.
Indeed.
But especially today, pop culture is disposable. "Real" culture endures.
The works of Homer and Shakespeare (if they were even single authors,
which is another issue entirely) were pop culture in their day. So was
most of what literature students earnestly study, at the time it was
first published.
What people declare to be "high art" is not necessarily "better." Are
Zeus myths really much more complicated or edifying than Superman
comics? And also, "high art" is not necessarily more influential on our
culture as a whole.
And pop culture is a lot...LOT of the time just plain wrong. Look at the
notion of the flapper in her fringed dress, stocking rolled down and doing the
Charleston . Yes, there's a basis for it but the REAL range of attitudes and
clothes [and dances] from the 1920s is much more interesting and better.
What I said was, that the myths we form of (and from) historic periods
have a powerful influence on our culture. I also said that real history
is considerably more complex; so you and I agree there. But to ignore
or despise the effect that these myths have, is to ignore a significant
portion of human motivations. Including our own.
.
Pop culture skims the surface. "Real" culture digs deep. And is always more
interesting.
There we disagree, because I think this is an artificial distinction.
It's basically a marketing distinction. Like "real" literature getting
reviewed in the _New York Times Book Review_, and "trashy"--but
bestselling--novels getting reviewed in a great many less pretentious
venues. Having worked in the book world, I could position lot of novels
as either one or the other merely by writing a few paragraphs of back
cover copy and sending review copies to a certain group of publications.
And definitions evolve. Opera used to be popular entertainment. The
high-class spectators got box seats because they were above, therefore
out of the line of fire of, people criticizing the performance by
throwing things at the actors. Now opera is "high art"--expensive to
attend, and deemed a rather obscure, "cultured," taste. Science fiction
used to be "low art"; now it's becoming respectable. But whether high or
low art, there are many working scientists who not only say they were
inspired to their career paths by reading science fiction, but who are
not ashamed to still read it.
I'm not saying all novels, or films, or other art forms are equally
"good" in my own estimation. But the fact remains that many people love
and get value from things I don't think are "good," and from things our
current marketing trend has declared "pop culture."
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
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