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Popular Culture Review
Mei is a widely recognised popular novel that has been included in most literary
programmes of academic institutions. Though there has been criticism towards
Jin Ping Mei for its sexual component, this novel has no doubt brought
worldwide attention to an art that is appreciated by everyday people not only in
the Ming dynasty but over the centuries until now.
What is a work of art has been fiercely debated over decades. Swirski offers
an original look at popular culture, which has long been criticized for being
deficient in artistry, and proves that, in some cases at least, it is anything but. In
pursuit of examples of nobrow literary culture, from chapter four onwards,
Swirski examines three semi-forgotten 20th-century novels to demonstrate how
their mix of popular and highbrow aesthetics may have been responsible for this
neglect. Writing about Karel Capek’s War with the Newts, Raymond Chandler’s
Playback and Stanislaw Lem’s Chain o f Chance, Swirski demonstrates
impressively his ability to entice even readers who have little familiarity with
these works to develop a passion for reading them.
I would like to focus more on Karel Capek’s War with the Newts. The story
centers on the discovery of the “newts” (small lizard-like animals) by the master
of a steamer, Captain van Toch. Backed up by provocative arguments, Swirski
demonstrates that as a satirical science fiction novel, Capek touches the issues of
humanity, intellectualism, nationalism, and so on. If we consider War with the
Newts as science fiction for a leisurely afternoon, it works fine, no doubt. But is
this all Capek meant to achieve? Having read Swirski’s book, I believe not. A
thought-provoking book written in 1936, Capek’s searching and pessimistic
view of the fate of humanity is revealed in War with the Newts. Even now, when
we turn to action pictures or popular novels, the message of war with the newts
still resonates. Or even when we turn to environmental problems such as global
warming and pollution, we cannot deny the possibility of the end of man. Such
original mix of soul-searching and thought-provoking in a popular thriller fully
represents the aesthetics of nobrow culture, as argued by Swirski, by being
“simple enough to delight a dilettante, deep enough to drown a philosopher,
playful and ironic enough to reward even the most discriminating and cultivate
reader” (p. 100).
Swirski writes clearly, quotes intelligently, and approaches his theme with
great originality. Reflecting on his portrait of nobrow culture, all I can say is, if
you enjoy discovery and aesthetic satisfaction, you will enjoy From Lowbrow to
Nobrow.
Lisa Cheung, University of Hong Kong