Hardcore
HIFs don't just "catch a movie". They don't even stop at reading about movies (or whatever medium they're devoted to). They analyse, write, organize, share, and even produce works of their own. When you're hardcore, the phrase "get a life" has no effect on you. Hardcore also means being eclectic. A Movie HIF has watched both The Seven Samurai and Jurassic Park. A Comic Book HIF has read both Maus and The X-Men.
Intelligent
It doesn't matter if HIFs are university grads or not; they still eschew academic buzzwords and trendy theories of critiquing. After all, websites like PopMatters and Pop Culture Gadabout continually prove that pop culture can be discussed intelligently and maturely without deconstructing the existential symbolism of post-modern nihilism. Personally, I found columns analyzing the success of The First Wives Club (a horrid film, granted) more interesting than examinations of Eisenstein's use of montage in Battleship Potemkin.
Fan
Apparently, some film reviewers of the past were former theatre critics forced to cover what in their mind was an inferior medium. A HIF actually likes and enjoys their chosen medium/genre, even the mediocre stuff. The best illustration of this is to compare Stephen King and Neil Postman. King loves horror in all its forms. He even finds things to admire in crappy examples of the genre. The end result? Danse Macabre, an overview of the genre that is thought-provoking, funny, personal, extensive, and accessible. I count it as one of the all-time best books on pop culture (along with William Goldman's Adventures in the Film Trade and Harlan Ellison's Watching). Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death is also thought-provoking...as well as dry, humourless, distant, and most importantly, almost completely devoid of specific examples. He speaks in general, almost abstract, terms. Maybe Postman does watch a lot of TV, but you certainly can't tell from his book.
ASIDE: If you also possess confidence, then you're in the CHIF subcategory. A CHIF is somebody whose love of a genre or medium takes precedence over their need to be hip or appear to have more refined tastes. For example, a Music CHIF, though not a fan of Barry Manilow, can mention the singer without automatically denouncing his music as maudlin. And a Movie CHIF can enjoy Evil Dead 2 without feeling the need to label it a "guilty pleasure". But HIFs (like their siblings, geeks and nerds) lived through decades of being marginalized and mocked. Even today, there are still overly-judgmental English teachers who push on students a list of what's "acceptable" literature...and it's a very short list (yet they always find room on it to include A Separate Peace of Shit). So a little defensiveness on the part of HIFs is understandable; therefore, confidence is optional.
Article comments
1 - HW Saxton Jr.
Paul, Great post man. Very interesting
and concise. By the way, the tag at the
end of your post was fine LOL. Peace.
2 - Shark
Nice post.
A few asides:
1) When "pop culture" cranks out about 15 billion products each and every day, it's hard to keep up, let alone digest, consume, 'categorize', and/or analyze.
2) I recently had a discussion w/a fellow museum professional; we were discussing (given #1 above) what and how the Smithsonian decides to 'preserve' of "american culture" -- currently, and in the future. They've got "Fonzie's" leather jacket, which surely won't be as important as Lincoln's hat, but do they also keep Pez dispensers? All 8 billion of them?
Name any 'artifact' of contemporary culture, and then try to figure out how it might have any 'historical' significance, and if so, what to do if it comes in thousands of variations. (Beanie Babies? Spiderman Toys? Rolling Stones Greatest Hits Collections?)
Imagine the problems facing other 'respositories' of culture; Radio & TV Broadcast Museum, fer instance -- do they keep "Three's Company" tapes? The Sopranos? "Famous" beer commercials? Which? How Many?
It's insane.
We'll build monuments to Spuds MacKenzie and the Taco Bell Dog and melt them down before the first pigeon is able to contribute God's own implicit cultural critique on their bronze brows.
3) Kinda hard on Neil Postman, imo. Too abstract? C'mon, only if you've got ADD, which apparently 99.9% of Americans do.
Oh Nevermind...
3 - HW Saxton Jr.
Shark, I think that your reference to
the late Neil Postman just sailed over
the heads of 99.9% of all those around
here. Sadly, they are same people who
need to read "Technopoly- The Surrender
Of..." Aww,ne'er mind.I'm just preachin'
to the choir now.
4 - hardcore
Shark, I think that your reference to
the late Neil Postman just sailed over
the heads of 99.9% of all those around
here. Sadly, they are same people who
need to read "Technopoly- The Surrender
Of..." Aww,ne'er mind.I'm just preachin'hardore
to the choir now.
5 - SFC Ski
It's a minor grammatical point, but I think it should be "Intelligent Hardcore Fans". There are hardcore fans, but what makes these above unique is their intelligence.