points he has made do solve our problems. My generation in China witnessed the high popularity of Kongfu fiction and romantic fiction, the former championed by Jin Yong a Hongkong writer while the latter by the Taiwanese Qiong Yao. In my school years, every boy read Jin and every girl Qiong, but not without feeling guilty. Our teachers and parents would say that it was bad or even harmful to read Kongfu rubbish and obscene love stories. Suspicions about them have kept up ever since. Even today, we are still obsessed with the question: “Are Kongfu fictions literature?” Now I can see it in light of From Lowbrow to Nobrow.
Literature or not? it depends on how we choose to look at it. Swirski urges us to shake off the aesthetics of canon and instead take on new aesthetics by which to view popular fiction. This new aesthetics is best named “artertainment”. That is, literature should entertain well and fulfill the art of compromising highbrow and lowbrow and blurring genres. In this light, Jin’s Kongfu fictions, which entertain the mass famously, vest Kongfu in grand narrative and incorporate various genres, Kongfu, history, romantic, detective etc, should be good literature. Still half of the story. Swirski also assures us that popular fiction is no more degenerate than the highbrow canon in terms of value or moral. Indeed, most Kongfu and romantic fictions teach positive values as well, such as integrity, valor, goodness, patriotism and nationalism, faithfulness, endurance, honesty, dignity and so on. Certainly, they teach them in no self-important tone.
Today, popular fictions are still underrated popular as they are. A. C. Doyle and Agatha Christie are simply excluded from a literary history; that Jin Yong enters into a certain middle school textbook is still a disputable phenomenon in China. But as long as it continues to entertain, educate and change people, popular fiction should be recognized and justified as a cultural fact. Hopefully, timely justice has been done to it by Swirski.
“The death of the book?” so begins his study. Swirski soon proves it a modern myth by the use of ample and convincing data indicating that far from dwindling the book publishing and selling have kept growing either in absolute number or per capita since WWII. But why this myth? Surely because that growth is contributed to for the most part by popular fictions that too often do not count as “books” in the eye of cultural elitism. Hence, He sets out to expose the cultural myopia and bigotry entertained against ubiquitous popular fiction and at the same time turn down many a groundless critique on popular fiction. He doesn’t stop here. He goes one step further by defining aesthetics of popular fiction that necessarily is of different kind from that of the highbrow. Finally he analyzes three popular fictions by American or European writers to illustrate how popular fictions come to embody aesthetics or what he calls “artertainment”. Justice is done.
This time Swirski pushes forward with his study slowly but surely, towards making his points. And the points he has made do solve our problems. My generation in China witnessed the high popularity of Kongfu fiction and romantic fiction, the former championed by Jin Yong a Hongkong writer while the latter by the Taiwanese Qiong Yao. In my school years, every boy read Jin and every girl Qiong, but not without feeling guilty. Our teachers and parents would say that it was bad or even harmful to read Kongfu rubbish and obscene love stories. Suspicions about them have kept up ever since. Even today, we are still obsessed with the question: “Are Kongfu fictions literature?” Now I can see it in light of From Lowbrow to Nobrow.
Literature or not? it depends on how we choose to look at it. Swirski urges us to shake off the aesthetics of canon and instead take on new aesthetics by which to view popular fiction. This new aesthetics is best named “artertainment”. That is, literature should entertain well and fulfill the art of compromising highbrow and lowbrow and blurring genres. In this light, Jin’s Kongfu fictions, which entertain the mass famously, vest Kongfu in grand narrative and incorporate various genres, Kongfu, history, romantic, detective etc, should be good literature. Still half of the story. Swirski also assures us that popular fiction is no more degenerate than the highbrow canon in terms of value or moral. Indeed, most Kongfu and romantic fictions teach positive values as well, such as integrity, valor, goodness, patriotism and nationalism, faithfulness, endurance, honesty, dignity and so on. Certainly, they teach them in no self-important tone.
Today, popular fictions are still underrated popular as they are. A. C. Doyle and Agatha Christie are simply excluded from a literary history; that Jin Yong enters into a certain middle school textbook is still a disputable phenomenon in China. But as long as it continues to entertain, educate and change people, popular fiction should be recognized and justified as a cultural fact. Hopefully, timely justice has been done to it by Swirski.
May 5, 2018
One of the best book to describe the importance of popular culture!
December 26, 2017
Lowbrow to Nobrow should become an textbook in the library where literature is taught.👨💻
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 16, 2018
worderful!
November 6, 2019
More academic than anticipated from the recommendation. Not what I was looking for so closing early.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews