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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franztastisch: lord of the rings[personal profile] franztastisch on November 2nd, 2012 10:30 pm (UTC)
I like any and all references to any Avengers being fans of the Lord of the Rings. This, of course, is partly due to my love for the Lord of the Rings. Though if we're honest, you can pick up those books basically anywhere so it is likely that they'd be familiar with them. The films even more so.

THOUGH my favourite mention of LotR in an Avengers fic is actually The Stories That Stay With You by TLvop on AO3.
"In the end, stories are about the people in them --personalities and relationships resonate across cultures and worlds. Or: Thor reads Lord of the Rings, and tries to use it to process his past and present, and as a framework to hope for the future."

One thing I think is that Clint and Nat would be better versed in film and books than they would be in TV. TV is harder to keep up with then you're galavanting around the world being awesome. As to music, I am a firm believer in Nat knowing most about classical/orchestral music - operas and ballets. Clint I always see as being into classic rock and country, but I have no particular reason for that, just jumping on everyone elses bandwagon.
inkvoices: girl reading[personal profile] inkvoices on November 3rd, 2012 12:11 am (UTC)
If I were going to do Clint and Natasha with pop culture I would go with books purely because if I'm following the write what you know rule then that's what I'm the most comfortable with *grins*. Side note: I think thanks to the films Lord of the Rings is widely known (again) - enough that we get Tony calling Clint 'Legolas' actually in the Avengers, because everyone's gonna know what that means.

just jumping on everyone elses bandwagon. I call it being persuaded into headcanon, heehee. Although it can get to the point where you suddenly stop and think 'is X a thing at all in any canon, or is that fandom headcanon' and realise that you don't actually know the answer and that's mind bendy :D
franztastisch[personal profile] franztastisch on November 3rd, 2012 12:32 am (UTC)
Yeah, I think I'd go with books too. Maybe music too, though I;d end up giving them a liking for random British bands which would be waaaayyy off track for them. :P But I can totally see Clint enjoying Laura Marling when he thinks no one is paying attention! :P

Aaah the Lord of the Rings. It makes me so happy. :D

Oh man. My distinction between canon and fanon is... well basically nonexistant, in this fandom at least. I was miles better when I was properly into SPN because I knew the "source material" (as it were). Here and I don't even know if Clint was canonically in the army for a while or if someone just thought it's make sense for him to have been a sniper. I have litterally no idea. So everythings fanon to me until proven otherwise. :P

(There is also the problem of this, like SPN, being a very American based thing. And I don't really know much about the intricacies of American culture - especially music - so I don't really know what would be fitting.)
inkvoices: england[personal profile] inkvoices on November 3rd, 2012 01:52 am (UTC)
Yeah, I know the 'but i'm not versed in America' feelings *sigh*.

If Clint and SHIELD were British and Natasha were, say, French then the Avengers big fight would happen in London and the base where the Tesseracy was being held would be something in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and Thor would originally have landed in Ireland and we could shower everything with British pop culture references to our heart's content... And Tony Stark would be standing there peering at us over his sunglasses going 'I'm American. Deal.' Heh.

The thing with 'verses that have comics, especially Marvel, is that there isn't really any one canon, so it frees interpretations up a bit I feel :D
franztastisch[personal profile] franztastisch on November 3rd, 2012 03:27 pm (UTC)
Oh God. Write that. That would be fantastic. Clint would come from some council estate in Manchester and Bruce would have worked for Imperial College London and OH MY GOD Judi Dench would have to turn up SOMEWHERE and there would be James Bond jokes every 2.5 seconds. DO IT.

Yeah but I still find it very confusing. Though it also means people would accept almost anything as long as you seem to have thought it out properly. :)
[identity profile] dictator-duck.livejournal.com on November 3rd, 2012 03:13 am (UTC)
:DDD Thank you! I had way too much fun writing it ♥.
franztastisch[personal profile] franztastisch on November 3rd, 2012 03:27 pm (UTC)
You are most welcome! I enjoyed it very much. :D