Before English 1102, I never really gave popular culture much thought, let alone contemplate on its various definitions and impact on society. Not to mention, I thought pop culture only encompassed shallow but profitable music and films. I would have never considered games of such depth as Assassin’s Creed II or dark and sordid comic books as V for Vendetta to be in the same category as Die Hard or other meaningless money-making schemes. If nothing else, English 1102 taught me to find depth and profundity in elements of popular culture that I previously ignored or was unaware of.
Fight Club, for example, was something I had only experienced in the mass appeal film edition; I had no idea that it was a film adaptation of a rather meaningful novel. After reading the novel, I could see how the movie attempted to expand on the ideas of the novel with its messages of anti-corporatism and liberation from commercialism. At that point, I was able to appreciate both the novel and film as more than another addendum to inferior culture that I had previously viewed popular culture as. Prior to this class, I viewed Fight Club as a movie with little thematic value and rather a simplistic movie with a plot twist to garner in the positive reviews. Because my view of popular culture has expanded, I see it for the message it conveys and the value it projects as well as its ties into other mediums and elements of culture.
While I had always recognized the value in video games in expressing themes and messages of value, I never considered them as a part of popular culture until after English 1102. Assassin’s Creed II with its mass appeal retained some educational and artistic credentials. The visceral and easily understood gameplay synergized surprisingly well with what was an otherwise esoteric and foreign setting of historically accurate Renaissance Italy. In this sense, popular culture expressed a characteristic of popular culture that was personally left unacknowledged: popular culture could effectively combine obscure, esoteric art with modern culture. Assassin’s Creed II, as the shining example of this, expertly combined enjoyable and modernized gameplay with actual historical events.
Not only does popular culture revive dying culture with a modern infusion through gaming, but it also does the same with music. Viking metal, the first topic of English 1102, completely changed my paradigm showing how ancient culture lived on through typified popular culture. The movement blended modern sentiments of anti-Christianity with ancient ideologies and culture. While I can’t say I agree with the oft Satanic and violent messages of Viking metal, I can now see the power of popular culture to revive lost arts and culture. That in itself makes popular culture much more meaningful than I initially thought.
Each artifact of popular culture we studied in English 1102 portrayed some thematic purpose beyond superficial attempts to be widely appealing. Whether it was through combining esoteric historical events with the modern advent of gaming or ancient culture with modern sentiments in music, popular culture has a purpose beyond attempting to have wide appeal.
~Krunal Patel
Moore, Alan, David Lloyd, Steve Whitaker, Siobhan Dodds, Jeannie O’Connor, Steve Craddock, Elitta Fell, and Tony Weare. V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 2005. Print.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. Print.
Ubisoft Games. Assassin’s Creed II. 19 Nov. 2009. Video Game.
The Five Pop Culture Vultures 