what is american culture?

[nehemiah]

i was just reading Paul Theroux: The Great Railway Bazaar (which is a fantastic book, btw).... when theroux gets to vietnam, the one dude says "we believe americans are a people without a culture. none at all." i seem to recall sinead o'connor saying something similar.

so i started thinking - and other than violence, i cannot think of any singular american "culture"....

we have authors that are more know by region than anything else: faulkner is a southern writer, for instance. the current hollywood movies are only singularly cultural by their crappiness (or inane sappiness). although the 70s movie scene showed some promise. the art scene after warhol and then the 80s is explicitly profit driven.

american idol contestants are grammy winners? that is a shame. and certainly not the source of any cultural touchstone. maybe jazz? although jazz is a dying art form......

now america does violence better than anyone in the world, so we got that going for us.... but what else? culturally-wise, i mean.

what do you think?

[г]

Uhhhh, yogurt ?

[nehemiah]

here's another sidney goodman painting. i love his work.

[nehemiah]

maybe the suburbs?

that is sorta american.

[г]

Tailgate Parties

[K-Gun]

According to Cornell West, America is a blues culture. From the blues comes jazz, rock and roll, funk, soul, r & b, hip hop... But for West at least, "blues" culture is associated with an implicit acceptance of life as tragedy… “these are dark days we are living in, there is no reason for optimism, but we never give up hope in the face of the tragic.”

For West, the greatest American moral tradition is found in the civil rights movement.

I’ve posted this before, but if you haven’t watched this you are missing out!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/21/1537235&mode=thread&tid=25

[Matt]

i was just reading Paul Theroux: The Great Railway Bazaar (which is a fantastic book, btw).... when theroux gets to vietnam, the one dude says "we believe americans are a people without a culture. none at all." i seem to recall sinead o'connor saying something similar.

so i started thinking - and other than violence, i cannot think of any singular american "culture"....

we have authors that are more know by region than anything else: faulkner is a southern writer, for instance. the current hollywood movies are only singularly cultural by their crappiness (or inane sappiness). although the 70s movie scene showed some promise. the art scene after warhol and then the 80s is explicitly profit driven.

american idol contestants are grammy winners? that is a shame. and certainly not the source of any cultural touchstone. maybe jazz? although jazz is a dying art form......

now america does violence better than anyone in the world, so we got that going for us.... but what else? culturally-wise, i mean.

what do you think?

Just because the American media doesn't respect it's own culture doesn't mean it's not present.

-- Pick up a Joanna Newsom album. Or a TV on the Radio album. Give it a listen.

-- Go to a little league game some evening in the middle-week.

-- Pick up an old Kurt Vonnegut novel from your local library.

These things are all explicitly American, and advocate ideals of organization, growth and/or teamwork. None of them really advocate violence, though Vonnegut can be a little crazy at times.

[Brick Tamland]

I think the melting pot thing is a symbol of our culture.

Like you said, Faulkner is a Southern writer...to us, anyways, to the vast majority of the rest of the world, he's just American...but we also have other great authors, artists, and thinkers. That's part of our culture.

Muddy Waters was a Chicago bluesman, too, but it's still just blues music to me. And the blues, as well as rock and roll, jazz, country, R&B, and hip-hop music, are all American. We've got some outstanding contributions in science, medicine, architecture, and many other fields. We're flat-out diverse.

[Brick Tamland]

According to Cornell West, America is a blues culture. From the blues comes jazz, rock and roll, funk, soul, r & b, hip hop... But for West at least, "blues" culture is associated with an implicit acceptance of life as tragedy… “these are dark days we are living in, there is no reason for optimism, but we never give up hope in the face of the tragic.”

For West, the greatest American moral tradition is found in the civil rights movement.

I’ve posted this before, but if you haven’t watched this you are missing out!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/21/1537235&mode=thread&tid=25

Just missed this...right on.

[nehemiah]

Just because the American media doesn't respect it's own culture doesn't mean it's not present.

-- Pick up a Joanna Newsom album. Or a TV on the Radio album. Give it a listen.

-- Go to a little league game some evening in the middle-week.

-- Pick up an old Kurt Vonnegut novel from your local library.

These things are all explicitly American, and advocate ideals of organization, growth and/or teamwork. None of them really advocate violence, though Vonnegut can be a little crazy at times.i don't know who joanna newsom is. and i'm not a fan of tv on the radio. enough to think aboot, though.

baseball is a dying sport. football is the american sport at the moment. more evidence of the violence.

i love vonnegut, but he's a relic of the 70s. and his best books (slaughterhouse five or cat's cradle) are repudiations of what? that's right - violence.

[Lucidvizion]

There is something for everybody here.

Enough to keep you wanting more, but not enough to make you satisfied.

[nehemiah]

I think the melting pot thing is a symbol of our culture.maybe.

good thinking.

:hmm:

[K-Gun]

Americans invented pragmatism. C. S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey revolutionized human thought in ways that have yet to be appreciated by the masses.

[Matt]

i don't know who joanna newsom is. and i'm not a fan of tv on the radio. enough to think aboot, though.

baseball is a dying sport. football is the american sport at the moment. more evidence of the violence.

i love vonnegut, but he's a relic of the 70s. and his best books (slaughterhouse five or cat's cradle) are repudiations of what? that's right - violence.


I would disagree on Baseball being a dying sport -- it's actually had a bit of a resurgence in the last five years.

Football would unfortunately define POPULAR culture in America at the moment, but Popular Culture doesn't to me explicitly mean good, or American.

