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The Value of Pop Culture
In this age of global massmedia and information explosion, there is a common perception of popularculture as the opposite of "traditional" or "classical"culture. With this comes the unfortunate implication that the former is somehowless valuable than the latter, that it is merely “distraction”. Some of the moreradical opponents against pop culture would even argue that it is of littlevalue at all - that our lives would have been better if we could just stick tothe classics and pretend that pop culture does not exist. I couldn't disagreemore with this unhappy line of thought. I am of the opinion that pop culture isof great value, both at present and in the future.
分析：開頭段結合背景交代和反方觀點，暗示反方觀點對pop culture的定義錯誤，引出觀點的方式簡單自然。
Anyone who dismisses popculture wholesale is ignorant of the way culture grows and develops. Everycultural phenomenon has a beginning. When it first started, it was the popculture of its time. It is only later, with the passage of centuries that “pop“becomes ”classic”.
點評：此處重新定義pop culture
Is there any better exampleof "classical" culture than that of the Bard upon Avon, the greatWilliam Shakespeare? How many people adore and revere Shakespeare today as themaster observer of all aspects of the human condition? Yet the Bard was anextremely popular entertainer during his time - his works were greatly enjoyedand celebrated by not just the upper-class elite of England but the commonpeople as well. Ordinary Englishmen flocked in the thousands to watch theperformance of his plays. Most of his works, even the most famed ones such asHamlet, include bawdy jokes and double-entendres. His dramas displayed ashocking amount of violence for their time, which scandalized many of hiscontemporary critics. If the people of his time had dismissed him as “adistraction” because he was too "pop", we today would know of no Shakespeare,which would be a tragic loss.
點評：引出莎士比亞，細節處理到位，通過Hamlet這部作品中一樣有’ bawdy jokes and double-entendres來進一步闡明’我們所認為的經典在當時一樣是流行文化’。可圈可點的是，此段通過虛擬語氣進行對比論證，豐富了文章的論證方式，值得借鑒。
