--- kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net> wrote:
> At 09:24 PM 1/23/02 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
> >Someone made disparaging reference to the SF Bay
> Guardian's piece on Hello
> >Kitty. It may be a bit more serious than it seemed.
> The author, Annalee
> >Newitz, writes of it:
> >
> >At 11:17 PM +0000 1/23/02, brainsploitation wrote:
> >>My latest screed on pop culture is the cover story
> in the San
> >>Francisco Bay Guardian this week . . . it's about
> how the
> >>overwhelming cuteness of American culture (think
> Hello Kitty and
> >>Harry Potter) is infecting our political rhetoric
> and turning US
> >>citizens into credulous children.
> >>
> >>http://www.sfbg.com/36/17/news_cute.html
I'm being really picky here . . it was just this one line that bohered me: she thinks the Simpsons is "supercute"?!!??
Here's some quotes from the creator of the Simpsons, Matt Groening:
" . . .what I'm trying to do in the guise of light entertainment, if this is possible -- is nudge people, jostle them a little, wake them up to some of the ways in which we're being manipulated and exploited."
"All I try to do is provide another way of looking at stuff. To me, rather than being overwhelmed by it or retreating to cabin in the woods and subscribing to Mother Jones and the New Yorker, I figure, Well, I'm going to be immersed in this, but try to deal with it . . . I'm more and more interested in how to handle being aware of your own impending death, how to act with meaning in life -- how do you handle your own freedom? -- trying to see if I can get some of the ideas which keep me lying awake at night into an entertaining TV show full of way too many commercials. "
from: http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/MA99/groening.html
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