My utter uninvolvement with pop-culture is nerdom bordering with extreme nerdom. Everything I know about it, I heard second-hand. And I sure hear a lot, that’s my only regret. My favourite computer games are the default Windows kit of solitaires, and I prefer reading about movies in wikipedia rather than watch them. Yep. That bad. But see, I wasn’t always this way. I was a normal kid once upon a time, and then I drifted, because of one simple thing…
If there is one thing I hate about the pop-culture is its template ordinarity. Even a purposed shocker is an ordinarity when it’s in the context of pop-culture. Surprise ending is just not so surprising anymore, surprise combination of sounds is how everybody seems to construct their music. In particular in films – I got special animosity towards those, as they’re trying to create all these ‘relatable’ average main characters to sell. Nothing too grand about them, nothing to go against the common trends in the public, all to please that very public. Strip one off their personality, that’s what pop-culture tries to offer. Except there is no such thing as an average person. We have personality, each of us. And despite that personality, we can still relate very well to one another, unless we’ve been scarred deep, which is not exactly an average thing to speak of. Our own picture in our mind is never that of an average Joe, going to school, rebelling to parents, going through crisis of adulthood, financial struggle, difficult relationships, some general underdog… Nah, we hide from any of that in our own vision of ourselves. That’s why we always keep on scrutinising what we should have said to that person, and didn’t, how we should have seized the chances, and didn’t, how we should have treated that nice person, and didn’t… For goodness’ sake, give us the person that did! Not the loser we could relate to, but won’t!
That’s why superheroes never die. Most successful movies? About superheroes! Except here comes the pop-culture, and even makes all the superheroes average. They’re all painfully similar. I mean, seriously, the only thing that’s different between Spiderman and Batman is the costume. Yeah, and all the other superficial things, is what I mean. But just think of it: numerous love interests, animalistic/technological transformations, noble causes of global scale, flying ability… Man, they took your absolutely average over-the-top fantasy and made it a character. Ask why people watch it. Only cause they haven’t got anything better, a unique story and unique plots. These heroes are of high coolness value, but not relatable cause they’re a faceless fantasy given face. One that we have nothing on.
So the last superhero I personally was the fan of, was Shrek’s donkey. Straight from the Bible, talking donkey with some real temperament and a dragon for a wife, I mean that’s what I call swagga! Guess what, I’m pretty sure I’m far from alone in thinking that. Saying it, I guess, will oblige me to create an extravagant hero of my own. Watch me, I’ll do just that one day!
If there is one thing I hate about the pop-culture is its template ordinarity. Even a purposed shocker is an ordinarity when it’s in the context of pop-culture. Surprise ending is just not so surprising anymore, surprise combination of sounds is how everybody seems to construct their music. In particular in films – I got special animosity towards those, as they’re trying to create all these ‘relatable’ average main characters to sell. Nothing too grand about them, nothing to go against the common trends in the public, all to please that very public. Strip one off their personality, that’s what pop-culture tries to offer. Except there is no such thing as an average person. We have personality, each of us. And despite that personality, we can still relate very well to one another, unless we’ve been scarred deep, which is not exactly an average thing to speak of. Our own picture in our mind is never that of an average Joe, going to school, rebelling to parents, going through crisis of adulthood, financial struggle, difficult relationships, some general underdog… Nah, we hide from any of that in our own vision of ourselves. That’s why we always keep on scrutinising what we should have said to that person, and didn’t, how we should have seized the chances, and didn’t, how we should have treated that nice person, and didn’t… For goodness’ sake, give us the person that did! Not the loser we could relate to, but won’t!
That’s why superheroes never die. Most successful movies? About superheroes! Except here comes the pop-culture, and even makes all the superheroes average. They’re all painfully similar. I mean, seriously, the only thing that’s different between Spiderman and Batman is the costume. Yeah, and all the other superficial things, is what I mean. But just think of it: numerous love interests, animalistic/technological transformations, noble causes of global scale, flying ability… Man, they took your absolutely average over-the-top fantasy and made it a character. Ask why people watch it. Only cause they haven’t got anything better, a unique story and unique plots. These heroes are of high coolness value, but not relatable cause they’re a faceless fantasy given face. One that we have nothing on.
So the last superhero I personally was the fan of, was Shrek’s donkey. Straight from the Bible, talking donkey with some real temperament and a dragon for a wife, I mean that’s what I call swagga! Guess what, I’m pretty sure I’m far from alone in thinking that. Saying it, I guess, will oblige me to create an extravagant hero of my own. Watch me, I’ll do just that one day!