On Titles

I've been thinking today about titles. Titles of books, films, albums, etc have always been important to me, and sometimes a good title will stay with me for a long time, even after I've forgotten much about the work it describes (or perhaps never seen/read/heard it). It's very hard to describe why a title has an effect on us - it can be penetrating, or humorous, or surprising... I guess any memorable title is something that contains a truth that jumps out at us and helps us to relate to something in our own life in some small way. In that respect I suppose a good title has the same qualities as any good piece of art, only in miniature.

I know that when I was coming up with a title for this blog I spent a whole evening mulling over various alternatives, before eventually settling on the above pun because I felt it encapsulated the melding of high and low culture that I wanted to explore.

Here are some of my favourite titles. As for the works they describe - some of them I love with all my heart, some I quite like, and some I am completely ambivalent about....