Weeks Pass and Confusion Rises

As this course progresses, I feel that everything is becoming less black and white.  Each new definition of culture provides us with a different way of examining culture, not just through the eyes of Arnold or of the Leavisism.  This week we examined the works of Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, E.P. Thompson, Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel.  Each of these people had a different way of defining culture and I felt a stronger understanding for and agreement with Raymond Williams's definition, or rather definitions.  In 'The Analysis of Culture' Williams gives us three general categories to define culture: Ideal, Documentary, and Social.  I would prefer to examine only the Ideal today.

The Ideal defines culture as "the discovery and description, in lives and works, of those values which can be seen to compose a time-less order, or to have a state or process of human perfection, in terms of certain absolute or universal views" (Storey 44).  I originally had great difficulty understanding the second half of that definition, so for clarification I wanted to break it down and create my own definition.  The following was how I went about creating my new definition.

According to Storey, "the roll of cultural analysis, using this definition is ... to have permanent reference to the universal human condition" (ibid.).  I would like to break down what this means into smaller segments.  Let us look at the last seven words of this definition; "permanent reference to the universal human condition." First, we must consider the words "permanent reference." I take these to mean an everlasting allusion, or more simply a mention that carries over an indefinite amount of time.  Next, we look at the term "universal"  which means applying to all cases.  Last, we examine the definition of the "human condition" which is defined by Dictionary.com as "the positive and negative aspects of existence as a human being." Putting them all together, we reach the following definition: "An everlasting allusion pertaining to the whole set of positive and negative aspects of existence as a human being."  This new definition that I have constructed may not feel as wieldy to some as it does for me, but breaking it down into pieces really helped to understand what Williams tried to originally convey.
       
Having exhausted my brain and my fingers, I bid you farewell.

Week 1 Excitement

Having completed my first class period I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable a class titled "Survey of Popular Culture" could be.  I was very engaged and was really surprised at the depth that a single term can have:

Popular Culture.

Culture for the populous and by the populous.

Pop Culture is a term with a variety of definitions.  Having examined four of them in class, one that really stuck with me was "defining popular culture as 'mass culture'" (Storey).  Storey further elaborates that "those who refer to popular culture as mass culture want to establish that popular culture is a hopelessly commercial culture (ibid.).

This is a feeling that I can definitely relate to when I sit down and ponder the sad state of the music industry today.  For example, let us examine the fine works of Mr. David Guetta.  I admit that I have enjoyed some of his works when the time is right, however there is no denying that his music has a certain "cut and paste" feel to it.  Two of his most recent works "Sexy Chick" and "Where Dem Girlz At" have virtually the exact same tune.  Second, the subject matter is nearly identical.  Lastly, both songs leave me with the feeling that I need a shower and that I should seek council with my priest.

I had previously thought was the only definition of popular culture, which is why I was stunned to discover that the works of William Shakespeare could be considered popular culture.  If an alternate definition is used, defining popular culture as "the culture that originates from 'the people'" (Storey).

This is all exciting and new to me but I am left feeling like my friend here.

Found at http://science.memebase.com/tag/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing/

With that, I bid you a fond farewell.