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FOLK

                                                      December  14, 2012

Underlying Macdonald's attitudes toward
"masscult" is an idea that Scialabba                      DWIGHT_MAC
regarded as already familiar from many
other sources: the masses have no                            SCIALABBA
definite character and can't really
produce a folk art-- art marketed toward
these masses is then necessarily
something else, presumably something
deserving of less respect than a folk
art.

    Just from observing mass culture,
    it's clear that it has some aspects
    in common with folk art-- it favors
    slow, incremental evolution; it             MUTATION
    avoids direct confrontation with
    existing attitudes...

    It is also true that there are some
    differences: folk art is supposedly
    a game that anyone can play, albeit
    with varying degrees of skill.  The
    mass production associated with the        But it also does a
    mass culture downplays and                 fair job of enabling
    discourages handcrafts.                    them, making tools and
                                               materials widely
                                               available to anyone
                                               who wants to work with
                                               them.

      Rasing the bar, developing high
      standards for "technique", and
      valuing only things that are
      expensive and difficult to do--     KAEL_TECHNIQUE
      that alone works against folk.

                                                   MY_NAME_IS_MODESTY
          It's eaisier to imagine being
          an indie Roger Corman than a
          Spielberg.

                                 CORMAN


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