What happens to culture in an era of identity politics?
In 2017, it was possible to see parables everywhere. A racist reality star was in the Oval Office, and actual neo-Nazis were claiming Taylor Swift as their Aryan princess; surely the time had come to scrutinize the content we consumed (binged, bought, shared, streamed, absorbed glassy-eyed) and determine what it actually said about the America we inhabited. It was the perfect year to take pop culture very seriously.
On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as president. The same day, The Big Sick premiered at Sundance. From the Capitol steps, Trump declared that it would now be “only America first”; in Park City, Utah, a genial romantic comedy from Pakistani-American comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon, emerged as a festival favorite. The Big Sick would go on to sell for $12 million, and in the positive press that followed, its success was cast as a rebuke to presidential xenophobia—the right reassuring story to tell ourselves about ourselves.
Another parable: Moonlight, a delicately wrought coming-of-age story about black masculinity, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It had appeared to be an underdog; that presenters in fact gave its trophy to front-runner La La Land (big, white, and nostalgic) seemed a heavy handed illustration of the odds stacked against the film. And how revealing, went an immediate narrative, that headlines were now given over to the graciousness of the La La Land team in relinquishing an Oscar they hadn’t won. This was a story about the ease of white victory and overlooked black talent.
It had become impossible to discuss art without discussing identity. A fundamental question (perhaps the first question; sometimes the only question) to ask of a work was how well it fulfilled certain ideals: In what ways did it engage with the values of a pluralistic society? Who got the chance to make mass culture?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 8–21, 2018-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 8–21, 2018-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
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