high-handed, high-minded, high-maintenance, high-profile, low-profile, lowlife
2. Have you seen the chart from the 1949 edition of Life magazine? Which of the tastes shown appear logical/illogical? Why?
Read graphic here: Highbrow vs Lowbrow Reading
3. Do any of the examples shown still exist today as markers of low/highbrow culture? Which ones don't? How would the items of taste change if the chart were for your country in 1949/today?
4. If you had to create a chart for 2021, what would you choose for the highbrow/lowbrow categories on the chart?
5. Which of these statements do you agree with?
a) In the past, your socio-economic status dictated whether you were highbrow or lowbrow.
b) In the present, your socio-economic status dictates whether you are highbrow or lowbrow.
6. Is it possible to become a 'cultural omnivore' and consume both highbrow and lowbrow culture? Do you do this? Which are the most striking elements of your 'omnivorous' tastes?
7. Which traditional media provides the best platform for highbrow culture? Have you noticed changes in how different medias provide platforms for highbrow culture?
8. How many of our tastes are driven by peer pressure? Are people taking part in culture because they don't want to be 'out of the loop'? Has social media amplified this feeling? Have both highbrow and lowbrow culture benefitted from social media?
9. Do you think the passing of time has blurred the boundaries between high and lowbrow? Have street art, Hip-Hop, Quentin Tarantino films changed our definitions? Can you think of other examples?
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Situation
You are the head of a private school which is holding an open evening for parents of potential new students. Describe your wide-ranging curriculum to one parent (your teacher), highlighting the benefits of the cultural canons you have chosen for the students to study.
..........
Discuss quotes
"No, no, I'm a lowbrow. I read Dostoevsky more out of obligation than enjoyment. For enjoyment, for me, it's a beer and the football game."
--- Woody Allen
"Nobody has ever written as many enjoyable, fun-to-read crime novels as Agatha Christie. It's all about the storytelling and the pleasure of the reader. She doesn't want to be deep or highbrow."
--- Sophie Hannah
"I can't think of anything worse than calling Shakespeare 'highbrow,' because on the one hand, it's brilliant writing. But his plays were popular. People went to see them."
--- Timothy Dalton
"The biggest myth I'd like to bust isn't about me - it's about musicals. So many people dismiss the entire art form through highbrow snobbery, but I think a lot of those people would be surprised if they actually saw some."
--- Michael Ball
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'."
--- Isaac Asimov
Student Handout PDF: Highbrow vs Lowbrow Culture
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