Related: Mondo Cane (1962) – Mondo Bizarro – Italian cinema – Gualtiero Jacopetti
Mondo Cane (1962) – Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco E. Prosperi
Having recently received comments by Lichanos and o. h. about the validity of guilty pleasure as a separate cultural category I show the film above, Mondo Cane (1962), by Gualtiero Jacopetti and his colleague whose name escapes me at this time.
I always feel tempted instead of arguing to cite a collection of words and concepts which will tautologically exlain the concept. I will not resist the temptation now. Here they come:
I continue:
See also: “body” genres” – bread and circuses – “low” art – lowbrow (American art movement) – working class culture – culture – folk culture – popular culture
Related by connotation: artificial – bad taste – basic instinct – camp – cheap – commercial – conventional – common – derivative – entertaining – ephemera – exploitation – formulaic – low budget – lurid – mass – ordinary – pop – popular – proletariat – prurient – sensationalism – scatology – shocking – stereotype – trash – under-the-counter – underground – vulgar
Contrast: “high” culture
See also: low modernism
In film: B-movies – exploitation films – grindhouse films – paracinema – television – video nasties – violent films
In print: comics – escapist fiction – dime novels – genre fiction – men’s magazines – paraliterature – popular fiction – pulp fiction – yellow journalism
In music: disco – house – music hall – popular music – pop music –
In the visual realm: advertising – applied arts – caricature – decorative arts – design – graffiti – kitsch
In performing arts: burlesque – circus – peepshow – striptease – vaudeville –
By genre: adventure – “body” genres – carnival – comedy – horror – melodrama – pornography – romance
Perhaps one day I will put all of the above words in the right order, divide them into chapters, add adjectives, conjunctions, phrases and clauses and page numbers.
Furthermore, guilty pleasures are marketing categories (see the Foute CD products in the Dutch-speaking region), and marketing categories are the strongest indication of genre identity.
Notice that all links go to Jahsonic.com pages, a project which was from the outset a “guilty pleasure” in nature and purpose.
Ya’ know, I saw part of Mondo Cane on TV when I was a kid, and I’ve always wondered, what WAS that???
I always feel tempted instead of arguing to cite a collection of words and concepts which will tautologically exlain the concept.
Alas, at best this can merely illustrate a concept. Is a picture always worth a pile of words..? I think not, much as I love them.
Can any “explanation” be tautological? Is that not a tautology of sorts?
I have no complaint with your practice, but your method seems to be totally against explanation, criticism, or construction of meaning. It is collage – which has it’s own value to be sure – otherwise, why would I read your blog – but there is a difference. (I am not ranking them!)
I think you hit the nub of the matter of “guilty pleasures” when you refer to them as a marketing categories. Must all values be values of consumerism? Are not other values and systems of criticism worth of consideration on their own terms, even if they are hostile to it?
Noblesse oblige, Jahsonic…the battle between “high” culture and the disintegrated melange of culture was long ago won by your side. Give us few holdouts a break…
At times like these I find it a great pleasure to have you as a constant and constructive critic.
I loved how you brought up the tautology, my main philosophic hamper. So I’ve necessarily contented myself with collage. I wish others would write the (hi)story in a way that contents me.
Jan