Category Archives: Random Pop Culture

Postmodernism and politics/economy

3 Replies

Great discussion in class today – feel free to continue it here!

I found the source for the tinkerbell economy quote – of course, it was Jon Stewart on April 10: “Our economy is like Tinkerbell. If we stop clapping, it dies.” But if you google tinkerbell capitalism, you’ll find a number of references, including this prescient one from 2007.

For more on the “reality-based community” comment, see the wikipedia entry that links to the original article by Ron Suskind and this quote:

The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

So what more do you have to say, in this virtual extension of our class?

Open thread on fandom

8 Replies

As promised in class, here’s a place to muse on your own fan engagements. And I’ll start…

Obviously, my area of study allows me to immerse in pop culture that I love, and I see much of my teaching as an act of fan engagement – sharing the entire run of The Wire with a community of students, for instance! Being a scholar of popular culture is a perfect profession for a fan, as you can justify consumption as “research.” And while I’m not a fan scholar per se, some of my writing has focused on my fan interests.

Most centrally, I’d point to my writing on Lost. I’ve been an active fan of the show, and that fandom has led to a number of academic publications. If anyone is interested, you can read an article I wrote on the show’s “spoiler fans” (who try to discover what will happen before it’s revealed on the show); an essay about critical evaluation and Lost; and a draft of an article about Lostpedia (which you need the password namaste to access). Not to pile on homework, but just in case anyone is interested in the topics or how I create academic paratexts.

So what are your fan interests and how do they impact your life?

Introduce yourselves

17 Replies

Just a thread to have students in the class introduce themselves, and thus provide a link to your ID so you can be added as a contributor to the blog. To make it interesting, provide one pop culture tidbit about yourself that we can remember you by.

I’ll go first: I’ve seen four of the six Star Wars films in the theater during their original releases. Oddly enough, the two that I missed were both the second film in each trilogy.