The Middle Mind

The Middle Mind

by Curtis White

Allen Lane $124

English Professor Curtis White dislikes reality TV, Oprah Winfrey, Harry Potter, Seinfeld, Steven Spielberg and Madonna. They exemplify what he calls 'the Middle Mind', a culture that discourages Americans from thinking. By accepting these works we, the public, are 'stupid', 'unsophisticated', 'low-brow' and 'murdering our own capacity for critique and invention'. Although he never really examines why the Middle Mind is so popular, White insists that we don't think seriously enough about what's presented to us as art. If we did, we'd realise that Saving Private Ryan is a 'crypto-fascist work of historical revision', and Seinfeld is 'a pornographic farce'. Among the few works he approves of are Radiohead's Kid A and David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Both achieve their socially imaginative profundity by eschewing obvious political messages and easy moral conclusions.