The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves

This book is about the social function of art, creativity, the imagination, esthetics, the sublime, or more accurately a concept of the author's own which those ideas merely point towards. You should come to this book having done some thinking and reading on the subject, or else you are liable to dismiss his linkages between ideas as arbitrary or pretentious, which they most certainly aren't. His skill is in explaining precisely why "good" art is vital to the healthy functioning of society. If you can identify with the works he cites it certainly makes it easier to understand what he is trying to say, but he is by no means suggesting a canon of works that others should value. No, he is saying that both sides of the political spectrum (and perhaps especially those who would claim no strong politics) have been drawn into a flattening of distinction that destroys the positive possibilities of art. If that sentence makes you think about the functioning of capitalism or the esthetics of the postmodern then you are in the audience for this book. Curtis White offers the most to someone who understands current academic-speak (and even values it as an accurate way to dissect culture) but still feels there is something important missing; namely, the pleasure of experiencing and creating art that challenges one's perceptions of the world through the strength of its imagination. He is also not making the argument that anything that doesn't achieve this goal is "bad", merely that art and entertainment are not the same thing. And most importantly that both the skills to create such art and the culture to embrace it should be cultivated and cherished.

I, too, read the Harper's article that inspired this book, and though I was just as perplexed as Patrick O'Kelley by White's vilification of Terry Gross and "Fresh Air," White takes the time in this longer work to make his antipathy very clear. It is the dumbing-down and leveling of our boldest art with pap entertainment that infuriates him, and Gross, broadcasting on NPR, which should be insulated from the pressure for public pandering that so afflicts commercial radio and television, seems to do this on a regular basis. Other examples White advances to illustrate his points are idiocyncratic more often than not, but that doesn't detract a whit from one singular accomplishment of this book of particular interest to me. White is a novelist of a particularly creative and original stripe (the fact that I've read all his work must mean that I'm a fan), and this qualifies him to speak of something that few intellectuals have discussed with much accuracy, in my opinion: the identity and function, not only of imagination, but of the arts in society. As an artist and sometime intellectual myself, I have despaired at how many writers on the subject have got it wrong. Happily, White takes Wallace Stevens as his mentor, and Stevens's pronouncements apply as well to visual and musical as to literary arts. But to be able to articulate with authority what art is, and does, one must have experienced it, fully and from the inside. Thus the greater part of White's discussion, I'm sure, comes from his own reflective experience as a novelist, and not only from reliance on the work of other authors and poets. The middle section of the book, discussing in detail the military-industrial technocracy and where it is leading us, I read only dutifully; I have a hunch this subject has been discussed better elsewhere, and by insiders. And White's style, a mix of elegant, articulate discussion with conversational asides and profane expletives--something that energizes his novels--is a needless distraction here. But the Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, and 5 (of 5, all totaled) are brilliant, completely on-target, and worth the highest praise. My only wish is that I could afford to send a copy of White's book to every critic, curator, gallery dealer and endowment administrator alive. For the "Middle Mind" lurks in palaces of power in the art world--where you might expect to find those who know better--as well as in government, corporate America, Big Media, and the general populace itself. Whether it always will is another question; but Step One is always to define the Problem, and it is done here with great insight.

I read both essays Curtis White wrote for Harper's and quickly went out and bought this book. "The Middle Mind" is provocative and inspiring. I highly recommend it to anyone who is tired of being forced fed by the entertainment and political industries. This is not just another rant but a call to arms of the heart and mind. Curtis White writes in a manner that is compelling and humorous and yet the ideas he discusses are far reaching and powerful. I applaud Curtis White and urge serious book lovers everywhere to read this innovative and empowering work.

I just finished Middle Mind and it is now riddled with my own notes, underlined passages and margin thoughts. It has been quite a while since a book arrested my attention quite like this. It is a rare find - a relevant topic brilliantly explored. I enjoyed White's arguments - loved his wit, his references(some brought me back to college...), and am delighted that so far, it has elicited such long responses from other readers. I can confidently recommend this to a broad audience of readers. Get it - it is great.

Those reviews they got up here so far show exactly what Curtis White is criticizing. In that sense they are pretty much useless. Curtis White's position is neither liberal not conservative. Anybody who claims that White is liberal or conservative has simply missed the main point of the book. White is attacking NPR and Dinesh D'Souza, Cultural Studies and Steven Spielberg. The real point of the book is how one can possibly go beyond the stifling lack of imagination - which manifests itself so clearly in those almost petrified structures you run across every day - including the reviews here. If you're willing to throw some of those convictions you got over board and try to see things not from left or right but from somewhere else go and read the book. If you're caught in the liberal-right wing scheme and you prefer to read somebody you can agree with save your money.