Pop *Culture*

For my final blog entry I figured I'd take a moment to look back at a lot of the work I've engaged with over the semester. I'm happy with the opportunity I've had to read so many graphic novels/watch films and have the time to think about each piece in an in depth way.

To echo my initial post, graphic novels and other expression of culture (including pop culture) can be used as excellent tools to explore our own or others cultures if treated differently than as a passive bit of entertainment. The stories behind the stories, as it were, and reactions to such forms of art and storytelling, are fantastic sources of information that add dimension and richness to my experience as a member of the audience.

Maus I and II was probably the best example of reader reaction if for no reason other than the fact that Speiglemen deals with it straight out in the second volume.  Never mind how frequently I've read since that Maus changed the way people looked at graphic novels.

Waltz with Bashir is the best example of "stories behind the stories" for me simply because of the topic of my research paper.  For example, the song "I Bombed Beirut" used in the film is actually a cover of a Cake song, "I bombed Korea".  Observe!






I'm bringing this up because I found out later that there is a famous incident during the first Lebanese War when IDF soldiers appeared on Israeli television singing children's folks songs but with altered lyrics expressing disillusionment with the military campaign.  I'm going to assume that this is Folman's conscious or unconscious nod to that.

Original Song (English Translation)
Come down to us, airplane,
And take us to the sky.
We'll soar up
To top of the trees
And will be
Like birds.

Altered Song (English Translation)
Come down to us, airplane,
And take us to Lebanon.
We'll fight
For Sharon
And we'll come back
In a coffin.

[Yael Zerubavel, "Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition", (1995),  page 175]

It's a small detail I completely didn't catch before but it makes a repeated viewing that much richer and demonstrates something about history and culture beyond a song in a film.