NPR recently ran a piece about the decline of the “cultural omnivore,” though the title was more hopefully entitled In Praise of Cultural Omnivores.

The premise is that so-called high art (ballet, classical music, literary fiction) is declining in popularity not because the number of people who prefer “highbrow” cultural declined, but because the number of people straddling the middle declined. People who watch reality television and listen to top 40 radio, but also make not entirely infrequent appearances to listen to their local symphony or some other example of highbrow culture.

I’m not entirely sure where I fall. I suppose I am an omnivore – I love my genre fiction (fantasy and sci-fi) and popular television (Castle, Family Guy). Though I wonder if I don’t fall a little closer to the highbrow side. I also wonder if it’s not the case that I want to fall closer to the highbrow side and so view myself through that lens without necessarily being correct in that assumption. Do I really prefer classical and jazz, densely written literature and poetry, opera and foreign fills – do I really prefer them more than pop music, genre fiction, and summer blockbusters?

It can be hard to distinguish image from reality, even in one’s self.