Hi,
It could be argued that Americans have no culture what so ever. America has only existed in a global age. There was no time for its culture to evolve in isolation (despite the desire of many conservatives). From the beginning American culture has been affected by other cultures in the world, both indirectly and directly (immigrants).
Totally agreeable. Then comes the discussion whether the collision or mixture of cultures is enriching or makes the borders vanish to an excessive extent, making the recipient culture lose its actual idiosincracy. Or even more, if that clash or mixture is the real idiosincracy of those cultures. Could be, and the US and Japan would be good examples, IMHO. I do
think that there are some uniquely American culture inventions (not all of them good and in no particular order) such as television, fast food, jazz, film (I will concede non-Americans have done and do film just as well if not better than Americans), telephone, computers, various other technical
Sorry but if I'm not wrong, computing was born in the old U.S.S.R under the name of "Informatika". And it was recently proved that Mr. Bell actually developed a communication model that had been invented (and rejected by manufacturers) many years before his acclaimed discovery... and the actual inventor was European!
In the above comment about Naked City, substitute cultures for styles and you have a pretty accurate description of American culture. So, I guess Zorn is a truly an American artist,
Although many try to accuse him of practicing a pastiche that could be regarded as postmodernism. I don't sense his music as postmodern either. Best, Efrén del Valle _______________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger Nueva versión: Webcam, voz, y mucho más ¡Gratis! Descárgalo ya desde http://messenger.yahoo.es