Culture Club

      One of the greatest ironies of this article is its invocation of Harold Bloom as a "giant" of "cultural criticism," a point that might seem minor to those that don't know Bloom very well but is a glaring gaffe apparent to those that do.   As large a figure as Bloom cuts in critical circles, he's very much seen as being on the outside of things, and most of his recent studies have been spined with attacks against the academy's current obsession with cultural criticism; he's chosen to serve the ages rather than the current.   I'd also posit that the article in question would rather talk about literary reputations and technological developments rather than examine the various changes that have taken place within current critical-- I shudder as I type the word, so abused has it become-- discourse.   It's well and good to cheer what is here called "the democratization of cultural criticism," but I think it's worth observing that democratization tends toward the expansions of quantity rather than quality, and I'd unabashedly align myself the so-called Jeremiahs most of whom worry not so much about bloated reputations or petty bickering as much as the general displacement of provocative and insightful analysis.   I'd suggest, too, that the real Jeremiahs (in the sense of being chastisers of art rather than merely lamentatious prophets) are those that treat culture (and particularly literature) as lightning rod for pretentious theoretical and ideological position-papers.   Sixty-odd years ago, G. M. Trevelyan-- commenting more on the democratization of education-- said that modern education "[had] produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading."   The cheerleaders of democratization (in fact more a buzz-concept than a genuine aspiration) are loathe to admit there might be truth in such an assessment.   I think it's time to face the possibility that democratic choice is often used as an excuse to revel in mediocrity-- and worse-- and to abnegate a more focussed and disciplined sense of cultural history and responsibility.   Food for thought.