Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 10
Popular Culture Review
customer that he or she is "getting one's money's worth” or is shopping
in the presence of the highest "marketing" standards and, of course, in
"a clean, well-lighted place." The gods of hypervisual selling wish
to avoid any accidents and uncertainties whatever.
It is becoming obvious, then, that we study popular culture and its
sensory presumptions or prejudices in order also to protect ourselves
from the reach of such px)werful biases and instincts into the intimate
aspects of human life--into the differentiation, for instance, of the
sexes, a topic which we shall pursue in greater detail in our analyses
of certain key American writers. But any popular magazine or
newspaper is quick to call to our attention how "Surgery Lifts Face,
Spirits" and to bring to mind the tremendous amount of time, money
and energy Americans spend on "looking good." As a husband 1 may
truly believe, and influence my wife to believe, that "silicone breast
implants will save our marriage." Indeed, in a society where
characteristically the first advice on obtaining a job or mate is
"p>ersonal appearance" and "first impressions," one cannot help but
wonder if the high divorce rate in America is not significantly tied to
the cultural ideal of "love at first sight" or "clothes—and cars—make
the man,” to the exclusion of more awkward talks between
prospective mates. In fact, we may even come to the conclusion that
the ordinary courtship ritual in America, of going to see a movie,
followed by silent hamburgers and heavy petting in the dark, is but
perhaps a conspiracy by lawyers and marriage counselors exploiting
the hypervisual dilemma for monetary gain.
All in all, one must begin to wonder that if a recent issue of Texas
Monthly is correct in announcing that "the news biz" is "show biz,"
then to what extent is even the apparently most common of public jobs
providing a kind of "mini-newscast" to its small circle of viewers,
from the grocery clerk, to the classroom teacher, to the traffic cop, to
even the slightest activities of that formerly elected movie-star,
Ronald Reagan himself. "America the Hypervisual" (Meyer 20), as
it manifests itself in the smallest or most common pep-cultural ways,
may influence us infinitely more than any "artistic" or "aesthetic
experience pwssibly could.
Here, one question that always arises, particularly vis-ii-vis
American youth, is the widespread obsession with music and blaring
audition. I offer several possibilities in keeping with my thesis on
this question. The first is that I believe Americans, unlike other