A difficulty for me with popular culture is how intimately most of it is tied to Capitalist modes of production. Fandom for early Arctic exploration, on the other hand, or fandom for, say, space photography, is rather less so.
I would also perhaps contrast folk art and crafts with the increasingly Capitalist nature of high art. For instance, it’s hard to feel anything at all about one of Damien Hirst’s glorified tax dodges, but I love love watching independent woodworking and costume YouTubers.
Maybe one of the appealing things to me about literature is that even as exploitative as contemporary publishing may be, novels still end up being largely the work of individual artists and much more reflective of their individual preoccupations and quirks.
A difficulty for me with popular culture is how intimately most of it is tied to Capitalist modes of production. Fandom for early Arctic exploration, on the other hand, or fandom for, say, space photography, is rather less so.
I would also perhaps contrast folk art and crafts with the increasingly Capitalist nature of high art. For instance, it’s hard to feel anything at all about one of Damien Hirst’s glorified tax dodges, but I love love watching independent woodworking and costume YouTubers.
Maybe one of the appealing things to me about literature is that even as exploitative as contemporary publishing may be, novels still end up being largely the work of individual artists and much more reflective of their individual preoccupations and quirks.