The Sadness of America

[Kevin Birmingham]

>
>
> The US doesn't have any kind of authentic culture to preserve or
> export (unless you count TV and rock and roll and movies and plastic
> things and blue jeans). Culture is Disneyland and travel is about
> gift shops. Only San Francisco, Boston and New York have their own
> urban ambiance. There are some historical sites and the rest is
> commercialized hype.


I really can't believe that anyone who enjoys Pynchon -- a writer constantly
trying to break down the bogus distinction between "high" and "low" culture
-- would actually say this. So music, film, TV and clothing don't count as
"authentic culture"? Tell us, then, what does? Is culture something that
takes place inside stone buildings? Something sanctioned by the French
academy? You'd find that there are several places in the US with "urban
ambiance" if, perhaps, you stopped looking around for "historical sites."
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