Week I - Cobb, Chapter 1 (Popular Culture)

I'm going to like this book. The historical background of the emergence of images and how those images have now been mass produced and shaped in our world is totally fascinating to me. I especially found the concept of "Disneyization" helpful. How the "highbrow" features of culture were "translated" into a consumable form for the masses by productions like "Fantasia." I couldn't help but think - "has the church 'disneyized' the gospel?" Lots of good conversation there over positive and potentially negative outcomes of applying that concept to the gospel. The definition of culture as a french word meaning to "cultivate the soil" was helpful for thinking through the term and how we think of it. Can't help but think of the movie The Matrix when reading about the Frankfurt School's thoughts about culture. The idea is that culture/media is the ruling class's effort to suppress the lower classes and "convince them they are happy with their lives..." I'll have to think on this one some more but this is FUN stuff.