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The following is excerpted from Highbrow, lowbrow: Conversation with Peter Swirski:
But what if we DID question all of these divisions that we build, the ones that separate, say, “KikoMachine” from “Noli Me Tangere”? What if we are able to conceive a middle ground between high and low culture? What if we are able to consider how popular culture in all its forms can be transformative for its consumers as well?
If you are a reader of this persuasion, then you might want to ask your university library or nearest bookstore to acquire the books of Peter Swirski, a self-described “iconoclast by nature [who is] skeptical of many inherited modes of thinking.”
Swirski, a professor of English currently based in Hong Kong, is also a rising figure in the world of cultural studies, pop culture, American studies and science fiction. In the hopes of generating more interest in his work in the Philippines, I was able to ask Swirski a few questions about his research via email.
Swirski’s bibliography is intimidating and diverse: he has been called “a literary critic, an Americanist, a cultural historian, a philosopher, a popular science writer [and] a literary Darwinist.” The thread tying all these topics together is the concept of “nobrow,” or the dissolution of hierarchies within culture.
Many people dismiss this sort of thinking that validates pop culture as Quixotic rebellion. However, Swirski’s outlook is more nuanced. “I am NOT saying — as I’m often trivialized — that Shakespeare sucks and pulp fiction rocks. Not true! If you’ve never read Shakespeare, you have robbed yourself of an experience that nothing can replace.
“But if you think that every revered literary classic is a masterpiece, you are dead wrong. By the same token, not every genre paperback is worth reading.”
In essence, questioning culture isn’t just about throwing out books, films, music and art that are considered “classics” and replacing them with more recent, more mainstream culture.
But the opposite — where we accept that everything that’s considered a classic — is unproductive, too.
Peter Swirski is the author of From Lowbrow to Nobrow, Ars Americana, Ars Politica, Between Literature and Science, I Sing the Body Politic, The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, and the upcoming From Literature to Biterature.
Lem, Turing, Darwin, and Explorations in Computer Literature, Philosophy of Mind, and Cultural Evolution
By Peter Swirski
From Literature to Biterature is based on the premise that in the foreseeable future computers will become capable of creating works of literature. Among hundreds of other questions, it considers: Under which conditions would machines become capable of creative writing? Given that computer evolution will exceed the pace of natural evolution a million-fold, what will such a state of affairs entail in terms of art, culture, social life, and even nonhuman rights?
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