I have some things to confess – I have never watched The Godfather in its entirety. Neither have I read a paragraph of Twilight. I fell asleep watching Star Wars Episode Something (one of the episodes made in the last decade). Ought I be ashamed? It seems to me this is an age of Knowledge, where people assume certain knowledge pertaining to popular culture. As a self-professed lover of movies and books, sometimes I feel a little awkward when discussions turn to highly popular or well-known productions that I simply have not exposed myself to. Like Pulp Fiction. Some call it a cult favourite, but it seems to have become an icon of seriously-I-don’t-know-what. And Kill Bill. Even Batman. AND Superman. I hate it when people start talking about a certain movie, and I have to interject “I haven’t watched it” and they retort questioningly “you haven’t watched it?!” like it was a sin. I know, sometimes I’m guilty of assuming such things too. Which leads to me to wonder – how do we put a stop to all these? How do we put our foot (and laptop) down, and call it quits with trying to catch up on classics and following the latest?
I watched half an episode of Desperate Housewives. I heard one song from the Glee soundtrack. I have never given a damn to Smallville, Heroes, Lost, American Idols … (you got to admit they form a grammatical sentence) and the likes. Because they are so popular there are so many intertextual references to them, which makes the guilt worse – the guilt of not knowing. In the world of literature it seems that the inability to catch intertextual references points to someone who is not well-read, and hence quite a shame. Are we becoming the same with popular culture – to not know is a shame?
I’m not talking about subculture and cult groups who renounce popular culture all together and focus on whatever that they do; vampire novels or creepy expensive dolls. I’m talking about regular middle class people like me and you who have access to these productions, but can’t find the time, impetus or interest to follow them. Why should we be made to feel like we are at a loss for not following these shows and films and consequently not able to participate in socializing acts involving references to them?
That said, I will not watch the World Cup, the Youth Olympics, yet another season of Survivor or America’s Got Talent. And I will stop feeling bad about it, like I’m missing out on things.
