Pop versus High Culture

[David L. Pelovitz]

On Mon, 1 Jul 1996, Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt wrote:
> 
> I was saying that the proles' (or preterite) culture was less and less 
> vital, alive, a refuge from Their stamped and approved and dead 
> culture, since the preterite are now themselves, with the help of the 
> tube, configured, 'made over' in Their image, and so is most of the 
> garbage they churn out in response to their, ahh, situation. So what 
> appears as cultural democracy in action, a long-awaited conflation of the 
> high/low devide, takes on much more sinister implications. The gun 
> behind the moving image is now hidden, and thus more effective. Maybe 
> the Lotion thing can be explained in these terms (TRP celebrating a 
> band which might not be very good, but which is at least some kind of 
> 'genuine article', music not totally predetermined by its market niche - and 
> thus somewhat of a rarity).
> 

This is interesting in relation to Lotion.  Before Pynchon entered
the picture (at least in public), Lotion used to use corporate
logos withe the word "Lotion" replacing the company name.
(Imagine the Mobil pegasus with Lotion in the center).
In my case, seeing those posters made me curious enough to go see
them  before I'd heard the music.  

Maybe that's part of what attracted Pynchon.  (then again,
maybe he thought of it)
	
David Pelovitz - dqp5805 at is4.nyu.edu