-
Big With The Folks In Silver Lake
-
I think this article, a historical look back at George Herriman, the cartoonist of "Krazy Kat" fame, has a lot of application to the present day culture. The "Krazy Kat" comic strip (not remotely like the TV cartoon, by the way) was downright weird -- surreal plots that sometimes went nowhere, hard-to-understand dialect, no real "jokes" in many strips -- but the cultural elite called it a masterpiece and William Randolph Hearst served as a patron to keep it going until Herriman died. But the public didn't get it. The public, you could say, rejected it. And while it's held up as a classic and work of genius today, I'd bet that most people STILL won't get it. Fast forward to today, when the hipsters' favorites like "Scott Pilgrim" flop with the general public, and it's the same thing. There are things -- "Mad Men," most of the "Saturday Night Live" grads, indie bands -- which resonate with the critics and a cultural elite, but the public isn't buying. Who's right in that case, the critics or the public? (Los Angeles Times)
Have an opinion? Add your comment below.