John Seabrook - cultural commentary

I've been reading some online articles by John Seabrook who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993. The article "Nobrow Culture" walks the reader from specifics to the general, a personal view to the community impact of commercialism on the quality and availability of today's fashion and furnishings.

Have times really changed?

"In the old high-low world, you got status points for consistency in your cultural preferences, but in Nobrow you get points for choices that cut across categories: you're a snowboarder who listens to classical music, drinks Coke, and loves Quentin Tarantino; you're a preppy who likes rap; you're a chop-socky B-movie fan who prefers Frusen Glädjè to Häagen-Dazs, or a World Cup soccer fan who wears fubu and likes opera."

Is pop culture the fad that gives us our collective identity now? Tattoos are permanent, unfortunately for millions the pop fad will pass.

And on top of it all John is an excellent writer, I loved this sentence: "As I walk past these stores, I can feel this new, upscale mass culture pressing in on me, trying to make me and the rest of the people on the street exactly like each other--each of us a demographically desirable Banana Republican out for a little Sunday consumption."

This article and others at http://www.booknoise.net/johnseabrook/stories/index.html