Then: How Will This Play In Peoria? Now: How Will This Play In The Village?

As a follow-up of sorts to the previous post on Angels & Demons and earlier attempts by Hollywood to gin-up conservative controversy to sell leftwing product, it’s worth noting the ever-growing distance between Blue Hollywood and Red State flyover country. As the Shout First, Ask Questions Later blog writes today on the death of the Hollywood drama:

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What leftwing Hollywood does not understand is that they are the ones out-of-touch. They are the ones with the poor values and bad taste, not the American consumer. These modern drama films fail to make box office because Hollywood no longer asks “how will this play in Peoria?” but “how will this play in Manhattan’s West Village Angelika theater?”

In short, Hollywood no longer values mainstream America. Filmmakers no longer wonder if their parents or grandparents or children can watch the film they are making. They are only interested in performing an intellectual/creative circle jerk with their like-minded friends.

Then they wonder why their modern dramas do not make money and blame the consumer for not swallowing their money shots.

This intellectual/creative self-pleasuring is rampant throughout all creative industries. I stopped being an advertising copywriter because I was nauseated by the complete lack of interest in actually selling product. You see it every day on TV and in print.

But then, it’s been a long time coming. As James Lileks wrote in 2005:

Once upon a time the major media at least pretended that the heart & soul of the country was a porch in Kansas with an American flag. Now it’s the outlands, the Strange Beyond. They vote for Bush, they believe in God, they’d have to drive 2 hours for decent Thai. Who are these people?

Maybe what often bothers the Blue staters isn’t the ire of the Maroonies; in the end, it’s the relative indifference. We think of you, all right – just not as much as you think about yourselves. And probably more than you think about us. Take care; love, Red.

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Not coincidentally, as Flyover Country became “the outlands, the Strange Beyond” and those with traditional beliefs became punchlines for gutter humor emanating from enlightened progressive presidential advisors, Common Sense slowly withered away and died, Roger Kimball eulogizes.

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