{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 4: 2022 Cultural Year in Review","description":"In episode four of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Ajay, Isi, and Joseph review the year 2022 in pop culture via the prism of five topics and trends: \u201copen world\u201d (and cinematic universe) fatigue (for example, Assassin\u2019s Creed: Vahalla, Sonic Frontiers); the plague of remakes and cultural nostalgia (Top Gun Maverick, Wednesday, Interview with the Vampire); cultural paranoia (true crime TV and paraphernalia, including the \u201cIn Case I Go Missing Binder,\u201d Nextdoor, T\u00e1r); liberal fanfiction (Handmaid\u2019s Tale, Bridgerton); and the substitution of moral judgement and \u201cforensic judgement\u201d for actual aesthetic analysis (explainers, the backlash to critique,, deciphering). Do open worlds lend gravitas to video games\u2014or do they just create sameness? What are the pastoral impulses behind farming games? Is the mania for remakes confirmation of Francis Fukuyama\u2019s \u201cEnd of History\u201d? Is T\u00e1r a product of cancel cultural panic? What is \u201cplastic representation\u201d; and how does representational fantasy like Bridgerton erase the very historical knowledge that makes social critique possible? And finally, what explains the urge to explain it all? How does ambiguity provide potency to art? The podcast closes with a discussion of Ajay\u2019s, Isi\u2019s, and Joseph\u2019s favorite 2022 things (whether actually released in 2022 or just personally discovered): Elden Ring, Yellowjackets, Hades, Azor, The Banshees of Inisherin, Station 11, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Ajay\u2019s 2022 GOTY and theorized allegory for communism).  ","author_name":"(Pop) Cultural Marxism","author_url":"http:\/\/thebrooklyninstitute.com","html":"