MASSCULT
AND MIDCULT
205
Vie Parisienne
. : .
Giotto and the Gaddi are separated by talent,
Degas and Bonnat by a schism, Renoir and "suggestive" painting
by what? By the fact that this last, totally subjected to the spec–
tator, is a form of advertising which aims at selling itself.
If
there
exists only one word . . . it is because there was a time when the
distinction between them had no point. Instruments played real
music then, for there was no other.
But now we have pianos playing Rock 'n Roll and
les sanglots
longs de violins
accompanying torch singers.
Masscult offers its customers neither an emotional catharsis
nor an esthetic experience, for these demand effort. The produc–
tion line grinds out a uniform product whose humble
aim
is
not
even entertainment, for this too implies life and hence effort, but
merely distraction. It may be stimulating or narcotic, but it must
be easy to assimilate. It asks nothing of its audience, for it is
"totally subjected to the spectator." And it gives nothing.
2
Some of its producers are able enough. Norman Rockwell
is technically skilled, as was Meissonier- though Degas was right
when he summed up the cavalry charge in
Friedland, 1806:
"Everything is steel except the breastplates." O. Henry could
tell a story better than many contributors to our Little Maga–
zines. But a work of High Culture, however inept, is an expres–
sion of feelings, ideas, tastes, visions that are idiosyncratic and
the audience similarly responds to them as individuals. Further–
more, both creator and audience accept certain standards. These
may be more or less traditional; sometimes they are so much
less so as to be revolutionary, though Picasso, Joyce and Stravin–
sky knew and respected past achievements more than did their
2 "Distraction is bound to the present mode of production, to the
rationalized and mechanized process of labor to which . . . the masses are
subject . . . People want to have fun. A fully concentrated and conscious
experience of art is possible only to those whose lives do not put such a
strain on them that in their spare time they want relief from both bore–
dom and effort simultaneously. The whole sphere of cheap commercial
entertainment reflects this dual desire." - T. W. Adorno:
On Popular
Music.
