Page 187 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

MICHAEL REAL

Unscrewing the inscrutable: over-rationalizing culture
in the name of theory
Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.
(Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being: 1984)

A final contribution of popular culture theory to cultural debates is pop
cult’s insistence on not losing contact with the lived experience of culture, with
the actual practices and products which theory is meant to explain and possibly
direct. General cultural theory can position itself at such a high level of abstrac-
tion that the reader despairs of actually comprehending the theory in speci fic
personal experience. Popular culture theory, even at the expense of appearing
atheoretical or anti-intellectual, has long insisted on celebrating and criticizing
‘the immediate experience’, in the wonderful phrasing of Robert Warshow
concerning moviegoing. The immediacy of popular culture protects it against
theorizing at too high a level of abstraction, while at the other end its bewildering
variety and importance demands some degree of serious explaining.
Popular culture theory’s closeness to reality also protects against any
unfortunate confusion between the rational explanation of the pop cult phe-
nomenon and the actual experience of it. It is not that rational explanations
are untrue or are not valuable; they are essential to a self-determining
society. But the true attraction and value of popular culture, and all culture, is
the existential experience of it, its phenomenological place. Love of a sports
team or rapture over a celebrity’s funeral is neither selected nor enjoyed
because of or through its rationality. Rather its emotionality, its pleasure, its
rich evocation and multiple associations, serve to draw and hold the human
subjects who engage in it. The popular culturalist has little trouble sensing the
wisdom behind taking life as a mystery to be lived rather than as a problem to
be solved.
The historical sweep of the development and contribution of popular
culture theory, notably in its accomplishments flowing to and from general
cultural theory, lays out before us a rich set of definitions, concepts, interroga-
tions, and explanations. They place us in an advantaged position despite the
many complications, obscurities, and inconsistencies still occupying space in
the theoretical mix. In the effort to hyper-rationalize culture through theory,
we create false hope and a false goal if our theoretical rationality attempts to
convert all cultural experience into elite culture or folk culture or some
other rationally approved alternative. The true goal of popular culture theory
is to come to terms with the popular as it is and not as translated into some-
thing else. This can be a helpful check on all cultural theory. After all, we
do ourselves a disservice on many levels if we lose sight of the fact that culture
is above all, in fact, our experience of fun, challenge, history, conflict, love,
meaning, joy, friendship, death, and all that makes life worthwhile.

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