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Two not entirely separate topics:
( Spoilers are Super! )
Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, ed. Alan McKee: People who denigrate popular culture tend to assume that it’s all alike in its trashiness. But people who actually consume it know otherwise – there are good bodice-rippers and bad ones. McKee got a number of academics to write essays about the “best” cultural object in some category. The best of the contributions discuss how standards and judgments are formed, while the less successful ones tend to emit enthusiasm without much explanation, showing the classic “dancing about architecture” problem of explaining reactions to nontextual works. Contents: Henry Jenkins on the best contemporary mainstream superhero comics writer (Bendis), Will Brooker on the best Batman story (The Dark Knight Returns), the best serial killer novel (Red Dragon), the best Australian romance novelist (Emma Darcy), the best website for men who have sex with men (cruisingforsex.com) (this was the most useful to me, since I have opinions on what came before in the book and no opinions on what comes after, while this essay gave me a sense of why I might want to log on), the best basketball player (Michael Jordan), the best sneakers (Nike Air Max Classic TW), the best action console game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), the best motorbike (Ducati 916), the best propaganda (Humphrey Jennings, The Silent Village (1943)), the best villain in Xena (Alti), the best pop princess (Kylie Minogue), and the best disco record (Sharon Redd, Never Give You Up).
( Spoilers are Super! )
Beautiful Things in Popular Culture, ed. Alan McKee: People who denigrate popular culture tend to assume that it’s all alike in its trashiness. But people who actually consume it know otherwise – there are good bodice-rippers and bad ones. McKee got a number of academics to write essays about the “best” cultural object in some category. The best of the contributions discuss how standards and judgments are formed, while the less successful ones tend to emit enthusiasm without much explanation, showing the classic “dancing about architecture” problem of explaining reactions to nontextual works. Contents: Henry Jenkins on the best contemporary mainstream superhero comics writer (Bendis), Will Brooker on the best Batman story (The Dark Knight Returns), the best serial killer novel (Red Dragon), the best Australian romance novelist (Emma Darcy), the best website for men who have sex with men (cruisingforsex.com) (this was the most useful to me, since I have opinions on what came before in the book and no opinions on what comes after, while this essay gave me a sense of why I might want to log on), the best basketball player (Michael Jordan), the best sneakers (Nike Air Max Classic TW), the best action console game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), the best motorbike (Ducati 916), the best propaganda (Humphrey Jennings, The Silent Village (1943)), the best villain in Xena (Alti), the best pop princess (Kylie Minogue), and the best disco record (Sharon Redd, Never Give You Up).
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