High brow or low brow?

On the whole , a little of both , I think my tastes are quite eclectic

Eclectic. Aren't high brow and low brow definitions subjective?

Not in some quarters, when! You know how sniffy people can get about Coronation Street and Eastenders....(not me of course, although I don't watch Eastenders any more )

A bit of both, I think!

I love that word because you have to be a bit high brow to use it!! We shouldn't need to feel categorised though. When I was a child my father used to be very scathing about TV (we didn't even have one till I was 12 and the set we had given my grandparents reverted to us when they died) and if he didn't like the look of something would say "Is that that commercial television?"
I suppose I am a bit like - one brow up and one brow down.

Well, I don't watch telly at all, but .....

Oh, never mind. Definitely both. But it depends on the brow, if you see what I mean – qualities other than its, um, height

Yes, the telly thing was just an example - I know what you mean Bags, there are certain subjects which aren't generally seen as 'high' or 'low' brow...but people can still get snobby about them!

Some people are just snobs

I agree with Bags. Depends on the level of the particular 'brow'. Don't usually go too low (think kids getting their birthday cake in their faces) but don't often go very high either (think the proms) (except for the last night of same).

I'm a pedigree-mongrel. A conundrum. Appreciative of the finer things of life but hopefully, not a snob.

Of course you're not, soop!

Ana Well said!

Some years ago when the first Austin Powers film came out, Charlotte Raven wrote a piece in the Guardian saying she had been to see it with her philospher friend. He had hated the film and was extremely irritated when they later got in a taxi and the driver kept on saying 'Oh BEhave'.

I wrote to say the previous week I had been to see both the film and also Ovid at some theatre or other (can't remember which) and I'd found both highly enjoyable. I recommended that the next time Charlotte went to the cinema she took the taxi driver. Letter got published and the following week there was a huffy reply from the friend saying Charlotte wouldn't find the taxi driver such interesting company when she wanted an intelligent conversation.

So, some people can be sniffy about 'low culture'.

And taxi drivers!

Soop I'm following you and like the finer things in life just can't seem to afford them !!

Definitely a bit of both, what ever one's mood dictates and I think the Gransnet site illustrates this thread perfectly,I have recently added comments on forums regarding matters as trivial as Victoria Beckham's skirt to as serious as FGM. I don't think it has to be an either/or, although if you only ever read Heat magazine and watch Big Brother you may be living in a cultural vacuum!

Today for example my guilty pleasure will be "Come Dine With Me" fairly trashy, but will watch David Starkey's programme later tonight about John Churchill Duke of Marlborough. Hope the two will balance each other out! Similarly, some days I just want to listen to Puccini and other days anything from Jimi Hendrix right through to Barry White. One of the great things about getting older is I don't feel I have to justify what I like.

Thanks for the reminder about Churchill , I will be watching . I liked him , did you watch his funeral all those years ago ?

Laurence Olivier considered Coronation Street to be a wonderful piece of theatre and never missed it. It has nurtured some great actors, especially child actors. It has tackled very difficult subjects with sensitivity. I love it.

I have very broad tastes in music, anything from 1950's Rock and Roll, through Brass Bands, Welsh Male Voice Choirs, Gregorian Plain Song, African folk music, sentimental love songs, jazz, blues, and classical. I find most opera boring, as there is so much run-of-the-mill stuff between the great arias, so I buy compilations. I enjoy ballet music.

I like Shakespeare and modern dramatists like Miller and Pinter but still enjoy Rattigan and Priestley. I had a very boring night and a numb backside by watching a Greek tragedy at The Barbican. I can't stand plays or films where anything supernatural can intervene in the action.

I love courtroom dramas, like Kavanagh Q.C. (I miss John That, in that and Morse).
I am pretty high brow with literature, which I studied for my degree, and I really love Austen, Elliot, Trollope, Waugh, Golding, and Lessing. I don't like Dickens or the Brontes -I find them too overblown. I don't read 'chick-lit'.
.
I don't watch films with violence in them, and some war films upset me because I know they are close to the truth. I like some musicals and romantic comedies. Very low brow.

In art, I think there is a touch of the Emperor's New Clothes about much art appreciation. I love the impressionists - Musee Quai D'Orsay has a wonderful collection, and it is cheaper than the Louvre , with less waiting time. Most modern art is a con - especially Damien Hurst and Tracy Emin.

I am too old to pretend to like anything because it is fashionable or deemed to be high brow.

Nonu think the Starkey programme kicks off with the first Churchill's who lived around the time of Queen Ann, circa 1720s but it's in three parts and will presumably cover the life of Sir Winston, but probably not tonight. Sorry to say didn't take much notice of his funeral as was too young and stupid at the time to appreciate what he was all about.

Mustn't forget the repeat of Ab Fab tonight either! Don't know what category that would fall under

Thanks , ps I also like CDWM , reminds me of something , Forgot to mention I was only a babe in arms at funeral , humour ! LOL

I wouldn't want to be either high or low brow. I like what I like, some of it is high and some low.
Surely you are narrow minded if you can't appreciate both.

Highish brow when it comes to visual art but not to music. I would not describe myself as posh that's for sure. But not a fan of "popular culture" either. I would describe myself as having broadly intellectual interests I suppose.

I like what I like! Though, thinking about it, we did not allow our children to watch ITV when they were young and they still tease us about it.