"Breakfast of Champions" doesn't have too much violence in it. Other then the bit later on with the testicles and the car and the dog.

Remember though, Slaughterhouse Five was a glorification of none-American violence. Dresden is surely a bit of a road-tip from Kalamazoo..

[г]

After I pragma, I make my wife sleep in the wet spot

[K-Gun]

After I pragma, I make my wife sleep in the wet spot

I thought you prefered ragu?

[Meathead]

the mullet and budweiser

[Brick Tamland]

maybe.

good thinking.

:hmm:

I guess what I mean is that we have such a wide diversity in thinking, that it breeds the best and the worst. And both tend to be spectacular.

[Brick Tamland]

After I pragma, I make my wife sleep in the wet spot

She can sleep on the linoleum for all I care, as long as she's making steak and waffles in the morning. :thumbup:

[Mouldsie]

define culture

[Green Lantern]

Americans are as a people optimistic. Culturally we think of war as a state of abnormality. In Europe they do not think war unusual, it is just a time in history. Americans think it peace is normal life and war is deviation.

I think it comes from our isolation.

Americans are hopeful and helpful.

Americans are naive. This can be good or bad but we are not yet jaded like older cultures and so we think we can change the world. This allows us to attempt change when others think it not possible, but it also allows us to follow Bush II to the Middle East.

[sukie]

I think tailgate parties is close... Beer commercials are a dicotomy of american culture. Rubber floors are not the point but gathering and having beer, watching sports is. America's nuclear family of the 50's is gone. No emphasis on youth education... Egg stuffed manufactured "Hot, Pockets", cheaply delivered conveyor belt pizza, beer, and a Chad Johnson "Fat Head" sums it up pretty well. NASCAR is the majority sub culture.

[Green Lantern]

Americans are a tolerant culture, of other races. Maybe we still have a problem with slavery and black people but what I mean is that Americans are, as posted, the melting pot. In Asia, it is said that the only people more racist than the Japanese are the Chinese. In Europe, the only people more racist than the Germans are the Austrians. We do not look down on people of mixed race.

American culture is less stratified than most of the rest of our world. From our culture of freedom and liberty, we do not have as strict formal, or even informal, stratification of people.

In England, a general contractor who made $100K would never live in the same neighborhood as an MD who made $75K. He would live in the same neighborhood as other manual laborers. Europe is still stratified, informally, by what job you have. Accents in England help to dictate what people think of you because it is a marker of place of birth and education level.

[г]

I thought you prefered ragu?

Well for 5 days out of a month...

[TRIPLE P]

What is any culture?

What does any country produce that is so "cultural'?

[nehemiah]

Remember though, Slaughterhouse Five was a glorification of none-American violence. Dresden is surely a bit of a road-tip from Kalamazoo..i always read it as a remark on the all-encompassing nature of violence - not its particular occurrence.

haven't read it in years, though.

[sukie]

What is any culture?

What does any country produce that is so "cultural'?

Yogurt?

[Green Lantern]

Americans are generous, with their time and money. We volunteer for very many causes and events and contribute more, I believe, to charitable organizations than any other people on Earth.

[TRIPLE P]

Yogurt?

haha....nice.

But Seriously.... I don't see much culture from anywhere...... every country has good stuff...good music, art, movies, etc.... and every country produces crap.

[pmoon6]

I would disagree on Baseball being a dying sport -- it's actually had a bit of a resurgence in the last five years.

Football would unfortunately define POPULAR culture in America at the moment, but Popular Culture doesn't to me explicitly mean good, or American.

"Breakfast of Champions" doesn't have too much violence in it. Other then the bit later on with the testicles and the car and the dog.

Remember though, Slaughterhouse Five was a glorification of none-American violence. Dresden is surely a bit of a road-tip from Kalamazoo..Vonnegut was always one of my favorite authors. "Player Piano" was probably my favorite. Like Nehemiah, I haven't read any of his stuff since the '70's, so the details of his books are kinda fuzzy. May be a good time for a re-read.

[K-Gun]

define culture

+1

I think you may be ready to switch majors :D

[K-Gun]

What is any culture?

What does any country produce that is so "cultural'?

Technically, culture is everything produced by humans. Language, customs, institutions, fields of study ect.

Somewhere in the 19th century, the idea that "culture" represents the artistic, or aesthetic charecturistics of a society, or nation or people emerged.

But what is art, and what is aesthetic?

[TRIPLE P]

Technically, culture is everything produced by humans. Language, customs, institutions, fields of study ect.

Somewhere in the 19th century, the idea that "culture" represents the artistic, or aesthetic charecturistics of a society, or nation or people emerged.

But what is art, and what is aesthetic?

I was just assuming that the post 19th century definition was in play......

[г]

Packin' heat at the mall, camping etc. because of a fear of somethin' somethin'

[K-Gun]

I was just assuming that the post 19th century definition was in play......

the definition of culture as everything produced by humans is actually much newer, and is in fashion nowadays in terms of "cultural studies."

Cultural determinism is championed by many English and Comp Lit departments. It basically says that you are who you are in virtue of the culture you were raised in, and there is nothing that you can do as a person to change what your culture has made you.

It stems from a misreading of this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_language_argument

[rob on the job]

According to Cornell West, America is a blues culture. From the blues comes jazz, rock and roll, funk, soul, r & b, hip hop...

As a diehard blues fan, I could not agree more.

But blues is only half the picture; America also is reflected in country music, the music that spawned from Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in the hills and valleys and small towns.

Between the blues and country music, you get a pretty good slice of true Americana.