Mike Burger wrote: "That's why trash is known as "Popular Culture". Hard core sci-fi is not "Popular Culture". Dungeons and Dragons is not "Popular Culture". Mainstream sports are "Popular Culture". " (I'll ignore the fact that many of the books on the NY Times bestseller list are science fiction, sometimes pretty highly regarded by the "hardcore" types....) It's interesting that trash has evolved this way. IIRC, the first few trash tournaments I went to virtually mandated questions on D&D, sci-fi and the like. Now they're anathema. I disagree that the "dictionary definition" of trash is pop culture. Originally, trash was anything the hardcore/purist AC types would bitch about for putting in an academic packet. So trash is something with virtually nil academic value; there's some pop culture -- movies, jazz -- that have considerably more academic value than role-playing games or other "geek trash". However, I agree with Mike that trash has pretty much become mainstream pop culture. Part of it is the changing demographics of quizbowl -- when trash was young, the quizbowl community was considerably more "male geek" than it is now. (People who think there are a lot of us now would be astonished/repulsed ten years ago.) As the demographics have shifted, trash went from being (partially, at least) an affirmation of geek culture to a wholehearted affirmation of "pop culture." I lament the loss, but it comes down to the interests of the players. If there's enough interest in geek trash and other categories that have been homogenized out in recent years, it will either resurge or split off into a different tournament format. (Yay, market dynamics.) But I thought you'd like to know that you were not such a beleaguered minority at the beginning of this wacky trash thing. phil Interested in whether Mike would call obscure music trash, since some of it has considerably less of a following than SF or D&D. That would make much of the All-Music Guide's Rock, Rap and Country categories not "popular culture". :)
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