Connection between War and Popular Culture

As for the connection between pop culture and war, I think that the last has become over-romanticized over the time. The iconic image of war has become glossed, utterly noble and very distanced, as society removes itself from the conflicting view on war. For example, Civil War became so romanticized that the plain fact of America being once in war with itself is globally overlooked. In that way it is similar to many other wars that are re-enacted and re-told in every local newspaper as epic stories, but it is presented as separated detached piece of the past. To prove my assumption I would point at National Civil War Project, an ambitious collaboration by the choreographer L. Lerman. It is an eclectic mix of pieces and productions, gathered together from American Repertory Theater, Harvard and several others universities and art organizations. “All the pieces will be performed throughout the United States with stories coming from both Union and Confederate states. The project will extend until 2015, the duration of the war’s 150 year anniversary (1861-1865). The project, while serving a very important purpose, does shed light on how war, over time, becomes something almost mythological in its scope. To look at a photograph from the Civil War is to see a world that we are no longer a part of, but yet, it is the very same world we live in. A recent photo-set featured on NPR features wet-plate photographer Todd Harrington retracing the steps of Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner in what is a very interesting juxtaposition of the then and the now. The photos show one place in two very different contexts” (PolicyMic). So, that vivid art compilation from the world of pop culture suggests that the image of war became considerably distorted in modern pop culture.

Reference:

PolicyMic,. 'The Civil War Is Now More Pop Culture Than History In The American Psyche'. N. p., 2013.