"I’m not suggesting that every aspect of popular culture has the pedagogical potential of Antigone or the Aeneid, and I’m not suggesting that “classic” popular culture can do all of the intellectual work of core courses in Western Civ. The advent of “classic” popular culture means, among other things, that the cultural dreck of your childhood has somehow survived to become the cultural dreck of your children’s childhood. But it also means that popular culture is not necessarily ephemeral after all, and that the saga of Star Wars and the faux funk of KC and the Sunshine Band may in fact unite the past two generations more effectively than any number of Great Books and Western Civ courses. The curious thing about teaching popular culture these days, then, is really this: while so much of it is transitory and ephemeral, so much of it, surprisingly enough, seems to be here to stay."
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Academics from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesBloggers from the United States
Original Language: English
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"The Elvis Costello Problem", published in Rhetorical Occasions (2006)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_B%C3%A9rub%C3%A9
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Michael Bérubé
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