High vs. Low and Rushdie

I thought this could be one way of imagining the Sea of Stories.........

Highbrow vs. Lowbrow

Highbrow literature, as I see it is more complicated, with greater depth, and not a common recreational read. Lowbrow literature on the other hand would have a higher readership, with a more popular following, lacking the depth that is needed for the so-called pedantic readers who consider themselves only fit for the highbrow reading. However lowbrow, doesn't neessarily mean lesser. As Christina says in her first blog entry, "Who is to say that any truth or beauty contained in a "lesser" work is any less valid or any less moving than truth contained in masterpieces." We see this in the lowbrow, (as in children's literature) Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Contains allegory for problems in society, beautiful imagery, and reaccuring themes of story, storytelling, and language.

"Thieflet; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old - it is the new combinations that make them new" (86).

Water Genie - " 'You know how people are, new things, always new. The old tales, nobody cares' " (86). I like this quote because the old permeates the new. Old creates the new. The new is created from the old. Which leads me to think about how the highbrow and lowbrow come from the same place. The old.

Haroun - "I've just arrived, and already none of it seems very strange at all" (87).