Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture
Okay here we go, I got this book off the discount table a couple of years ago (yeah, I love discount books, what of it?). It has all of the things that I like in a discount book, the untrimmed edges so that you can't effectively flip through the pages, the bigger-than-a-paperback-but-smaller-than-a-hardcover-size, I love it!
Niedzviecki (hereafter referred to as Hal for obvious reasons) seems to know his stuff but this book was published in 2000 and I expected it to be really out of date, the general impression being that pop/mass culture moves too quickly to really pin down. And, while he does spend a lot of time talking about 'zines, once I mentally substituted blogs, it all came back together.
I kept getting the feeling though that I was supposed to find it all very relevant and eye-opening. I didn't. It was interesting enough and I'll cop to even seeing a little of myself in the book (although I think I'm a little old for it most days). I guess it was nice to find out that others in the world work "stupid jobs" (his term, I like "shit jobs" (my term) a little better although "Joe jobs" was the best before someone indicated that he might be offended by that term) strictly because they're not required to think and can leave it behind at the end of the day, I can't say that I felt particularly proud of the company I was keeping.
It was a little cooler-than-thou at times but I could still relate. Especially as he's a Canadian and, whenever he quoted Marshal McLuhan, I could remember the Canadian Heritage Minute about the man with his tidy suit and his moustache peering intently at the camera saying, "The medium is the message." Hal should have cited the Log Drivers' Waltz to really pull me in though.
Okay here we go, I got this book off the discount table a couple of years ago (yeah, I love discount books, what of it?). It has all of the things that I like in a discount book, the untrimmed edges so that you can't effectively flip through the pages, the bigger-than-a-paperback-but-smaller-than-a-hardcover-size, I love it!Niedzviecki (hereafter referred to as Hal for obvious reasons) seems to know his stuff but this book was published in 2000 and I expected it to be really out of date, the general impression being that pop/mass culture moves too quickly to really pin down. And, while he does spend a lot of time talking about 'zines, once I mentally substituted blogs, it all came back together.
I kept getting the feeling though that I was supposed to find it all very relevant and eye-opening. I didn't. It was interesting enough and I'll cop to even seeing a little of myself in the book (although I think I'm a little old for it most days). I guess it was nice to find out that others in the world work "stupid jobs" (his term, I like "shit jobs" (my term) a little better although "Joe jobs" was the best before someone indicated that he might be offended by that term) strictly because they're not required to think and can leave it behind at the end of the day, I can't say that I felt particularly proud of the company I was keeping.
It was a little cooler-than-thou at times but I could still relate. Especially as he's a Canadian and, whenever he quoted Marshal McLuhan, I could remember the Canadian Heritage Minute about the man with his tidy suit and his moustache peering intently at the camera saying, "The medium is the message." Hal should have cited the Log Drivers' Waltz to really pull me in though.
