VL-IV Un-Pop culture: co-optation

[kelber at mindspring.com]

If a partial theme of the book (as described in one of the essays posted by Dave here, damned if I can remember which one) is:  what happened to the '60s?, the books answer is, in part, co-optation.  TRP co-opts a lot of the pop-culture.  He deliberately wants to show us the cheesy stuff.  WHo needs to be a radical or a narc, for that matter, when you can veg out in front of the tube [for the present day, read: screen].

There's no question that the new medium of TV was used to attack the counter-culture.  We take it as a given now, that Dylan will huckster lingerie, The Band will hawk verizon, etc., but I remember the shock value of the opening battle-cry that appeared in 1971, marking the first time they took "our" idealism and commodified it:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHiH-vLyRbU


Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Dec 31, 2008 2:46 PM
>To: bandwraith at aol.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: VL-IV Un-Pop culture: The decline of standards.
>
>"Classic" in this book refers to a car, a tv
>show, a movie or some other pop venue, and nothing
>more.---bandwraith
>
>More falling off.  
>
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>      
>