The study of culture correlates with the study of other
important facets of human existence and interaction, such as historiography and
performance. Furthermore, historiography explores how people
choose to represent themselves simultaneously in the present and the past; the
way in which history is recorded directly reflects a current culture and where they
place importance, and how they choose to perceive those who came before. This is pertinent to media studies because we use all forms
of media to capture, comment on, create and even recreate history and culture. As media and technology advance,
and communication becomes easier (telephone, texting, email, skyping, etc.),
the technology itself becomes a part of our culture, and an expression of who
we are and how we interact. For example, the movies that a generation creates
will always reflect what their current society found important, popular,
interesting, relevant, etc.
So
how exactly should we analyze culture, in order to better comprehend how
culture exists and develops, and its relationship to our various methods of
communication and media? Raymond Williams, wrote “The Analysis of Culture” and
outlined three approaches to analyzing culture:
1)
Lived culture: only fully accessible to those living in that time and place
2) Culture of a period: the
recorded culture, of every kind, from art to the most everyday facts
3) Culture of Selective tradition:
the factor connecting lived culture and period cultures.
This order reflects the changes that occur as we move
further and further from the original culture, and attempt to recreate it for
our current culture. To elaborate on selective tradition, Williams states, “From
the whole body of activities, certain things are selected for value and emphasis.
In general this selection will reflect the organization of the period as a
whole, though this does not mean that the values and emphases will later be
confirmed.” So people today can emphasize certain people, places, or events
from the past, but it is still possible that we are remembering them or
perceiving them incorrectly, or giving them the wrong amount of significance,
compared to how they were experienced in the “lived culture.”
In
the 2008 film, Be Kind Rewind, these approaches
to cultural studies are explored, particularly the culture of selective
tradition. This film creates a commentary on how media and recording inevitably
factor in (and record) the current culture in which it was recorded, even if it
attempts to reenact a moment from the past. In order to save Mr. Fletcher’s
video store from being demolished, Jerry and Mike rally up their community and
create a video on the history of Fats Waller, a famous jazz musician from the
1920’s who supposedly was born in that building. The truth is, the building is
not a historical landmark because Fats was NOT actually born there; Mr.
Fletcher just told Mike that when he was young so that he would be proud to
live there himself. The town mainly knows Fats Waller from using analysis
approach #2: “culture of a period.” They listen to his music, see pictures of
him, etc. Only those who knew Fats Waller when he was alive could analyze it
from approach #1, yet since that was so long ago, the people of this town use
approach #3 of “culture of selective tradition” to reenact scenes and make them
appear to be from Fats Waller’s life and time period. They interview people who
follow a script and lie to the camera, claiming to have known him, testifying
that he was indeed born in that building. Here, the town is putting emphasis on
an event that did not actually happen; by creating this documentary, they are
using media to create their own interpretation of history.
At the end of the film, as the town
gathers together to watch their final project, their bright faces and feelings
of success and pride are much bigger than the original goal to make a film
about Fats Waller. They are not watching the film for historical accuracy or
being proud of their town’s association with a famous jazz musician. Instead,
this town experiences pride in watching the documentation of their individual
roles in the film, and their ability to create a great movie together. At the
end of the day, it really did not matter what the movie was about because the
movie itself was more accurately a recording of THEIR culture, their town,
their people, and what THEY found important: keeping their video store from
being demolished, and supporting their friends.
Thus in their attempt to use
approach #1 and display the life and times of Fats Waller (with the cardboard
cutouts of cars, the old-fashioned clothes and instruments, the running fan in
front of the video camera), these people were actually embracing #2 and #3. Yet
this is because it is impossible for them to even approach #1 fully, because
their recording will only ever be a recording of the culture in which they
currently exist; the time period when it was actually filmed. Their media was
advanced, even if they tried to make the camera footage look dated. Yet not
capturing the 1920’s is nothing to be ashamed of; Williams explains how these
approaches are inevitably different by the nature of time: “Theoretically, a period is recorded; in practice, this record is
absorbed into a selective tradition; and both are different from the culture as
lived: ‘No, that really isn’t what it was like; it is your version.’”
These
concepts are also highlighted in Mike and Jerry’s attempt to recreate many
other films throughout the movie, particularly Ghostbusters. Since they no longer had a copy of the original, they
had to recreate the scenes that they remembered the best, in the way they
perceived them. By the same token, whenever we attempt to study or perform
history, it will always be a reenactment to an extent. If we did not live in
the culture, we are always creating our own version of what it was like, and
the audience will always perceive it according to THEIR current culture. Thus how
we write, act, use media, communicate, is always connected to our lived culture
(our current time and place), and the recordings absorb over time into selective
tradition.
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