After today’s class on my way to work, I further ran over some topics from class that left me with some questions and assertions. To begin with, in the writing “Modern Authors” by Rebecca Moore Howard she discusses the notion of high/low culture with “The Great Unwashed.” I, like her, feel the need to criticize the assumption that students are lower in society and culture because they do not have their PhDs or are published. The main reason for my defense in due to the fact that those people that are “high” in society, such as doctors, have all once started out as students. They are not born a pure genius without any direction or teaching from outsiders. Therefore, they could not have been at the place they are at now, without starting out as a student. The same goes for the people who have felt the need to title students as “The Great Unwashed.” The reason they are published is because they were once taught how to read and write.
My other concern was with putting the Classical authors in this boundary of their own, which brings up problems dealing with leaving out other great writings that might have a been falsely judged. For example, last week in my Food Science 301 class we found out that Glamour magazine was rated the second highest of top magazines purchased for displaying nutrition and food science accurately in their magazines. For the reason that many people judge magazines like this based on what would be coined “useless” articles, such as the latest fashions, are also being neglected on a nutrition and health related aspect. Maybe if there were less false accusations, society would be better informed on how to maintain a healthy body for better quality and quantity of life. Or maybe I’m just a dietetics major who’s a little too obsessed with nutrition!
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2 comments:
I do not believe that it is completely unreasonable to refer to students as the “low” culture and those with a higher education as the “high” culture. Perhaps it can just be thought of as a rite of passage into the “high” culture by being educated by those already in the “high” culture who were also once part of the “low” culture at some point.
I agree with your example using Glamour magazine. It's such a touchy subject when it comes to who gets to decide what "good" or "high" literature is. Guys can scoff at our magazines, but they have little idea of the content. I think you're right, and I agree, to assume that great works could be disregarded and overlooked just because they're not placed within certain arbituary boundaries.
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