The Pop Pirate

Is it worth it?

Here's a question that's been on my mind, and it seems central to the relationship of culture with pop culture: is it worth it to dilute the message of a work in order to make it palatable to a larger audience in return for greater distribution of that message?

There are a couple of examples of this dilemma in recent movies. First, there is V For Vendetta. Alan Moore's original vision of the future of Britain was considerably more bleak, and his protagonist's response to it was much more ideologically extreme. But here's the thing: would the general movie-going public watch a movie where their point of access for the story is a sixteen year-old aspiring prostitute and the movie's "hero" wants nothing less than the dissolution of society? Clearly, this would be problematic at best. As you can see from the title link, Mr. Moore is clearly unhappy with what he considers a "rubbish" script, and blames greed for the changes to his material. I think there is an element of greed to the Wachowski's watering down of the story, but I think a stronger impulse is to bring some, if not all, of the important messages of V to a wider audience.

So it's not a question of selling out for me. It's a question of distribution. Nothing illustrates this better than The DaVinci Code. Here is a book (and soon a movie) about some seriously subversive subjects: [Spoiler Warning! If you're one of the 7 literate people on the face of the earth who hasn't read it, plot points follow] Jesus's sex life and family, the corruption of the Catholic Church, and the brutal suppression of the sacred feminine, to name a few. And this is the best selling fiction book of our generation. Why? Because it's been blunted for your enjoyment. Dan Brown doesn't take these issues on so much as use them as a backdrop for an action-packed thriller, with the obligatory love story thrown in. Not exactly pulp fiction, but it sells books and gets those subversive ideas into the public consciousness.

So you tell me. Is it worth it? To popularize important ideas at the risk of neutralizing them? Alan Moore clearly doesn't think so, but this issue is bigger than one artist.

posted by Jeff @ 8:36 PM