Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Lowbrow and Highbrow
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), "Foreheads Villainous Low," Music at Night and Other Essays (London: Chatto & Windus, 1949; rpt. 1957), pp. 201-210 (at 201-202):
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There was a time, not so long ago, when the stupid and uneducated aspired to be thought intelligent and cultured. The current of aspiration has changed its direction. It is not at all uncommon now to find intelligent and cultured people doing their best to feign stupidity and to conceal the fact that they have received an education. Twenty years ago it was still a compliment to say of a man that he was clever, cultivated, interested in the things of the mind. To-day 'highbrow' is a term of contemptuous abuse.Id. (at 207-208):
A man who is exclusively interested in the things of the mind will be quite happy (in Pascal's phrase) sitting quietly in a room. A man who has no interest in the things of the mind will be bored to death if he has to sit quietly in a room.
