Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Advertising: The Literary Genre of the Age

After, oh, 1920, let's say,
advertising became
the dominant literary genre.
It's stories, images, and ethos
hold culture's imagination.

Advertising's the myth,
the epic poem, the novel,
the drama of our age.

Other genres pretend
at the edges, play at their
old importance. It is assumed
that publishers advertise novels,
especially best-sellers, that studios
advertise films, especially
block-busters, and that other
studios advertise music, but
novels and films and music
and the rest
publicize advertising,
the master genre

that sells space, real
and virtual, and that turns
a profit, which is the god
of our creation myth.


Copyright 2012 Hans Ostrom

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