Low Culture

          ‘Low culture’, according to Inglis, is both the antithesis of ‘high culture’ and exuding many of the same principles. A second, more boxed-in way of defining ‘low culture’ is a collection of ‘creative energies’ represented by people of lower financial and social hierarchy. In this short essay I will reiterate some of the examples Inglis brought forth and add a few of my own.

            One big common theme among low culture art revolves around an underlying ‘stick to the man’ mentality. This subconscious (and sometimes conscious) mentality takes many different forms, including Inglis’ example of the industrial worker who slyly uses the company’s time, materials, and tools to work on his on his own personal project. This is an example of an overworked, oppressed working class man using ‘the system’ to his advantage- one of the characteristics Inglis pinpoints. Another example (not written by Inglis), is my friends going to The Plaza in Kansas City after Thanksgiving (when the lights go up) to play music and collect donations on the streets. They use the rich’s charity money to buy food for the homeless (like Robin Hood).

            Inglis also says “A third way of seeing low culture is as values and activities which not only break the norms of ‘high culture’ but do so willingly and proactively.” Inglis uses the example of Brendan Behan, an Irish writer, making fun of the prison guards to their face while serving time in a juvenile prison. An example (not written by Inglis), is people at the low culture simplistic church I have attended (Wayfare Church) poking fun of the mega-church worship service style of churches like First Baptist Church.

            A final example that Inglis writes about roots in schools, relating to a study of Paul Willis. Willis grew up in as a ‘working class lad’ and describes the different pranks and humors he and his friends did in school- “plans are continually made to play jokes on individuals who are not there: ‘Let’s send him to Coventry when he comes’, ‘Let’s laugh at everything he says’…”. Amongst each other they played many practical jokes, but kept it to a certain limit. If you were an outsider, “the unsmiling, overly serious, ‘posh speaking’ and inflexible regime”, you were not treated with respect, thus resulting in more harsh verbal and physical ridicule. Some symptoms of Willis’ study of ‘low culture’ are “very pronounced xenophobic, racist, and misogynistic attitudes.”

            Obviously ‘low culture’ in largely defined by the social status that defines you, because ‘low culture’ is largely defined by personal perception. In these examples Inglis provides some imagery of what can be clearly considered ‘low culture’ or ‘low art’ in any social spectrum. Like Inglis, one should attempt to take an unbiased approach to defining something as ‘low culture’, and celebrating it or looking down on it in any way. Low culture, just like high culture, “contains its own ambivalences, hypocrisies and evils too.”