Art for the End Times: Merry Christmas, ya tacky animal!
b'Christmas is a time to be with the ones you love, to give gifts and give thanks, and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (if you\'re so inclined). It is also a time for gaudy decorations, Griswoldian light displays, mall Santas, and a carnivalesque orgy of capitalist commercialism, formulaic Hallmark movies, and sugary crap. Does this mean, as we hear every year, that we\\u2019ve forgotten the \\u201ctrue spirit\\u201d of the holiday, or is there something meaningful and worthwhile in the giant tacky spectacle? What does our attachment to the tackiest parts of Christmas say about us and our aesthetic attachment to \\u201clow culture\\u201d?
Whether we\\u2019re talking about the holidays, pop music, or frosted lip gloss, it\\u2019s high time we develop a more nuanced, empathetic, and less elitist way to talk about pop culture and the politics of \\u201cgood\\u201d and \\u201cbad\\u201d taste. This is precisely what author Rax King does in her new book Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer, which explores the meaningful relationships we develop with \\u201ctacky\\u201d things\\u2014from suburban malls and the Cheesecake Factory to the music of Creed\\u2014and the complicated social pressures we face from snobbish people telling us we\\u2019re bad for liking the things we like.
In this special holiday edition of Art for the End Times, host Lyta Gold and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez talk to Rax King about her book, the power of unfettered (and unashamed) aesthetic appreciation, and the true meaning of Christmas. Rax King is the James Beard Award-nominated writer of the columns \\u201cStore-Bought Is Fine\\u201d and \\u201cDirtbag Chef,\\u201d as well as the host of the podcast Low Culture Boil. Her writing can be found in a range of outlets, including Glamour, MEL Magazine, and Catapult.
Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/merry-christmas-ya-tacky-animal
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Dwayne Gladden
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