Popular Culture

"A second way of defining popular culture is to suggest that it is the culture which is left over after we have decided what is high culture." This quote is from John Storey's Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, pg 5.

As I seek to figure out why popular culture is such an integral part of Children's literature, this quote strikes me as a missing piece to the puzzle.

Children are a valuable part of society. Without them, society, in essence, would end. On one hand children are privledged--If we pay attention to all the advertising dollars spent on telling parents what their children need and telling children what they must have, then we know that children are privledged. On the other hand, children are neglected. When we look at how many hours children spend a day in day care, we can realize that children often are missing a consistent foundational example.

Grey's Anatomy this week, a father says, "I went soft. I quit being a father when he needed a father the most." Talking about after divorce.

Storey uses Raymond Williams to define culture as one of 3 things.
A means to refer to "a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development"
A means to suggest "A particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group"
A means to describe "The works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity"

Storey feels that popular culture must be one of the last 2. I disagree when it comes to children. Although they are the second definition, I think they are because they are attempting to be the first. Children spend some time with adults. They spend time with their parents, but they spend more time with one another. Therefore, while they are told which things to value intellectually, spiritually, and aesthetically, they must as young adults decide for themselves which things they will value. So, they often make these decisions as a group, a population. Young adults often decide that they don't need what others have deemed high culture. They do not need to privledge the same things other's privledge. Young adults will choose to show intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development through their own media, and right now those media are often related to the internet. Young adult authors realize this. They understand that instead of using high culture intertextual examples in their texts, they should use the lessons learned from media as a means to convey meaning.

boycott kroger

I know that I usually write about academic things, but today I am mad at Kroger. I like Mexican food, it might even be my favorite. So, last night I decided that I wanted to make tacos. So after I prepared my dinner I opened up a new jar of Kroger brand salsa. I didn't look at the jar. I didn't check the date-- I just opened the jar and put salsa on my taco-- well, the salsa was rancid. Yep== the nastiest stuff on earth. so, now I check the date-- Dec 2007. I think Sept 2006 falls within that time frame. So, I go up to Kroger to take back my nasty salsa, and the customer service rep acts like I'm the biggest inconvience in her day. I mean it's not an inconvience to have my dinner ruined. It's not an inconvience to have to drive up to Kroger in the rain. I've always been a fan of Kroger-- but not anymore. At least not my Kroger. I'm not giving them another dime of my business.

Click Here

Denise Vega wrote a young adult novel called Click Here. It brings new light to the ideas of intertextuality. These are the ideas of intertextuality that I hope to explore. I want to look at how culture is a text and how children's literature references that text.

Click Here is about a girl who loves computers. She wants to design a webpage, so she does. It's almost like a glorified blog-- she keeps her diary on this webpage. She practices using code and she creates tabs to go from one page to another. But, her webpage is private. She doesn't intend for it to be published. SPOILER ALERT... When she accidentally publishes her webpage, it wreaks havoc on her life. Then the intertextuality strengthens because she compares herself to Harriet the Spy.

The aspect of the book that I find interesting is Erin's, the protagonist, interest in technology. She joins the computer club and helps other kids create a school webpage. Vega sprinkles technological jargon throughout the text, creating an intertextuality that expects the reader to understand my space culture.

I'm looking forward to exploring these ideas further.