WANNABE: Thinking about the pop culture that shaped meby Aisha Harris
Being a black critic in an era of great art made by black people comes with immeasurable rewards and myriad risks. Co-host Aisha Harris’ debut essay collection Wannabe NPR’s “Pop Culture Happy Hour” It’s when she tackles these risks and professional thorns that she comes into her own. How does identity affect a critic’s work, and should it?
Harris can laugh off the call to support positive representation of black people, no matter how mundane (“When you come across black art in the open, it’s the magic of black girls.”) , Note Black Love, Black Excellence, and Direct Engagement with Common)” or John Legend”). She brashly pushes away Issa Rae’s now-famous awards ceremony declaration— “I support black people” To the most absurd extent, “It is only natural that we take her words literally and support all black artists and art, no matter how questionable, incompetent, or simply offensive they may be.” is.”
But when podcast listeners blamed Harris for finding the Will Smith movie, “King Richard” Halfway through, she barked back. “I’m not saying ‘I just want to be happy’ about ‘King Richard,'” she insists. “I’m looking for characters that feel introverted and surprising and that have a reason to exist beyond history.”
But it’s complicated. Mr. Harris describes his struggles about being disappointed with ~. “Wrinkles of Time” The film was directed by Ava DuVernay, who has a steadily rising career in cinema. Harris, a film reviewer for Slate and a former editor of the New York Times, said the lukewarmness of the work meant that “other studios would take dozens more to hand out films of this stature to women of color.” He feared that it could take years. In retrospect, she says, she got to where she was “not poignant, but true to her own reactions to her films.”
“Wannabe” is a blend of memoir and cultural analysis, structured as “a reflection on the pop culture that shaped me.” Harris flaunts a wide range of references, moving easily between decades and arenas. She taps Roger Ebert on Fellini, revisits sketches for “Key & Peel,” and analyzes Bell Hook’s analysis of experimental film hero Stan Brakhage.
The book works especially well when the author bases it on her personal experience. Growing up in a “white-majority suburban circle” in Connecticut, Harris tenderly portrays her ordeal of growing up as a “black friend” in a white environment.
“These black friends reminded me of my loneliness, and I often feel like I’m not on the radar of many of my white peers that I try to befriend.” It was a reminder of the fact that it used to happen,” says Harris.
Harris weaves personal pain with a sharp critique of tropes and their limitations, and constructs inner monologues of famous pop culture examples like Gabrielle Union’s Katie in “She’s All That.” ing. And Winston in “New Girl” by Ramone Morris.
She deftly combines the rise of personal brands with the pernicious culture of online fandom (“The over-personalization of pop culture breeds acerbicity and morbid obsession”). Through the prism of “The Brady Bunch” and Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up,” she faces her decision not to have children. And she quotes from her own Livejournal about haunting memories of an oft-forgotten scene in Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls.”
Yet, “The Wannabe” includes scenes that demand a more rigorous engagement throughout its scope. Contending with Dave Chappelle’s troubled legacy is an aside. “We are aware that the current Dave Chappelle suffers from transphobic oral diarrhea,” Harris wrote. “I can’t act as if some of his old jokes no longer slap me.” (She goes on to cite some of them.)
And the pop modernity of The Wannabe is both a strength and a weakness, and risks making the book obsolete.
The Breakthrough Success of Disney’s ‘Encanto’ And the multi-Oscar winner “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is likely to be the focus for the long haul. Warner Bros. Discovery’s ‘Batgirl’ movie cancellation and Harpers’ letter on ‘Justice and the Public Debate’ may lose power for readers who are not part of the #discourse, which takes place largely online. be.
But letting film and television explain the world is Harris’ specialty, culminating in “inadvertent self-formation through popular culture.” For readers who tend to read cultures to understand themselves, “Wannabe” is a compelling affirmation that they are looking for the right place.
Eramine Abdelmahmoud is a podcaster and author of the 2022 New York Times Featured Book, Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces.
WANNABE: Thinking about the pop culture that shaped me | By Aisha Harris | 280 Pages | Harper One | $29.99
