I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and I realized that a lot of the pop culture and creative works that most of us enjoy are shaped entirely around capitalism.
Think of all the popular franchises which were created to sell toys, like G.I. Joe, MLP, Transformers, etc. The quality of the media produced in association with them, such as the cartoons or films, is incidental to the franchises themselves. In addition, there are lots of executives, editors, publishers, etc. that oversee the decisions that these creators make, in order to ensure that they appeal to the widest audience possible and have maximum marketability. One cannot dispute that we only enjoy these franchises in their current form because they have been deliberately engineered this way, as a means of generating profit.
Once we achieve socialism, would these forms of media even exist? What would pop culture look like in a post-capitalist society?
My personal thoughts are that there would be many creators who would still want to reach a large number of people, but the difference is that the profit motive would be completely absent in their goals.
the Arthurian myths and similar medieval entertainment like Amadis de Gaula are examples media franchises before capitalism or intellectual property. I imagine in socialism we'll return to such things
Justin Ward
t. barely aware Leftist
Jaxon Edwards
What did he mean by this?
Seriously, how did you get all of that from my OP?
Charles Baker
Because works where the system is still feudalism or whatever don't exist, right.
Jackson Parker
The Iliad and The Odyssey are two epics of a seven epic cycle. On the subject of medieval entertainment, there are lots of cycles, lais, romances, etc etc etc that borrow or steal elements or characters from one another and more or less shake out to a loosely knit Marvel Medieval Universe.
And that's not even to mention fan fiction, of which much of that kind of thing basically is. You have people still writing innumerable pages about media, some of which are hundreds or even thousands of years old.
It turns out that when people like things, they want and make more of it, particularly when they aren't worried about federal agents kicking their door in to enforce copyright protections.
Camden Ortiz
Not at all. They only have to appeal to the audience that spends money on merchandise and DVD sets, those being autistic neets, hence why so much anime consists of the same simple autistic fantasies and why the characters are always overacting; it has to be comprehensible for autists who struggle with human emotion.
Chase Cox
Fuck, I love Transformers. And I don't think any fellow leftists here who feel the same way are unintentionally being apologistic for capitalism in that sense. It's the lore and characters that I love the most. In fact, the Autobots could very well be considered a leftist vanguard against the fascist forces of the Decepticons.
I can't find the exact panel from one of the old Marvel comics, but when a human asks Optimus if he's the Autobot leader, his answer is something along the lines of, "They need me as a leader, so I serve them by leading them." If that isn't proletarian brotherhood at its finest, I don't know what is.
Bentley Perez
I want a commie gundam timeline.
Hunter Cox
OP's examples are Mass Appeal 101 though.
Like Frozen and Minions.
"but that's kids.."
And who do you think demands most spending?
Also, the epitome of mass appeal in animu is A1 pictures. The ultimate factory in animu creation.
ANYWAY, USSR was making JUST FINE cartoons.
Hunter Thomas
this so mush
We all love some shit that may makes us come out as porky-ish but its only porky-ish for liberals who make the muh iphones argument. For example I like DC
Gabriel Bennett
Some call this Society Spectacular
Nolan Walker
Same, fam. Sure beats the shit out of Marvel. #DCmasterrace
Robert Sullivan
If I ever become a notable fiction writer I will make a point of not only allowing fanfiction but considering all of it canon that occurs in alternate universes.
Jaxson Perry
So where do I start with Gramisci?
The more I realized this, the less enjoyable it got.
There are still quality (Made for the purpose creating artistic value, rather than sales) games, series, books, albums, comics, etc. out there, they're just hard to find. (Especially because most people aren't looking for them.)
Wyatt Perry
A lot of anons will agree with you for sure. It's always the stories, characters, or lore that draws people in, but I think that the point OP is raising is that they exist in the form that we enjoy solely due to the profit incentive. Without it, characters would either be radically different from what we recognize or would not exist at all. Not to mention that some of the artistic choices that are so integral to the stories or characters were done for budgetary or economic reasons (you see a ton of examples of this in older Marvel or DC comics, as well as in shonen and shojo manga).
Jason Sullivan
Honestly the few artists that can make genuine art despite this fucked system should be lauded as heroes. Most people here just assume anything made in capitalism is inauthentic by default though which is really sad since that just means they say "fuck it" and go full force into the same soulless junk that's rotting your common person's mind.
Blake Thomas
Gramsci's most important work are the Prison Notebooks, but i don't have any pdf.
Julian Gomez
...
Brandon Green
Does anyone have a book that gives a good overview of Gramsci. I've heard his ideas are good but that his writing is quite incomprehensible.
Also, not only were these cartoons little more than toy commercials, but look at how much of the planet's resources are wasted on making action figures no one really needs. I wont' deny children need something to play with but did we need 200 separate Darth Vader toy designs made over the years?
Jason Reyes
I think some anons have it backwards; diverse character archetypes, large casts, and intricate lore aren't suddenly going to go away after capitalism–in fact, they are deeply rooted in literature itself, as one can see in the mythology and folklore of different cultures.
Like says, people create what they like. So I doubt we would see the end of things like Transformers.
Nicholas Davis
Under full anarcho-communism you'll be to busy enjoying orgies, and pleasures of the flesh to give a shit about things like sailor moon, or Vidya.
Kayden White
It really annoys me that the internet is now full of underage&s that have no conception of the time when the the vast majority of the content on the internet was what the users produced themselves and seem to think that the only reason things get made is because of money
