Aloha,
On 1/8/2006 at 1:56 AM Daniel Harms wrote:
>Nonetheless, I can't help wonder if the critique of "pop wicca" doesn't
>include an aspect of community or generational self-definition that should
>be recognized apart from the process of commodification. Is pop wicca a
>flash in the pan, or is it the Beyonce to older practitioners' Elvis?
Here's my comments:
1.) My sense is that the early post WWII Neo-Pagan Craft revivalists were
more or less serious about their endeavors and their notion of doing
witchcraft
in small groups of selected individuals. Even though some of them can and
did
turn to mass media to promote Neo-Pagan Craft and attract new recruits, I
don't think that they were aiming to *pop-ify* it.
2.) As I said in an earlier post, one strand of the overall criticism of
pop wicca
positions veterans over and against newcomers. From what I've observed of
the critics themselves, veteran status is not so much generational (like
birth cohorts)
as time in grade.
3.) But the dispute is very much a *fan* dispute that has strong aesthetic
and
loyalty elements. All sides argue from what they like about their
witchcraft and
from what they don't like about the other sorts.
What's more, the arguments orbit important issues of identity within the
(sub)culture.
Who's more authentic? Legitimate? Hip? Magical?
4,) I also think that this dispute has to do with how we adapt to very
rapid cultural
change. Re-trenchment in established tradition is one sort. Pop-ification
is
another sort. Creative (sub)culturemaking is yet another.
[I'll make a wry speculation here that pop-ification veers off from the--in
my eyes,
to be sure--more creative (sub)culturemaking best described by the term
*filking.*]
5.) Commercialized mass culture plays a major role in the pop-ification
process.
Pop-ification is a way of gaining and holding market share. Money and
moneymaking
is a big part of pop-ification, for commercial enterprises and for solo
entrepreneurs.
Musing Does Neo-Pagan Craft Need A Good Infomercial? Rose,
Pitch
What a Friend we have in KALI, all our joy and fear and care!
What a privilege to tarry red-eyed, wild with KALI, skulls and hair!!
O what fluff we often forfeit, O what bunny pink foot wear,
Just because we all make merry graveyard spells HER fair!
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