Thursday, November 26, 2009

Summer Palace Group Presentation
For my group’s Primary Text Class Presentation, we focused on the film Summer Palace directed by Lou Ye. We wanted to focus on the characters in particular and how their lives and the situations they go through lend meaning to the story in its historical context. Also, we wanted to encourage the class during the discussion to consider the differences and similarities between the young main characters of this film, which takes place in China during the 1980s, and youth represented in our Western culture. I thought it would encourage more discussion to show something which would jog everybody’s memory of the ways we in America are shown representations of youth. I wanted to compile a kind of video montage but I’m not particularly skilled at the overly technical aspects of working with a PC. Thus, I searched the internet for a large amount of images which showed youth in various ways. I then whittled the number down to about forty-five images to make a slide show on PowerPoint. The song “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance was the one I wanted to play during the show, which was difficult to do on PowerPoint at first. Thanks to advice from my group mate Loretta, we accessed the music video for the song on YouTube so that it could play concurrently with the slides. With the timing of animation in place, this ended up working out fairly well. That way, I was able to show the familiar representations of youth in American popular culture and play the song, which has some of the best lyrics about teenage isolation and resistance against the society we all as teens dread to join and love to scoff at.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

“Cultural Economics” In the City

Whether a person has watched any episodes of the hit television series turned film “Sex in the City” or not, that person might know that the titled “City” happens to be New York. Maybe that person who has not seen any episodes of the series has seen the various instances of entertainment news coverage of the show, whose anchors frequently reiterate the city’s identity in one way or another. Perhaps that simple word “City” implies the sprawling metropolis as its setting in the minds of Americans and thus, need not be stated.
New York stands to benefit much from its association with the said show’s primary setting. Indeed, I assume, New York can be called one of the series’ main characters along with its four-female cast mates. This association comes into visible play when one thinks upon the economic benefits such a city would reap as a result of being a main player in a widely viewed and well-loved television show.
In our text book, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, author Chris Baker sites the work of sociologist Sharon Zukin in his examination of the cities and spaces in which culture abides (Chapter 12). One of Zukin’s set forth conclusions on the symbolic economy of cities include an examination of how culture is used in our urban areas to create capital and circulate it thus (page 386). Cities are shown through media outlets in positive ways in order to generate interest and eventual tourism or relocation of individuals from all over the world, associating them with “desirable goods” (page 386). In this way, cities are glamorized and glorified. With “Sex In The City” New York has an entire television show which promotes its attractive characteristics.

For example, to use a specific instance, take this scene from an episode of the show entitled “Gender Artifact” by the YouTube post. In it, the four main characters hold a discussion about whether intelligent, independent and (which goes without saying) affluent women still want a relationship in which they can feel like a princess saved by their fairytale prince. Americans and much of the world would associate these women, who fulfill all of the above criteria for the successful urban female, with the city from which they hail. They are intelligent, holding a thoughtful, rather frank conversation about sex, wearing very fashionable clothing. In essence, they represent the best New York has to offer its inhabitants, or at least a little bit of what one would want to strive for: independence, individuality and self-fulfillment. Especially, and perhaps most profoundly, women are the target audience who might be wrangled into the city with this kind of promise. If one wants to be well-dressed and sexually powerful, one can venture to New York and expect to possibly achieve such goals. In creating an entire show which displays multiple instances just like this one, television executives have created the most dynamic of postcards to the rest of America’s female population. And, in many instances, the perfect beckoning tool to women all over the world, who might be watching.