Any cultural critic can complain about the lack of creativity in American popular culture right now and the unmet “hunger for a certain kind of popular art” amid so much institutionalized unoriginality.
It’s a bit harder to give writers or filmmakers specific marching orders. What exact kind of popular art are we missing? What specific achievement should American creators be aiming for?
Nevertheless, let’s try a thought heading into the new year, one occasioned by recent social media discourse, my Christmas shopping and personal interests, and the box office success of “Wicked.” If I were giving out assignments for would-be invigorators of our stuck culture, I would suggest new experiments in the national fantastic and a quest for the “Great American Fantasy” story.
