This week I decided not to summarise the readings as much, but instead write down my personal reactions to the pieces as a whole:
For both pieces, it was incredible to see the depths at which popular culture can be embedded within a society. In the case of Latin America, it is embedded in ways that are not detached and languid as seen more commonly within other societies. Instead it is integrated in through greatly personal and emotional attachments to the pop culture (ie. sport/telenovela). Yes, these passionate attachments to a ‘pop-culture’ are also seen within Western and other societies (most commonly in sport, politics, religion music and art) however, these attachments are not as all encompassing in terms of the mass population. Latin American culture continues to merge and explore the polarities of their people and unite them in a love and passion for something (an aspect of pop-culture), making that ‘something’ core to everyday life and to what it means to be from that country.
These readings fascinated me as the lines between the experience of the mass and the experience of the individual are very shared. On their own accord people are passionate about something and that is shared in the masses making them insanely powerful. The power of the people is seen in the political unease created by the telenovela and the mourning of Brazil’s 1950 world cup loss. It was interesting to see how emotion, passion and simply loving something A LOT, dictate to some extent the political actions, decisions and social order.