The Great Escapism
Ever since Huck Finn took his friends down the Mississippi River on a raft, American men have created and consumed fantasies of setting out with their males friends for parts unknown, or of traveling in an all-male group to have adventures closer to home. The male-escape scenario is hard to spot emerging from any other country, but the US version seems to have universal appeal.
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NEW YORK – Barack Obama, however mixed his accomplishments to date as US president, has sought to rebrand America and reclaim its former signature asset: its ability to embody universally admired values. As popular culture is usually the way those values are transmitted, it is worth considering what it is about American cinema, music, and popular literature that makes them so compelling to many other parts of the world.