I am a man of media contradictions

I will be the first to admit that I am a hypocrite when it comes to the mass media, especially when it comes to the things I like and the things I hate.

For example, while I have on many occasions railed against the lack of creative depth Hollywood has shown over the past decade or so with the ever-increasing number of remakes, and yet, when I look at the work that I really have enjoyed throughout my life, well, that opinion doesn't hold up. I mean, I absolutely love James Joyce's Ulysses and O Brother, Where Art Thou, have a divine interest in the updated retelling of Xenophon's Anabasis in The Warriors and perhaps the less said about my enjoyment of the Wagnerian-inspired Gap Series by Stephen L. Donaldson and thorough parody/satirical wit of Terry Pratchett, the better.

I claim to hate modern pop music, and yet I would be the first to admit that I like electronic music that samples it and twists it into something different and strange. Whether it is a rapper sampling some random new country lick, or a mashup artist combining the vocal track from a Christina Aguilera song and laying it on top of the music from some magical jazz track, I make myself a liar every time I say I abhor pop music. Sure, I could say that I was partaking in a little culture jamming, but in reality I can see it for what it is --hypocrisy.

I am a man that attacked Kaavya Viswanathan not so much because she plagiarized, but because she wasn't audacious enough to do it more authoritatively like her forebearers in this industry did... like James Joyce, when I later attacked the Wayans for taking a solid premise from a Bugs Bunny cartoon and running with it for an entire movie.

Clearly, I have some issues to deal with, as I can't be of one mind about anything. And maybe that is a good thing in the long run. I mean, it hasn't really impacted my enjoyment of the fruits of the media's labor, has it?

Tags: ulysses, o brother, where art thou, gap series, pratchett, wayans, christina aguilera, kaavya, viswanathan, bugs bunny, the warriors, anabasis, remakes, copy, plagiarism, culture jamming, mashups, jazz, donaldson