Pop & Celebrity Culture

Celebrity and pop culture is something I am quite familiar with given my earlier background in media studies, and I can agree that it is mechanical to some extent as Benjamin suggests, by saying that 'even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in it's presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be'. In his frequent suggestions and stabs at the lack of originality found within a piece of art if it is reproduced, he suggests that only the original piece maintains it's impact, as might a famous painting in a museum is something many might pay to see despite being able to see it on the internet for free. This isn't quite true for games though; as with the time and money invested into producing games, it requires many sales not only to make back the investment made in producing it but also in making a profit, and thus benefitting from their roles in the games industry. The same is true for films and animations; though all of these are still subject to the relevance of time. A new game is in most demand whilst it is still new. It could be bought for a much smaller sum after it had been released for a year. However this is subject to change after the game goes out of print; especially if it is a well-received game as it will become well sought after and rare. The price of the game might actually skyrocket.

However, reproduced work doesn't automatically devalue the existence of an original piece work; in fact the notoriety or even one's awareness of an original piece of work, especially in realms of film, games and animation, are only possible in most circumstances. The popularity of the Lara Croft character is speculative in that she is a highly popular female character, amongst the notable of earliest characters in gaming history as far as level of fame goes, though this is mostly attributed to a few things in particular in Rehak's text. He refers to a Cassel and Jenkins text  of game producer Core's lead programmer Tony Gard which describes Lara as 'a tough, self-reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist cliches apart from the fact that she's got an unbelievable figure. Strong, independant women are the perfect fantasy girls - the untouchable is always the most desirable'. She is a strong character that draws parallels with Indiana Jones, but has received criticism for being an unnatural portrayal of women. Though I think it is justified not for any of the formerly mentioned reasons - simply because Lara is not supposed to be a portrayal of all women or one woman in particular besides herself. I wouldn't go so far as saying she seduced players into buying her games.

This lends Lara to be an incredible but almost unbelievable character around which a dedicated fan base has sprung up to dedicate themselves to her expansion as a character through fan-fiction. I do not think Rehak's explanation of a work of art, if games, animation and films could be described as such, loses it's authenticity if the work of art is anywhere else besides it's place of production and if it is not the original work. I think that may be true in the case of art in it's most well known form; early paintings from earlier centuries. Seeing the Mona Lisa in person is far more interesting as seeing it within a book. There is an interesting point made that the greater 'the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and and enjoyment by the public'. It is arguable that Benjamin is suggesting that Lara's popularity comes to a lack of appreciation for 'better', more sophisticated forms of art, if he would consider her to be a work of art at all. The fact that her gender was reversed as a decision to avoid being a shameless Indiana Jones copy, is also down to whether they wanted a strong female character, or just a strong character, or whether that character needed to have sex appeal. She said to be capable of 'migration', going from one media to another without much complaint from anyone.

Lara certainly makes a change from the typical mascot character of a console; Lara Croft was to the Sony Playstation what Mario was, and perhaps still is, to the Nintendo. With the release of another Lara Croft game this might be the case again soon.