Culture Vulture

[David Bergdahl]

In the 50s and 60s "culture vulture" referred disparangingly to the
enthusiastic but ultimately boorish "fans" of culture one saw at trendy
venues.  During intermission they congregate in theatre lobbies and
pontificate wrong-headly about the meaning of the play or its
"symbols"--they loved symbols.

One anecdote suffices: at a university production of T. S. Eliot's
Cocktail Party a group suggested that One-Eyed Reilley must be the
devil, because he limped.  (The actor was later seen to sport a wooden
leg).

The root of the vulture metaphor is that they "pick apart" what they
consume.  The Wordsworthian "murder to dissect" isn't quite it because
it's not analysis that is disparaged but their faulty understanding of
culture.  So, for people with memory, it's an unfortunate term for a
unifier of disparate corporate cultures!

-- db
____________________________________________________________________
David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl
tel:  (740) 593-2783
366 Ellis Hall     Ohio University  Athens, Ohio 45701-2979       fax:
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