Will's Kids -- Bailes

[WillL at fieldschool.com]

Date	5/21/96
Subject	Will's Kids -- Bailes
>From	WillL
To	Pynchon List, Wallace List

Will's Kids -- Bailes

Hey everybody!

This has been a great exercise for my students.  Handed in late to me, here is
missive #5 from Elana Bailes, asking whether Pynchon and the other authors my
class has read are making meaningful use of pop culture or are merely high-brow
exploiters of it.

-- Will Layman

*******************

It has been suggested by an economist, Robert Heilbroner, that Americans belong
to an economy rather than a culture.  The American Heritage Dictionary defines
culture as Òthe totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts,
beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought
characteristic of a community or population.Ó  Through these, a culture gives
direction and meaning to the members of its population.  

Though America may have many distinctive characteristics--Top 40 pop music,
malls, music videos, Guess jeans, fast food, and others (with perhaps less
negative connotations)--they all seem to stem from the commercial culture rather
than a genuine culture.  Unfortunately, some of our greatest strengths, such as
an emphasis on equality, free speech, and freedom of religion, guarantee that
the only thing Americans have in common culturally stems from capitalism. 
Emphasis on pluralism created the commercialism our society is based on.  I do
not mean to criticize our freedoms or pluralism, or suggest we revamp our
government into a dictatorship.  Organized as an economy, however, America
favors short term gain, long term loss because possibility of profit is placed
above humane concerns.  Cultural values are replaced by commercial ones--the
value of money and success, of brand names, of shopping as a recreation.     

Much of the modern American literature we have studied is chock full of
references to commercial and pop culture.  Pynchon, in particular, along with
David Foster Wallace, Mark Leyner, Robert Coover, and even Michael Chabon, have
built their books out of these references like sculptors creating art from soft
drink cans.  It is difficult to tell whether the authors delight in them or
whether they are trying to overwhelm the reader in order to demonstrate how
insensitive we have become.  Might part of their message be to "get over"
commercialism, stop whining, and enjoy what you can about America because its
the best weÕve got?  Are they trying to build a unique American culture out of
the references, one which everyone can relate to because everyone is a consumer?
 Or, are the pop culture references merely hip, amusing evidence of The
Post-modern Way?     
	
-- Elana Bailes