2016 (Spring) – An Academic Autobiography: From Cowboy Comics to Movie-in-Minutes YouTube Videos

“I could consider what I was studying as an attempt not only to understand my own reactions but
to understand other people’s who were not like me. Since then I have considered a range of popular visual pleasures. These include what I have called the bright and busy, the highly emotional, the vulgar, the horrific, the
miraculous, the exotic, the erotic, the spectacular, the formulaic, the narrative, and the
humorous. Each of these pleasures was approached in terms of linking historical
examples to contemporary examples with the intention of arguing that no matter how
today’s visual culture may appear a decline from previous times, it was anything but.”