The Carnival Culture's Synergy of Forces

The quintessential criterion for this form of popular discourse is captured in one word: BLOCKBUSTER. Blockbuster hardbacks spawn blockbuster paperbacks, ⁵⁴ which generate blockbuster movies and network television series, ⁵⁵ which culminate in a host of auxiliary market ventures­cable television, reruns, videos, and endless products and product tie­ins. ⁵⁶ The quest for the blockbuster is the search for the lowest common denominator predicated on mass appeal. The concept­think of it as the Wayne's World ⁵⁷ formula­is that profits go up as the denominator in discourse comes down. Add to this formula the impact of global marketing: "'Entertainment products' are now our number­two export item, right behind military hardware.... American popular culture, for better or for worse, for richer and not for poorer, is already world culture." ⁵⁸ Globalization maximizes the profit margin by further marginalizing the high culture. As the American novelist William Styron put it, "'The export of our vulgarity is the hallmark of our greatness."' ⁵⁹

The economic workings of the Carnival, however, are only half of the equation. Importantly, Twitchell appreciates that it is the synergy between private commercial forces and the public pleasure principle that gives the Carnival culture its play. With his attention sharply focused on television, Twitchell explains that we, the people, are complicit in the "mediaocracy":

[T]elevision has shown what happens when a free market is let loose on a culture's mythology. Gatekeepers run for cover. Yet, why blame the messenger when so many of us seem to want the message? ... Somehow the dreck of the masses is changing the quality of an otherwise benign culture. The concerns of ... protectors of our high­culture heritage still come through loud and clear: the Philistines are coming. ⁶⁰

If, as Twitchell feels, "the history of modern taste [is] going down the tube," ⁶¹ it is not simply because television deserves a bashing. "Television did not create this body of shared desire; it made it visible." ⁶² Rather, it is the system of democracy, "the supposed will of the majority" ⁶³ operating in our capitalistic commercial economy ⁶⁴ that vulgarizes taste. ⁶⁵ Twitchell explains: "Show business, like politics, is an expression of that will. As [the New York Times' theater critic] Clive Barnes wrote decades ago, 'Television is the first truly democratic culture­the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want."' ⁶⁶

Television's sit­coms, talk­shows, commercials, and even its news reflect the tastes of its viewers, as network and cable programmers strive to sell the attention of the largest possible target audiences to advertisers. ⁶⁷ And that attention must be grabbed and held, for a bored viewer is prone to "zap" from one channel to another in search of an ever more delectable tidbit or thrilling wave­"video grazing" or "video surfing," as it were. ⁶⁸ TV programmers and advertisers fully grasp the point: "Television is where we go to be hooked. It's our carnival. If this exhibit doesn't astonish us, we change channels." ⁶⁹

Because the media values audience size over narrative plot or news integrity, vulgarity wins "not by design but by necessity." ⁷⁰ "If twelve million people wanted to watch goldfish racing, that is what would be broadcast. The only bad show is one not seen. The only bad story is an unpopular one." ⁷¹ With mass popularity as the governing maxim, television­ even public and cable TV­is hardpressed to fulfill its touted promises of increased quality ⁷² and diversity. ⁷³ "The vulgar in any culture is powerful because it takes very simple ideas very seriously­earnest and energetic, predictable yet novel, new but not surprising." ⁷⁴