Masscult and midcult

Dwight Macdonald

Essays and criticism · Satire

Print length: 291 pagesNew York Review Books, 2011

Description

Dwight Macdonald’s extended essay divides modern culture into two related forces: Masscult, standardized entertainment manufactured for the widest possible audience, and Midcult, middlebrow work that borrows the prestige of serious art while smoothing away its difficulty. Moving through literature, publishing, journalism, theater, museums, and other cultural institutions, Macdonald argues that mass production does more than circulate popular pleasures; it weakens distinctions between demanding art and genuine folk tradition. Midcult poses the subtler danger because it presents compromise as refinement and consumption as cultivation. Polemical, witty, and deliberately combative, the essay asks who controls cultural standards in a commercial democracy and whether art can retain independence from markets, institutions, and respectable taste.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Dense · Direct · Essayistic · Witty

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Irreverent · Satirical

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 4 / 5
Ideas: 5 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 3 / 5

Themes

Art and creativityClassKnowledge and truthPowerTechnology and societyWealth

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: New York Review Books
Language: English
ISBN: 9781590174470

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.