MASSCULT AND MIDCULT
595
"Omnibus," subsidized by a great foundation to raise the level
of television, which began its labors by announcing it would
"be aimed straight at the average American audience, neither
highbrow nor lowbrow, the audience that made
Reader's
Digest, Life, The Ladies Home Journal,
the audience which is
the solid backbone of any business as it is of America itself"
and which then proved its good faith by programs mingling
Gertrude Stein and Jack Benny, Chekhov and football strategy,
Beethoven and champion ice skaters. "Omnibus" failed. The
level of television was not raised, for some reason.
XI
But perhaps the best way to define Midcult is to analyze
certain typical products. The four I have chosen are Ernest
Hemingway's
The Old Man and the Sea,
Thornton Wilder's
Our Town,
Archibald MacLeish's
J.B.
and Stephen Vincent
Benet's
John Brown's Body.
They have all been Midcult suc–
cesses: each has won the Pulitzer prize, has been praised by
critics who should know better, and has been popular not so
much with the masses as with the educated classes. Technically,
they are advanced enough to impress the midbrows without
worrying them. In content, they are "central" and "universal,"
in that line of hollowly portentous art which the French call
pompier
after the glittering, golden beplumed helmets of their
firemen. Mr. Wilder, the cleverest of the four, has actually
managed to be at once ultra-simple and grandiose. "Now there
atre, for he was a dedicated craftsman. But the style that was ap–
parently so artless has brought glimpses of glory into our lives.
"There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow," sings Curly in
Oklahoma!
and the gritty streets of a slatternly city look fresher.
"June is bustin' out all over," sing Carrie and Nettie in
Carousel
and the harshness of our winter vanishes.... To us it is gratifying
that he had the character to use his genius with faith and scruple.
The contrast of faith (good) with cleverness (bad) is typical of Mid–
cult, as is the acceptance of liberalistic moralizing as a satisfactory sub–
stitute for talent. Indeed, talent makes the midbrow uneasy: "Since he
was a serious man, his lyrics were rarely clever."
