If I am understanding this correctly, your fellow student was saying that
the written word is no longer a reflection of popular culture because people
have abandoned it for other media such as film and tv. I agree with you
that he is mistaken. I do not have any statistics on whether more people
are reading now than they were a few decades ago, but it seems like fiction
has evolved so that it is more omnipresent than ever before and both
reflects and influences other cultural media.
As you said, fiction is closely tied to these other media, such as movies
based on novels and novels based on television series. Sometimes they are a
little too closely tied--like books whose original covers have been replaced
by the ad for the movie (which I have a personal dislike for).
-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Tsao <aa1004@WAYNE.EDU>
To: FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU <FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU>
Date: Thursday, December 04, 1997 11:25 AM
Subject: [*FSFFU*] genres, etc.
>Last night I wsa talking with a fellow graduate student who wanted to argue
>against the idea that popular fiction is a part of popular culture. I
>think I understand what he meant. Which was something like the fact that
>people are more likely to consume pop cultural texts like film, music,
>television, etc. than to read popular fiction. That doesn't seem quite
>right considering the immense popularity of romance novels, adventure
>fiction, and mysteries, not to forget mentioning science fiction and
>fantasy. Not only that but there is a very clear connection, as we've seen
>in some of the discussions on this list, that popular genres of film (such
>as romance, mystery, adventure, etc.) are very much connected with popular
>fiction. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
>
>Erik
>
>Erik Tsao
>Department of English
>Wayne State University
>Detroit, MI
>
>"like bigger thomas
>i didn't want to love but what
>i loved for. i am."
>
>-- Sonia Sanchez
>
>(From _I've Been A Woman: New and Selected Poems_. Chicago, IL: Third
>World Press, 1985. p. 78.)
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