Mid-Century Erasure?
These days, I view virtually all of social media with a cautious and askance eye for many reasons. Substack, so far, has proven to be the best of a not-so-praiseworthy genre; I really do feel that the authors there have generally good intentions. Substack has not eluded the clickbaitish headlines and taglines that beleaguer other sites (I've thought about posting on there and tagging it with the likes of "You absolutely should not read this post"). But there is some wheat amid the chaff if you look hard enough.
Ted Gioia of The Honest Broker seems a good egg. His commentary on culture is incisive and fun to read. Boiled down to its 21st century essence, he provides good dopamine. Part of this is because some of his writing verifies the downward spiral of our culture that I witness around me.
As someone who had the best of intentions when he started this blog over a year ago, I found his post, "Is Mid-20th Century American Culture Getting Erased?" provocative. This is precisely the era that Madonna and friend unwittingly homed in on for the bridge to "Vogue." And since I had witnessed virtually no gay man (or person, full stop) who had seen many—or even few—movies by actors whose name she dropped, I felt this article touched upon a subject somewhat near to me. (Somewhat. If I had more interest in it, I would have watched more movies and filled this blog with more material since last year.)
As I mentioned in my introductory post, were "Vogue" to have been written in 2024, the actors it held up for adulation would have been in movies from 1964 to 2009. Doing a quick bit of math, this means the golden age Madonna refers to starts in 1929, at the end of the silent movie era, and proceeds to 1974. So ... you can't get much more mid-century than this.
Gioia doesn't say much about movies here, though he does touch on Citizen Kane and Casablanca. (Check his comment on trying to watch Citizen Kane on Netflix. It'll make you wince through laughter.) He dwells on authors and musicians, which is more my realm as well. And I bet the names he brings up will make you stop for a second and say, "Oh yeah ... I do remember so-and-so." Then you'll maybe remember something they wrote or composed, but chances are you won't have heard or read that something.
Gioia brings up a particularly poignant point: if this was the art made during what most historians consider the apex of American society, culture, economy, etc. ... then why hasn't this art continued to be revered the way it was back then? He brings up the answer toward the end, and it's a sobering one. I'm gonna do the clickbait thing now and say you should read his article for the answer. And really, you should. If you've come to the end of this post, another, better-written one that addresses this issue is worth a read.
Photo: Number 1A, 1948, by Jackson Pollock, 1948. (link)
