Do You Have An Abusive Relationship With Pop Culture?

What if Iron Man 2 sucks ? Or the finale of Lost leaves us cold ? Why do you care so much about things that do n’t worry about you ? It ’s potential that you ’re in an abusive relationship with pop culture .

Anticipation

Our relationship with entertainment — in the smash hit years , anyway — is not one that ’s found on quality . No , the railway locomotive that drives the movie , television , book , music industries is anticipation . It ’s the most important question that gets asked before anything arrest greenlit : Can we betray this ? Can we make hoi polloi need to go see it ? Can we make people involve to make it a part of their lives ?

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Falling in love with the affair

We , as an audience , are made — sometimes skillfully , sometimes hamfistedly — to fall in lovemaking with a Thing . And that love is pure , and pressing , and chaste because all we ’ve seen of the Thing we ’re in love with is a flash of lace , or a tense up forearm , or an unbuttoned button .

Then comes the Night with the affair . When the expectation is uncorked like a bottle of the good Scotch malt whisky in a bar that ’s a niggling too raging . And then … .

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And then .

What do we do when our pop culture lets us down ?

We build up this image of what the Thing will be once we finally get to experience it , and when we do ? Sometimes it ’s bliss . Sometimes it ’s the Lord of the Rings trilogy , or Grant Morrison ’s Batman & Robin , or Star Trek , or The Matrix . But then , sometimes it is n’t . Sometimes , it ’s the Battlestar Galactica finale , or Ang Lee ’s Hulk , or most of paladin , or The Matrix Reloaded . Sometimes , we get exactly what we want . But all too often , we do n’t .

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Suck top to blame – blame lead to cynicism

And , after we ’ve been in the darken room with the matter , and recover that it kind of sucks , what ’s our recourse ? Rather than examine the reasons why we allowed ourselves to get sucked in — peculiarly a geek hearing , as our online lives make us particularly susceptible — we blame . We charge Hollywood for lay down shitty production . We blame the internet for feature no sentiency of taste . We fault our friends for crap us go / read / watch / listen in the first property . We find fault the voices in our head that we neglect to submerge with hooch .

That charge finally hardens into a jaded cynicism . ( I ’m sure you know what it looks like : just visit the web . Anywhere will do . ) So , in attempt to forbid that disappointment from seeping in again , you set about to treat everything with the same stage of knee - jerk detachment . You ca n’t be bruise if you never have sex .

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But at the final stage of the Clarence Day , that jaded cynicism only keep you from retrieve the awesome . If you ’re afraid everything will suck , then you ’ll never see anything . Yes , it ’s clear that Fox will destroy whatever genre show they programme , but would n’t you be just lamentable if you never keep an eye on Firefly or Dollhouse or Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles because you have intercourse it ’d finally get canceled right out from under you ?

“ liveliness is pain , Highness . Anyone who says differently is sell something . ” The Dread Pirate Westley is right : Disappointment is a part of life that marketers would have you forget every clip they ’ve a Thing they want you to pay for .

But then again , sometimes the Thing is awesome . Sometimes pop polish delivers . sure enough , it ’s potential that Iron Man 2 will just be “ more and louder ” and the bewildered finale wo n’t clear up a darned thing . But it ’s just as possible that we ’ll get what we did n’t even know we desire .

Lesdilley