froM pArAtex t to polyproCess: the “Quirk y” MAshup novel
95
– “[A]ctive and lively communal following.”
– “Highly committed and rebellious in their appreciation, cult
audiences are frequently at odds with cultural conventions […].”
– “Cult films transgress common notions of good and bad taste,
and they challenge genre conventions and coherent storytelling.”
– “Among the techniques cult films use are intertextual references, gore, loose ends in storylines, or the creation of a sense
of nostalgia. […] In spite of often-limited accessibility, they
have a continuous market value and a long-lasting public presence.”
– Ritual consumption: Like a religion, the cult film “relies on
continuous, intense participation and persistence, on the
commitment of an active audience that celebrates films they
see as the opposite of ‘normal and dull’ cinema. […] Active
Celebration is essential. […] As with most rituals in society,
aspects of purity, initiation, and infection play a crucial role in
this celebration.” 30
It follows that, in terms of textuality, cult films invite the desire for authorization, canonization, and traditionalism – albeit the resulting canons,
traditions, and authorization are frequently “anti-official,” “amateurish,” and
“para-cinematic.” Books such as the mashup novel William Shakespeare’s
Star Wars and Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (or similar texts such as Bard
Fiction, a Shakespearean stage play and wikispace by Ben Tallen, Aaron
Greer, and Brian Watson-Jones) are cult pastiche literature devoted to
nostalgically recreating lost norms. In a variation on the famous analysis
of Fredric Jameson, they mash up the imitation of two styles, wearing
two stylistic masks, speaking in two dead languages. Jameson argues that
pastiche is
the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask,
speech in a dead language: but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry,
without parody’s ulterior motive, without the satirical impulse, without
laughter, without that still latent feeling that there exists something
normal compared to which what is being imitated is rather comic. Pastiche
is blank parody, parody that has lost its sense of humor. 31
30 “Cultographies” Definition of Cult Cinema,” Cultographies, accessed November 22, 2016,
www.cultographies.com/definition.shtml (emphasis in original).
31 Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 1991), 17.
95
– “[A]ctive and lively communal following.”
– “Highly committed and rebellious in their appreciation, cult
audiences are frequently at odds with cultural conventions […].”
– “Cult films transgress common notions of good and bad taste,
and they challenge genre conventions and coherent storytelling.”
– “Among the techniques cult films use are intertextual references, gore, loose ends in storylines, or the creation of a sense
of nostalgia. […] In spite of often-limited accessibility, they
have a continuous market value and a long-lasting public presence.”
– Ritual consumption: Like a religion, the cult film “relies on
continuous, intense participation and persistence, on the
commitment of an active audience that celebrates films they
see as the opposite of ‘normal and dull’ cinema. […] Active
Celebration is essential. […] As with most rituals in society,
aspects of purity, initiation, and infection play a crucial role in
this celebration.” 30
It follows that, in terms of textuality, cult films invite the desire for authorization, canonization, and traditionalism – albeit the resulting canons,
traditions, and authorization are frequently “anti-official,” “amateurish,” and
“para-cinematic.” Books such as the mashup novel William Shakespeare’s
Star Wars and Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (or similar texts such as Bard
Fiction, a Shakespearean stage play and wikispace by Ben Tallen, Aaron
Greer, and Brian Watson-Jones) are cult pastiche literature devoted to
nostalgically recreating lost norms. In a variation on the famous analysis
of Fredric Jameson, they mash up the imitation of two styles, wearing
two stylistic masks, speaking in two dead languages. Jameson argues that
pastiche is
the imitation of a peculiar or unique style, the wearing of a stylistic mask,
speech in a dead language: but it is a neutral practice of such mimicry,
without parody’s ulterior motive, without the satirical impulse, without
laughter, without that still latent feeling that there exists something
normal compared to which what is being imitated is rather comic. Pastiche
is blank parody, parody that has lost its sense of humor. 31
30 “Cultographies” Definition of Cult Cinema,” Cultographies, accessed November 22, 2016,
www.cultographies.com/definition.shtml (emphasis in original).
31 Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 1991), 17.