Cultural clarifications/pop culture

[dicentra_spectabilis_alba]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "moongirlk" <moongirlk at y...> wrote:
> 
> On the subject of the ivory tower, which then became "Pop culture, 
> what is it good for?"  Here's my secret option C - pop culture makes 
> a fantastic field of study for some academics.  

When the ivory tower-types study pop culture, they don't do it from a
fandom perspective (they way we talk about HP) but from a detached,
anthropologial perspective, as if they were watching a colony of
mountain gorillas in Uganda.  I've heard some ivory-tower types admit
that they enjoy this or that pop phenomenon (music, TV, etc.) but it's
a guilty pleasure or a hip addendum to their core preferences, which
are generally elitist. You will find professors who share the
anti-ivory tower sentiment, but their colleagues don't accept their
field of study or their approach as equal to the elitist approach.
>  
Having a TV or a radio or a 
> computer or virtually any other communication with the world around 
> us pretty much guarantees a certain entrenchment of pop culture in 
> our lives, and a significant lack of pop-culture exposure would leave 
> me pretty out-of-touch with my fellow USAmericans.  

My cousins grew up without TV, and they really are clueless when it
comes to pop-culture references and the like--on the other hand,
they're immensely creative and they think of things that don't occur
to other people because they haven't had their minds shaped by the
"irresistable force" that is pop culture.  Part of their creativity
stems from their heritage (mom is a writer and pianist) but I remember
visiting them when I was young, and we played the coolest games.  They
really think outside the TV "box."

I, on the other hand, was raised on TV. Am I less creative? Dunno. 
But I sure don't operate on their wavelength.
  
--Dicentra, whose pop-culture knowledge helps her enjoy Mystery
Science Theater 3000, and figures that alone is worth any detriment