On Nov 9, 2006, at 7:38 AM, Daniel P.B.Smith wrote:
I recently, on a whim, picked up a copy of a magazine called "Filmfax Plus: The Magazine of Unusual Film, Television, and Retro Pop Culture." I was quite struck by the depth, detail, and maturity of writing in this rather schlocky-looking periodical....
This underlines my belief that there are plenty of good, verifiable sources for popular culture material.
This cuts both ways, of course. On the one hand, I believe it is _quite possible_ to write good, well-sourced, encyclopedic articles on popular culture. On the other hand, I believe that such articles should be held to exactly the same standards as any other Wikipedia article, including deletion of material that cannot be sourced after sources have been requested and the requests have been outstanding for a reasonable length of time.
If we wait for the Oxford book of Popular Culture, it will be a very long wait indeed.
Perhaps, but we can read "The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories" (ISBN 0192803751), "The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings" (ISBN 0192781588), and "The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories" (ISBN 0192803816) while we're waiting.