A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

Toby Miller and Alec McHoul discuss popular culture as a sphere which idealises fun as the
summit of all cultural pleasure. This fun is brought together by an exhilarating loss of self
engendered by entertainment and its paradoxical everydayness; a combination of
wonderment with familiarity (Miller and McHoul, 1998:3). Each of us sat knocking back
pints, trying to follow what was being said by people sitting inches away, celebrating Brian‟s
50 th birthday. This was fun and yet not fun. Brian reflected the following day:
230
...it was a … lamentably chosen institution really … it was an absolute dive that was
…er… really, seriously going downhill fast... (laughs) ...downstairs in the pub the
music was extra loud heavy metal and … people kind of sitting in sofas, drinking at
… voluble kind of speed … just loud, angry music …erm…it was atrocious… I
think there was a palpable feeling of frustration and kind of … what the fuck am I
doing here... there were a lot of young people there … er … and … and they all
looked quite … you know, sort of … what would you say... quite trendy or well-to-
do or whatever... there was just a general sense in the room of … of people …
thinking what the hell am I doing here… there was not a single person who looked
like they … they enjoyed listening to heavy metal … (l.3:529ff.)
In this situation Brian was no more or less disabled than anybody else, but was just one of
the crowd. He was out with friends in the midst of strangers all of whom, like him, were
looking for fun but seemingly not finding it. If fun is the summit of cultural pleasure it was
elusive that evening. Yet it should have been here if it was going to be anywhere. While they
had gone to a lot of effort to make themselves look good, people looked out of place, as if
this might have been what they came for, but had decided since was not what they really
wanted.
In Richard Schmitt‟s words, for the alienated self-esteem comes from:
Appearing acceptable, being liked, not being embarrassingly different... Because life
just flows along, your person is a jumble of traits, activities, and thoughts that form
no whole and make little sense... You must therefore look for recognition from
others who are also just taking their life as it comes. You try to get along, to be
respected, liked for not being different, for fitting in, for being familiar... (Schmitt,
2003:74).
Within the terms of popular culture this was about as good as it gets. Here was a Saturday
night out in the centre of frantic Brighton, a bar with bouncers on the door to keep out
undesirables (though I managed to get in). It does not get better than Saturday night out