thoughts from the field

some thoughts about some stuff.

i'm always interested in the active relationships we develop with pop culture, be it music, fashion, television, and so on. though i don't typically write about pop culture (there is obviously not a dearth of research or opinion that exists), sometimes i'm struck by something because of my own attachment to it. and so i write.

so last night in my history and theory seminar, we were discussing ways in which familiarity with an item of another country's pop cultural economy -- in this case, Japanese women and the Korean tv drama, Winter Sonata -- can spur potentially rich and meaningful engagement with that country (Mori 2008). where once there may have been a total unwillingness to explore a culture (this is present in the given example, as the Japanese have a history of reviling Korean culture), a newfound curiosity may develop. and while this is BY NO MEANS a cure-all for things like xenophobia, racism, and other types of prejudice, i do think it's a really important step in the process of overcoming said issues. it points to the fact that pop culture can sometimes make the world a slightly smaller place.

but i digress. the aforementioned Japanese women are not just watching Winter Sonata, but creating more tangible bonds to Korean culture. Yoshitaka Mori, author of Winter Sonata and Cultural Practices of Active Fans in Japan: Considering Middle-Aged Women as Cultural Agents, writes, "The Winter Sonata phenomenon goes beyond just watching a TV drama. It created more social and cultural practices in its fans' everyday lives. As we will see, many fans have started to show a general interest in Korean culture, to organize fan meetings, to participate in Winter Sonata tours in Korea, and even start studying Korean language and culture," (Mori 2008, p. 131). that's right -- people are traveling to another country because of their active engagement with that country's pop culture. brilliant!

examples exist of this kind of transnational cultural flow surely exist in many places, but i'm taking this as an opportunity to write about a dear love of mine: britpop. it's common amongst US britpop fans to be totally and completely enamored with Manchester (madchester, anyone?), London, Wales and other hubs. for as long as i can remember, i've dreamed of making the cultural pilgrimage to to the Glastonbury or Reading festivals, and i know i'm not alone -- this has been a topic of conversation between myself and fellow fans for years.

i'm not fanatical, but i know folks who are. i know girls who scream and cry at the mere mention of any number of britpop idols, from brett anderson and jarvis cocker to noel gallagher and damon albarn. these are the artists (and sex symbols!) who produced anthems of our time, which embodied its zeitgeist. britpop is a sort of cult whose members possess loyalty that spans decades. the aura of these bands and the scene they created sparked the desire for direct participation, such as a pilgrimage to the UK, by their fans.

i'm aware this example doesn't carry the same political weight as Mori's, but it excites me to think about how we, as global citizens, access culture from around the world. the notion that one might want to experience a new place "simply" because of a band, for example, is amazing -- what if there was an explosion of interest in Iraqi or Congolese pop culture in the US?

will something like britpop or a Korean soap opera save us from xenophobia, terror, and war? probably not. but the curiosity and affection embodied by these transnational cultural flows are reasons why we shouldn't dismiss pop culture.

TMI//in case you ever wondered

some of my fields of research are: how affective states (specifically trauma, grief, and sadness) effect our experience of time; how such experiences of time inform memory; the structure of memory; the “unreliability” (and politicization) of emotion; how the body remembers and at times refuses to forget

i can’t stop thinking about the first. as some of you know, i started to write about time travel last year, particularly as it relates to traumatic memory. but i think it happens on a smaller scale, too, just when we are in less extensive states of sadness. i’m fascinated by my own sadness, and the paralysis that it can cause. my body seems wholly uncooperative when i’m anything less than exuberant. i find myself almost hallucinating at times to particularly stressful moments during the recent past. i wonder if other people realize that i exist in two worlds.