The Underculture
Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and the Unknown Troper? Yeah, maybe.
Because while you’ve been desperately trying to keep up with the mind-shattering connectedness of Facebook and Twitter, an entire culture based on shows, books and, well, tropes you’ve probably never heard of has sprung up, organized itself and managed to co-opt the very classics you’ve neglected to read. Didn’t realize the Epic of Gilgamesh has elements of a Zombie Apocalypse in it or that the Anenid has anything in common with The Blues Brothers? That’s because you don’t get it. Somehow, while we weren’t looking, the Internet soup finally managed to get that Cthulhu, Dungeons and Dragons and All Purpose Cat Girl Nuku Nuku really do make up a common culture with Daoism, Lando Calrissian, 西游记, Final Fantasy, hip hop, the Lolrus and, well, everything.
It’s all tied together with a common understanding of comic book superhero powers, video game mechanics and memetic mashups. Even the academics recognize that there’s something that ties together all these strange, seemingly dissimilar cultural artifacts. Don’t know what a critical existence failure is or the tripartite model of videogame space? Would you be able to recognize a 30 Xanatos Pile-Up? If you’re sure by now that I’m making this up, put yourself in my shoes, I have to live here.
