cult media the cult the rocky horror picture show (jim sharman, 1975) cult media

Cult MediaCult MediaCult Media

The CultThe Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)

Cult MediaCult Media

The CultEraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)


The CultLiquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)


The CultDonnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)


The CultLIVING TEXTUALITY. The authentic cult work, Eco observes, must seem like "living textuality," as if it had no authors, as postmodernist proof that "as literature comes from literature, cinema comes from cinema" (199).


Eco, Umberto. "Casablanca: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage."

Travels in Hyper Reality. Trans. William Weaver. New York:

Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1986: 197-211.

The CultA COMPLETELY FURNISHED WORLD. Another closely related prerequisite of The Cult, Eco observes, is its capacity to "provide a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fan's private sectarian world, a world about which one can make up quizzes and play trivia games so that the adepts of the secret recognize through each other a shared experience" (198).





The CultA COMPLETELY FURNISHED WORLD.





The CultDETACHABILITY. The cult work, according to Eco, must also be susceptible to breaking, dislocation, unhinging, "so that one can remember only parts of it, irrespective of their original relationship with the whole." The cult viewer watching these moments--indeed watching for such moments—may let out an audible "I love this."





The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhat is the connection between “cult” and quality? Is a “bad” film or TV series more likely to become a cult work?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesCan a cult work be consciously created or must it be discovered?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesDo certain actors/actresses inspire “cultishness”?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhat is the relationship of camp and cult-ivation?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhat are the specific relations between genre hybridity/genre bending and cult status?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesDoes box office failure enhance culthood? Can a blockbuster/ratings hit acquire cult status?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhy is the fantastic, “left of real” (J. J. Abrams’ term), such a fertile ground for cult status?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesIs it possible for a movie or television show to gain cult status largely through nostalgia?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesAre “B.Y.O subtext” works (Joss Whedon’s phrase) ipso facto cultish?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhat role do intertextuality, metaxtextuality play in the growth of cult work?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesAre cult works always counter-cultural?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhy is the cult “notoriously slippery” (Steven Peacock) to pin down?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhy do “Cult television’s imaginary universes support an inexhaustible range of narrative possibilities, inviting, supporting and rewarding close textual analysis, interpretation, and inventive reformulations”? (Jones and Pearson)


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesHow is it that cult tv has evolved into “a meta-genre that caters to intense, interpretive audience practices,” affording “fans enormous scope for further interpretation, speculation and invention” (Jones and Pearson).


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhy has cult television come to be distinguished by its “hyperdiegesis”: ”the creation of a vast and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever directly seen or encountered within the text . . .” (Matt Hills, Fan Cultures 137)


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & Queries Should we follow Matt Hills’ advice that, instead of “celebrating cult texts for their supposed uniqueness,” we should focus on “analyzing and defining cult TV as a part of broader patterns within changing TV industries” (“Defining Cult TV” 522).


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & Queries What obligation do the makers of cult series have to answer the clamor of fans for more involvement?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesDoes the presence of a star with cult street cred or a cult of personality guarantee cult status?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesDoes cult television exhibit a unique approach to character investment?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesIs it still true that your standard issue television cult work, in keeping with the tradition, “represents a disruptive rather than a conservative force” (Kawin)?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesHow does cult television differ—in subject matter, audience, marketing, narrative—from cult film?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesHow will the emergence of multiple platforms for television programming change the nature of cult television?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesAre there narrative forms unique to cult television, and if they exist, how have they influenced all of series television?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesWhat is the place of the “conspiracy theory” in fostering/sustaining cult TV?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesAre the traditional youth demographics of cult television changing?


The Cult: Some Preliminary Notes & QueriesTo what degree has cult television created “transnational” languages and viewing practices and furthered globalization?


cult media the cult the rocky horror picture show (jim sharman, 1975) cult media

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