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02 November 2012 @ 06:56 pm
All The Things Friday: Popular Culture  
Welcome to another All The Things Friday! Popular culture is usually something that people discuss in terms of Steve or Thor, specifically their lack of recent pop culture knowledge, but I find it interesting that when it comes to Clint and Natasha every fic I’ve read seems to have a different take.

For example, there are fics where the Avengers have film nights and Natasha doesn’t recognise the films, or she likes black and white movies, or she likes to correct the moves in martial arts films, or she likes musicals, or… When it comes to Clint and music we’ve had great discussions over what music he likes and if he can play the guitar, but then sometimes Natasha recognises the music, sometimes she doesn’t, sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she prefers classical. And so on.

What books, films, television shows, music, etc. do you think our Master Assassins like? Does Natasha like American pop culture, Russian pop culture, or hate pop culture, or hate aspects of pop culture? Was she familiar with American pop culture from her early training, or did she miss out as a kid and she doesn’t care, or she missed out and Clint teaches her? Is she more international in her pop culture tastes? Does she even see the point of pop culture?

What about Clint? If there’s any pattern that I’ve seen it’s that Clint is the more knowledgeable of the two about American pop culture at least, but at the same time SHIELD is often depicted as sending him all over the globe. Has he picked up on international pop culture himself? Has he missed out on pop culture whilst he’s been busy at SHIELD or whilst he may have been out of the country in the Armed Forces or what have you in the past? Does he care about pop culture, or not care, or care about some aspects in particular?

I have a lot of questions, folks, and no answers, just lots of ideas, because I love that all of these and more can be true considering the little that we know about Clint and Natasha from the films. So bring your thinky thoughts, your recs of creative things in which pop culture is a thing, your graphics, new fics or fic ideas, all of the things! Or just grab a drink, settle in, and have a happy Friday :D
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[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_samalander/ on November 2nd, 2012 09:12 pm (UTC)
OKAY I HAVE POP CULTURE FEELINGS
HOLD TIGHT EVERYONE

Pop culture is one of the most reliable ways to take the temperature of a society. Look, for example, at the recent resurgence of zombies and vampires and human-like monsters. The last time we saw this many human-shaped monster movies? It was the heart of the Cold War, and we were afraid of our neighbors. Now, the narrative has shifted more towards the I Am Legend/Walking Dead side. Because back then we could communicate with our monsters (remember: Omega Man and I Am Legend have the same source, but one has Monsters who chill out and talk to Chuck Heston, the other has screamy zombiemonsterthings) and now we have lost our ability to even speak the same language as our assailants - as terrorists - and we have no way to get them to communicate with us. (One day my dissertation will be on Cold War Science Fiction and the Social Climate of America, but not today.)

So if Natasha is going to successfully infiltrate a society, like she does in IM2, she has to be up on the pop culture enough to a) know what it MEANS to the people there and b)get the references. I'm sure SHIELD briefs her on it, but she doesn't learn it because it's fun.

Clint, I think, knows the Big Stuff - Wizard of Oz, Elvis, that kind of thing. I don't think if he and someone his age sat down, they'd both have fond memories of Howdy Doody, because Clint is an orphan and a runaway. He didn't have TIM for pop culture when he was little, he was too busy surviving.

They're probably also not really casual TV watchers, because they have Other Things To Do, but in my head canon, Clint LOVES bridal shows because he likes the idea of extravagance, and Natasha loves survival wilderness shows because she knows she could do it SO MUCH BETTER.

I think of them both as News Radio listeners, when they listen to the radio, because they HAVE to stay up on current events for their jobs.

I just don't see C/N as leisure types - neither one of them is likely to unwind without being made to, and when they do, I imagine they do a lot of reading.

But that's me, and I'm a little strange.
inkvoices: avengers:master assassins[personal profile] inkvoices on November 2nd, 2012 11:32 pm (UTC)
I'm sat here nodding along and loving. So if Natasha is going to successfully infiltrate a society, like she does in IM2, she has to be up on the pop culture enough to a) know what it MEANS to the people there and b)get the references. I'm sure SHIELD briefs her on it, but she doesn't learn it because it's fun. EXACLTY. And I think the Red Room, or whatever her past was, was a similar situation. I agree that neither of them have the time for leisure really, or with their pasts would be the type to see the point in it, but I think as part of reclaiming herself, of moving past her past, Natasha would explore at least some pop culture with a view to figuring out what she liked, if only as part of being able to like things.

in my head canon, Clint LOVES bridal shows because he likes the idea of extravagance, and Natasha loves survival wilderness shows because she knows she could do it SO MUCH BETTER. My mind immediately leaped here to: because Clint never had much and loves looking at all the things that their can be, even if his lifestyle still means having that kind of stuff would be pointless, and because Natasha likes to know that she's better, not in a nasty way, just an accomplished kind of like people laugh at people they (think) they know better than on reality shows type of way?

I think of them both as News Radio listeners, when they listen to the radio, because they HAVE to stay up on current events for their jobs. Hmm, do you think thye have an ongoing challenge/bet to see who can figure out where they're going to be sent first? Heh.
[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_samalander/ on November 3rd, 2012 02:54 am (UTC)
I think that you're totally right about Natasha reclaiming herself. I imagine she would never ADMIT it, but she loves YA fiction - she could read "A Wrinkle in Time" every day and never get tired of it, but no one can know that because they'll use it to hurt her.

Back in May I wrote a tiny!fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/413480) in which they watched "James Bond, International Man of Doing It Wrong" because I had this horrible experiance where my roommate was watching an episode of Monk that took place in a theatre and I got so angry at the TV I had to leave the room. I assume that if I got that annoyed at the lack of a stage manager, C&N would Not Stand for the way some tv/movie people act.

And yes, my Clint loves the IDEA of decadence, but he never gives into the urge to splurge. He does, however, watch Say Yes to the Dress like it's going out of style.

..yes. I think they actively try to one-up each other and owe each other thousands of dollars based on mission bets. The rest of the team thinks they're insane.