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The Good, the Bad, and the Nobrow

Structures of Taste and Distaste in the Nobrow Age

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When Highbrow Meets Lowbrow

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Abstract

Chapter 10, Tero Eljas Vanhanen’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Nobrow: Structures of Taste and Distaste in the Nobrow Age,” brings on the bloodsports. Mass culture at least from the time of the gladiators could always bank on the popularity of violence, with a liberal dose of blood and guts thrown in for a good measure. But what happens when the Indian scalper, the serial killer, the cannibal, or the giant radioactive man—eating rodents insinuate themselves into highbrow—by way of nobrow—culture? The answer has a lot to do with how we react to gross-out shock schlock that has designs on being more than cheap and sleazy entertainment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Klein, 1999.

  2. 2.

    Brooks, 1915, p. 492.

  3. 3.

    For a nobrow take on Hume and taste, see Swirski, 2016a, pp. 4–8.

  4. 4.

    Swirski notes this in his latest monograph; Swirski, 2016a, p. 22.

  5. 5.

    At the time of writing, there are 108 one-star reviews of Blood Meridian on amazon.com, comprising 9 percent of all 1,163 reviews. Of these, 7 cite no reasons, 39 argue that it is too bloody, and 62 view the book as boring and/or incomprehensible. See Amazon.com 2016; following quotations ibid.

  6. 6.

    McCarthy, 1985/2010, pp. 164–165.

  7. 7.

    Bloom, 2000, p. 255; Pierce, 2009.

  8. 8.

    On ecological aspects in Blood Meridian, see e.g. Guillemin, 2004; McGilchrist, 2010; on its historical sources, see e.g. Jarrett, 1997; on its relation to the mythic West, see e.g. Holmberg, 2009; Kollin, 2001; on evil in Blood Meridian see e.g. Daugherty, 1999, p. 165; Frye, 2013, p. 5; on the philosophical aspects of violence in Blood Meridian, see e.g. Søfting, 1999, p. 30.

  9. 9.

    Shaviro, 1999, p. 145.

  10. 10.

    Leyton, 1986, p. 287.

  11. 11.

    Reynolds, 1988, p. 171.

  12. 12.

    See Slotkin, 1998, p. 12; in the context of nobrow and crime fiction, see Swirski, 2016a.

  13. 13.

    Bachner, 2011, pp. 2–3.

  14. 14.

    On Cannibal Holocaust see Goodall, 2006, p. 118; Carter, 2005; on Nekromantik, see Vander Lugt, 2013, p. 166; Kerekes, 1998.

  15. 15.

    Bachner, 2011, p. 5.

  16. 16.

    Jarrett, 1997, back cover.

  17. 17.

    See Dessen, 1989, pp. 5–8; Bloom, 1998, pp. 77–86.

  18. 18.

    For a scathing feminist takedown, see Wolf, 1991, p. 34; for general accusations of repulsiveness and tepidness, see e.g. Miner, 1990; Sheppard, 1990; Manguel, 1991; and Yardley, 1991.

  19. 19.

    See Sutton, 2015; Rosenblatt, 1990, p. 16. For a more thorough examination of American Psycho’s initial reception, see e.g. Brien, 2006; Serpell, 2014, pp. 195–196.

  20. 20.

    In Klein, 1999.

  21. 21.

    There is no reliable way to calculate this, so all estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. See Paasonen, 2011, pp. 49–50.

  22. 22.

    See e.g. Phillips, 2009, p. 63; Murphet, 2002, p. 45; Blazer, 2002; Giles, 2006, p. 171; Mandel, 2006, pp. 9–10.

  23. 23.

    For critics denying the existence of Patrick Bateman, see e.g. Young, 1992, p. 18; Freccero, 1997, p. 51; Storey, 2005, p. 58. The phenomenon is spotlighted in Serpell, 2014, p. 197.

  24. 24.

    Ellis, 1991, pp. 367–377.

  25. 25.

    Brusseau, 1999, p. 44.

  26. 26.

    Young, 1992, p. 116.

  27. 27.

    Epstein, 2001.

  28. 28.

    Woodhouse, 1998, p. 83. Following quote ibid., p. 84.

  29. 29.

    See Brien, 2006; McCarthy, 2012.

  30. 30.

    Kant, 1987, p. 180; following quote ibid.

  31. 31.

    Menninghaus, 2003, p. 17; Miller, 1997, p. x. On disgust as contamination, see Rozin et al., 2000, p. 641; Miller, 1997, p. 12.

  32. 32.

    Aristotle, 2012 [1452b], p. 184.

  33. 33.

    Hume, 1757, p. 233; for an illuminating discussion in the context of nobrow, see Swirski 2015b.

  34. 34.

    Hume, 1757, pp. 229–231.

  35. 35.

    Hume, 1757, p. 223.

  36. 36.

    Hume, 1757, p. 236.

  37. 37.

    In modern philosophy of art, this phenomenon is known as “imaginative resistance.” See e.g. Walton, 1994; Gendler, 2000; Vanhanen, 2015.

  38. 38.

    Hume, 1757, p. 198.

  39. 39.

    See e.g. Davenport-Hines, 1998; Lloyd-Smith, 2004; Wisker, 2005.

  40. 40.

    See e.g. Mueller, 2007; Cook, 2006.

  41. 41.

    See Radcliffe, 1826.

  42. 42.

    King, 1982, p. 40.

  43. 43.

    King, 1982, p. 40.

  44. 44.

    See Jenks, 2003, p. 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Tero Eljas Vanhanen

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  1. Tero Eljas Vanhanen
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Correspondence to Tero Eljas Vanhanen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sun Yat-Sen University , HONG KONG, Hong Kong

    Peter Swirski

  2. University of Helsinki , Helsinki, Finland

    Tero Eljas Vanhanen

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Vanhanen, T.E. (2017). The Good, the Bad, and the Nobrow. In: Swirski, P., Vanhanen, T. (eds) When Highbrow Meets Lowbrow. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95168-0_10

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