When I first read Margaret Atwood's Survival in my early twenties, I was surprised to see that she included works of "questionable merit" in her survey of Canadian literature, works that may have been popular but would certainly never make it on to the canon syllabi at U of T. In her introduction, she pointed out that what constitutes a culture is not merely that culture's James Joyces and Herman Melvilles. It also includes the Stephen Kings and Danielle Steels, or for that matter, since I'm grossly paraphrasing anyway, The Spice Girls and our Elvis impersonators. Years later, I was less surprised to read The Blind Assassin to discover her love of genre fiction, in this case, good old-fashioned mid-century Sci-fi cheese. Later, her love of genre would make its way into the post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy.
Atwood has been useful to me as a bulwark against my tendency towards stuffed-shirtedness.
Popular Culture Magazine is quite a bit rawer than Atwood. I can more easily hide my inner snob behind her leonine reputation, which is probably what I'm doing here. At times, Popular Culture put me uncomfortably face to face with what's on the ground here and now. It's breezier in the ivory tower.
I'm not particularly interested in Hood culture, The Spice Girls or the fashion scene (the same cannot, if we're talking brass tacks here, be said about Chinese pornography), but Fandom is something I'm certainly a fan of. And as a video gamer, it would be hypocritical of me to go all Joycean and Melvillian on any Fandom that I don't happen to belong to.
Atwood and Popular Culture are right: all culture is an essential part of identity, both the nation's and the individual's.
Atwood has been useful to me as a bulwark against my tendency towards stuffed-shirtedness.
Popular Culture Magazine is quite a bit rawer than Atwood. I can more easily hide my inner snob behind her leonine reputation, which is probably what I'm doing here. At times, Popular Culture put me uncomfortably face to face with what's on the ground here and now. It's breezier in the ivory tower.
I'm not particularly interested in Hood culture, The Spice Girls or the fashion scene (the same cannot, if we're talking brass tacks here, be said about Chinese pornography), but Fandom is something I'm certainly a fan of. And as a video gamer, it would be hypocritical of me to go all Joycean and Melvillian on any Fandom that I don't happen to belong to.
Atwood and Popular Culture are right: all culture is an essential part of identity, both the nation's and the individual's.