I’ve always found it odd how great culture is confined to the fringes of society, such as Art Nouveau cinema houses, specialist book stores, and obscure art galleries, whilst poor (for lack of a better term) culture dominates from the centre. In a perfect world it should be the other way around. ‘Mass’ culture should equate with the good or of the ‘high’ quality, and bad culture (well that’s what it is) should be at the fringe. In other words the world of culture is inside out.

I recently visited that excellent store DVD Nouveau in Cape Town to hire some ‘high’ culture films. Watching some excellent films has again spurred on this debate in my mind. Crime and Misdemeanours is a great, but quite unknown, Woody Allen flick that takes ancient Greek and Shakespearean literary themes about morality, justice, and humanity into the modern New York setting. It’s a brilliant film whose very brilliance has kept it on the societal fringe. It is amazing that it was nominated for any Oscars (that self-promoting mass-marketing device) at all. Annie Hall , another Allen classic, is a workaround of Groucho Marx’s statement (Allen traces it back to Freud but it can be traced back further to Lincoln amongst others) that he doesn’t wish to belong to any club that would accept him as a member. It’s a film that must have been revolutionary in its time in its structure and artistic devices. Barton Fink, a 1991 film by the Coen Brothers, plays on this very inside out theme being discussed. A playwright moves ‘down’ to Hollywood to write a Wrestling flick and invariably writes the best, though most unappreciated, work of his career.

It’s a misconception to see universities and other institutes of ‘high culture’ at the epicentre of society, because it’s far easier for mass culture to spread outwards than minor culture to spread inwards. It is unlikely that ‘Crime and Misdemeanours’ will ever spread inwards and be appreciated by the masses. However it is likely to remain at the fringe far longer than anything constructed from the centre. I will never read Harry Potter.

Vilia miretur vulgus

posted by rowanp at 5:51 pm & filed under culture, art, ranting, philosophy |