Over the last couple of days, I’ve been mulling over the perception of quality in pop culture things. Starting from the base in Wood’s “How Fiction Works” (cannot get that book out of my way of understanding the world, now that it is there), that things with a “single register” are less rich to ‘read.’
I think that there is a connection in that notion to Bourdieu’s ‘doxa’ description (from Outline of a Theory of Practice) in that the use of a ’single register’ implies either a choice or an unawareness of the full range of possible registers. So, the producers of “America’s Got Talent,” for example can really think that there is good material there, or they can be conniving bastards, just in the same way that the author of “Mutant Message from Down Under” may be either as limited in her understanding of culture(s) as say, Carlos Castaneda (or as Ayn Rand’s unsubtle political economics) (admission: part of this is motivated by trying to understand why I, at 17 or 18, found Castaneda and Rand brilliant and am now somewhat shamed by that)), or that she is just working in cartoon to hit as much of an undiscriminating audience as possible. In any case, complexity and flexibility come in as values. In a sort of disturbingly absolute way.
Anyway, “No Logo” and its sisters come to mind. And William Gibson’s character Cayce Pollard’s allergic revulsion to major icons. It would be nice to find something a bit deeper than Klein, some better than average thinking about desire and discrimination.
I’ve got an outline of this idea, below. but it may be completely outdated. So pointers would be appreciated.
You’re covering a lot of ground here, Rick. What I hear is what’s on a wavelength with something that I’ve been trying to push my work toward: legitimately designing for teenagers. It’s terrifying. My only guidelines are to work WITH them and to make stuff that makes my more grownup teammates uncomfortable.
Talent shows speak to adolescents, so do castaneda and rand (what a dinner party that would be). The thing they all do well, I think –and the thing that may seem stupid, narcissistic, shameful later– is that they *whisper* which is to say they speak you just you, and your sense of specialness and imminent transcendence.
We can’t design for the kids without loving the embarrassing things we remember about being kids. Such as the utter unawareness of how unoriginal our rebellion is. Reminds me of Commodify Your Dissent
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/frank-dissent.html