Culture and Entertainment

This is a very English-majory post, but I find it interesting, so hopefully some other people do too. Anyway, in one of my classes a couple semesters ago, I wrote a paper comparing the original Sherlock Holmes stories to the BBC show Sherlock and explaining how the differences between the two relate to changes that have occurred in society since the Victorian period. It was actually quite fascinating (the topic, not necessarily my paper). Since then, I've applied that thinking to other kinds of entertainment. I mean, think about it. What does our entertainment say about our society? I think it's a great window into the way we think as a culture. What makes certain things popular at certain times? Pacing, explosions, characters, plot twists? One thing that I've already commented on a few times (see "Iron Man 3" and "Superheroes") is the number of people who prefer Iron Man over Captain America. As a staunch Captain America fan, I have to wonder why. One of my college professors actually talked about this briefly before class and suggested it was a generational thing. Maybe so. Captain America is definitely an old-fashioned sort of hero, while Iron Man is very much the sarcastic darker hero that is so popular in a lot of entertainment today. So what does that say about us as a culture? It could be because of events such as 9-11, the Iraqi War, or recent economical problems. Maybe we as a people have become more cynical and therefore prefer more cynical characters. This seems especially likely if you look back on entertainment as it was basically anytime in the 20th century. I went to a symposium discussion that touched on this. The presenter was specifically talking about children's literature and how it has changed over the years in response to historical and current events. She compared children's entertainment that was popular in the 90's, such as Pokemon and Power Rangers, to what's popular now, like Hunger Games. She put Harry Potter in the 90's category as well, but I think it works for both, since it was started in 1997 and ended in 2007 and the overall tone of the series changes dramatically as it goes on. The happy, adventurous world of the first book changes into a practically post-apocalyptic world by the end of the series. It's definitely something to think about.