The Playgoer last week posted a link to a very interesting “thinkpiece” that Scott Timberg wrote a couple of Sundays ago for the Los Angeles Times, which discussed various cultural trends that seem to be currently in play, most especially the blurring of the distinction between ”high culture” and ”popular culture”. There are a lot of intriguing tidbits in the article that I’ve been reflecting on, so I’ll probably come back to it in subsequent blog posts. One of the things that first struck me, though, is this quote from the terrific writer Pico Iyer (his twenty-year old book Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far-Eastis still, in my opinion, one of the most informed, most understanding, and most articulate observations of Southeast and East Asian cultures that I have read from someone not from those cultures), one of the culturatis and intellectual types that Timberg interviewed: “What we seem to have nowadays is more of a hierarchy of media…whereby, for example, dance, classical music, opera, and even theater and books, all of which commanded their own sections in Time magazine only a generation ago, are now regarded as lofty and remote subjects for only a handful of connoisseurs.” Timber then says that Iyer further notes that we feel guilty that we have become “elitist” if we go and listen to chamber orchestra or jazz, or any of the arts that the current cultural milieu have labeled “elitist”. It’s a fascinating, and to be honest, frustrating point for me. I have touched on a similar vein in this blogpost from last November: I’ve noticed that many of my peers, my peeps, the late20/thirty/early40somethings desired as cultural consumers, have not had consistent experiences in the theater, or at the opera and symphony, or with modern or classical dance. Actually, some of them have never had any experiences at all. Which is really disturbing for me, because for these art forms to continue and flourish in the future, they should have an influx of new, fresh, rejuvenated audiences. One thing I wanted Iyer, or Timberg, for that matter, to further expound on is the reason why our current culture have labeled these art forms as “elitist”. Is it because theater, the symphony, etc. are seen as “expensive”? Hmmm…last Saturday, I was at a FREE (yes free) Grant Park Orchestra concert, sitting in the orchestra section of the fantastically minimalist and acoustically-superb Harris Theater, listening entranced to highly-acclaimed (and current Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence) composer Osvaldo Golijov’s searing, profound masterwork “Last Round”, based on a short story by famed Argentinian novelist Julio Cortazar, while some of my friends paid for a $60 day pass (or maybe even a $190 three-day pass) for Lollapalooza. The Hypocrites, TUTA, Greasy Joan, Red Orchid, Strange Tree Group, or any of the myriad storefront theaters who bring innovative, intelligent, exceptionally acted and directed theatrical productions to Chicago audiences, charge only 20 bucks a ticket, which is so much less than what one would be spending at Retro on Roscoe or the multitude of interchangeable summer street fairs in Chicago, and only slightly more than an IMAX ticket for The Dark Knight. Is it because theater, opera, etc., require a lot of time commitment? Well, only if you’re going to Wagner operas or O’Neill plays. Keith Huff’s Pursued by Happiness, the most impressive of the three new plays currently being staged in repertory at Steppenwolf’s First Look Repertory of New Work, clocks in at a compact 90 minutes of engaging and surprising emotional situations. Or is this purported “elitism” really a codeword for cultural forms that require focus, concentration, introspective appreciation, abstract thinking? Of course, going to a Brecht play is a different intellectual experience that going to a Radiohead concert. Both can be equally satisfying, but not a lot of people in my generation seem to want to give Brecht a chance. Yes, it is a generation that is used to mass media, commoditized consumption, and instant gratification - and have these then made it a generation lacking in intellectual curiosity bordering on laziness?
Aug 05
August 5th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
So true! The Lollapalooza single-day tickets were $80, more than almost any Chicago “elitist” cultural event. But, keep in mind, the Lollapalooza ticket price included the world’s largest tattoo/body piercing fashion show and a free contact high. Priceless.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
As one who takes only a slight interest in both, I think part of the problem is that we as a theatre/dance/classical arts culture are quick to assume that Brecht necessarily requires more intellectual curiosity than Radiohead, or any of a number of Lollapalooza participants. Brecht and Radiohead can both obviously be enjoyed on a deeply analytical level, and Radiohead can obviously be enjoyed on a more guttural, instinctual level. My question then would be whether Brecht also can be enjoyed on that level. I would lean towards yes. Finding that may be one key…
I think another aspect that results in the elitist tag (and this falls more in line with the likes of opera/classical music section) is a sense of ‘purity’ involved with an art form; an idea, or at least a perception, that the lineage of the form is of such genius that we should be content to bask in its glory. I know that it is many times an incorrect perception, but as someone who is more often than not looking for these types of things, even to me it often appears that opera and classical music are some of the most ’set in their ways’ of forms. How must it appear to the otherwise uninterested?
August 7th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thanks Paul for your insightful comments. I would agree that Brecht (or Beckett or Ionesco or Pinter, or yes, even Tennesee Williams and Eugene O’ Neill, two more “realistic” and “naturalistic” playwrights, for that matter) can be appreciated, nay enjoyed, at the instinctual, visceral level of a Radiohead or Wilco or Bloc Party or any other musicians and groups that participated in Lollapalooza. However, enjoyment of Beckett, as it is with enjoyment of Radiohead, is an acquired state. No one comes out of the hospital nursery saying “I am a fan of Mother Courage (or I’m a fan of Thom Yorke)”. Folks just need to be curious and open-minded enough to go see Brecht plays, in multiple productions, in the same manner that they keep on downloading Radiohead’s songs from i-Tunes so they can continuously listen to it the whole day. There is effort involved - a conscious, proactive, internally-driven level of effort.
I also agree that art forms such as opera and classical music do suffer from a perception that there is only one way to stage an opera and one way to symphonically play Handel. Yes, it’s almost a cliche, but it’s very true, I think, that perception is reality. Again, people just need to get over this preconception and just go. The Chicago Opera Theater, of which I am a big fan of, presented a “Marriage of Figaro” set in the jet-setting milieu of late 1990s South Beach a couple of years ago; and a “Don Giovanni” in an S and M club this year. Both expanded my expectations of what opera can do and its impact. Last year, I went to a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Now concert where the 26 year old classical music composer Nico Muhly, one of the hottest, most sought-after classical music artists in the world today, redefined what a symphony orchestra can do. When people see a CSO ad in the Reader, maybe they should stop for a minute and read it before going on to Dan Savage’s sex advice column or News of the Weird. It could be advertising a CSO concert that Gustavo Dudamel (the 28 year old Venezuelan conductor who has put the sexy back in music conducting) is leading. And that experience would be so much more enriching than sitting in a coffee shop reading about gorillas setting jailhouses ablaze in Penang or husbands wanting to wear their wives’ panties.