Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 23

In addition, Crocker Coulson, writing in The New Republic
discusses “Attitude” in relation to Byrne and in relation to post
modernism.
“Attitude,” he writes, “is post-modernism as a
lifestyle, a way o f reappropriating the castoff and demode. Its
power derives not from the cultural objects themselves, but from
the placing and the jostling of cultural objects in startling and
contradictory contexts.” Coulson sees American life as so filled
with options that “eclecticism” has become its “hallmark.” He sees
David Byrne as a manifestation of post-modernism, particularly in
his well-honed “Attitude,” his talent of putting on the demean
necessary for disturbing the audience (28-9).
It’s okay, then, that we might not understand what Byrne is
doing. Byrne might not understand either. Regarding his narrator’s
fascination with shopping malls, for example, Byrne writes that he
doesn’t know how he himself feels about them (Wyman 62). The
narrator serves as a type of Alice in Wonderland in this foreign
culture. Gitlin points out that America’s “eclecticism” and “polyethnicism” are the very qualities which illustrate it as a post
modern arena (3). In America, we have to acknowledge other
perspectives; we need to recognize that, Allan Bloom notwith
standing, America is composed of diverse multi-ethnic arts and
artists. “W hat could be more American than 'hum bling the
highbrow’ by democratizing the arts?” Gitlin asks. He claims that
“the essence o f American culture is the variety show, finding a
place for everyone—post-modernism’s prototype” (3). And cer
tainly that’s what Byrne has done in True Stories. He gives the
spotlight— both literally and figuratively— to the people of Virgil,
ending the film with an actual variety show. This film truly turns
out to be about “people like us / who answer the telephone,” people
of different viewpoints, but people with similar values— a rich
woman who stays in bed all day, a black man who practices white
magic, a Latino who “reads tones.”

17