High Art

Readers are not the same as audiences, and the structure of a novel is not the same as a structure of a lingerie advertisement. Hierarchy, to be sure, is an off-putting notion invoking high and low, and high smacks of snobbery and anti-egalitarianism. But hierarchy also points to recognitions of distinctions and -- incontrovertibly -- the life of intellect is perforce hierarchal: it insists that one thing is not the same as the other thing. -- Cynthia Ozick from The Din in the Head 

Jonathan Franzen, feminist's favorite literary whipping boy, was the impetus for Ozick's "Highbrow Blues" (which you can find in her book of essays The Din in the Head -- the above link goes to Google Books where you can the essay in its entirety), but there's a lot there that I really agree with, and plays to my own struggle with the concepts of high and low. A lot of what she says is unpopular in today's landscape of categorizing everything as equal, but it's a good read, especially if you question the idea of having a literary canon at all.