Exploratory draft

Tiffany Whittaker

Kaiserman

English 91

13 November 2014

Living with Culture

            In Vonnegut’s book “Breakfast of Champions” we begin to scratch the surface of the American culture, and the culture we have not yet grown the value for. Vonnegut explains his brief encounter with high culture, but overall writes how his life has always belonged to pop or low culture. As a man in the advertisement industry pop culture is demand, and in America pop culture is found in great numbers. Many people can say they have read or heard the twilight series, but few have read Shakespeare. Low culture we find daily in the books we read, shirts we wear, and movies we watch, however high culture can be rare, priceless, and most the time we won’t take a second look at, and sometimes high and low culture can clash. To Vonnegut low culture is trash, and he despises it because he see the truth behind the work; in low culture the idea is placed in the “work of art” no need to think or put your own twist toward it, it’s there to offer a short term pleasure. But high culture leaves the imagination wide open to interpretation, emotion and thought is free, high culture isn’t trying to sell the “in” make you feel the need to compare, pleasure can be found inside, if you have the awareness.