Creative Writing Assignment & Analysis
Culture Junkies
We are culture junkies,
made to believe we need phones to survive,
and feel alive,
Facebook to Twitter to iPads and Nooks,
the entertainment media is the real crook,
stealing relationships and friendships,
We are culture junkies,
bound by the latest Kardashian fashion,
Starbucks Fraps, and designer labels with a passion, generics are counterculture, for the name brand vultures,
we are culture junkies,
flunkies for spending money we don't have,
just to feel as a sense of glee and glad,
society should be madder,
that we have been put into a trance,
we are culture junkies,
we are nothing but brainwashed flunkies.
End of Poem
Analysis
Popular culture is a particular connotation that is by and large defined as certain attitudes and perspectives about entertainment, news, sports, as well as fashion. In an article featured in Mr.PopCulture, it state that "each one of us has our own pop culture menu. [From] apps, bookmarks, songs playlist, movies" (1), etc., popular culture has invaded and continues to invade the lives of each and every individual within society. As such, society for the most part has become immersed in this ideal. It can be argued that each individual is a popular culture junkie.
The class talks about love, loss and the unknown. When dealing with the written piece that the writer wrote, it refers to society's love for popular culture - everything from what the Kardashians wore to the last awards show to the latest update or upgrade to the iPhone. In his work on popular culture, writer Tim Edensor, explains how certain aspects of the times in which a society lives in can overtake that nation's identity. From corporate culture to certain elements being intermingled with common perspectives in society, popular culture is often birthed out of a need to belong or to know one's place in the world (12-13). For this reason, it can be said that a certain amount of people in the world, particularly those in the United States, are not necessarily gravitating towards the latest and greatest because they enjoy it, but rather they believe they will feel more like an American in doing so.
The mood of the poem that was written is cynical and sarcastic, while also realistic. The writer wanted to explain the pervasive and obsessive nature that culture itself has become entangled with. There appears to be a significant amount of attention paid to celebrities and entertainment, which on one hand is a good thing because these individuals are entertaining, however, on the other hand, it creates an illusion for many. This is due to the fact that people start buying and purchasing items and trying to live outside of the means just to as the old adage says 'keep up with the Joneses.' The writer of the poem is not suggesting that individuals cannot work their way to celebrity status, or to afford the necessary items that they see celebrities purchasing, but is simply identifying how immersed many in society have become with respect to wanting to purchase things on credit, and in turn creating debt for themselves – just for the sake of having the latest and greatest.
One of the texts in our class that relates to the concept of popular culture immersing itself into the lives of each individual in society is Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In that particular novel, it addresses a multitude of subjects including emotional abuse, gender roles and dysfunction. The writer of the novel, Alison Bechdel, appears to mock the keeping up with the Joneses ideal with the characters in the story. While this is not the only aspect of the graphic novel that is discussed, it is heavily articulated through the various events that occur.
A large theme of Fun Home is also that of gender roles. To a certain extent, popular culture has embraced and is continuing to evolve in accepting same-sex relationships, and how the roles of each gender is shifting. Thus, the relatability to the piece that the writer wrote on popular culture relates to Fun Home is a variety of ways but most importantly, it relates to the dysfunction that society is currently operating in. The writer has a few friends, who are not working, but will patient wait for more than 4-5 hours at the Apple store to obtain the latest iPhone. This is just as example of the dysfunctionality of where society’s priorities lie. It is one thing to want the latest and greatest, but quite another to let it overtake one’s life. Again, the writer is not suggesting that there is no room for fun and entertainment, but it would appear as though society has lost the limits associated with this ideal. Given this context, the poem heavily relates to the course itself and Blechdel’s text. There is a simultaneous love and loss associated with popular culture – where it is embraced by everyone, but only a few actual recognize how dysfunctional the lives of those in society have become because of it – and that is a loss for not only the persona of the individual, but society as a whole.
Works Cited
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. Print.
Edensor, Tim. National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. Oxford, UK: Berg, 2002. Web. 5 Apr. 2016. <http://www.mohamedrabeea.com/books/book1_9046.pdf>.
"So, What Is Pop Culture, You Ask?." Mr.PopCulture. Man From Yesterday Productions Inc., 2013. Web. 5 Apr. 2016. <http://www.mrpopculture.com/what-is-pop-culture>.
