An Introduction

Hello, my name is Stephen Masson and I’d like to use my first post as a chance to welcome you to my blog and tell you a little bit about myself. First of all I recently finished undergrad with bachelors in Philosophy and a double minor in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, and African American Diaspora Studies. Basically this means I did Philosophy with a focus in gender and race theory. However, after graduating I have started to feel my creative and motivational drive in this kind of work seriously diminishing. It is not so much that I don’t find the issues important; it is more like after working on it for four years as an undergrad I’m all out of steam.

So I've decided to start up a blog in something totally different, as a platform to practice my writing and get some different work under my belt. I was inspired to start this blog after I started getting really into reading features and criticism of music, movies, and video games. In other words, the three things I spent my time enjoying when I wasn't drinking or studying during undergrad. These writers, specifically those from The Escapist really showed me that there was a lot of interesting topics to cover when talking about mediums that aren't generally subjected to that sort of critical scrutiny on a regular basis. I figured with my background I could really contribute to the conversation in interesting ways and possibly spark conversations that otherwise wouldn't have developed.

My hope is that I will be able to make posts that raise interesting questions about artistic mediums, such as music, gaming, and movies. But if I’m inspired I may include other mediums like prose and poetry. In addition to this I want to provide critical writing in the form of the occasional review of new cultural artifacts, or possibly retrospective reviews of not-so-new releases to help my readers understand my general biases and expectations from differing mediums. Or to just give me a chance to talk about things I really enjoy or don’t enjoy.

But let’s move onto something I’m sure will raise questions. Why did I call my blog, Pop Culture Gumbo? I went with this name because I wanted it to be something concise that communicates the main goal of my writing. That is, taking different forms popular culture and sort of mixing them together with different lines of criticism and questions. That, when mixed together can produce something meaningful and tasty, much like that Louisiana stew.

But like any good Gumbo, or the Jazz that goes with it, the more ingredients we can get in the pot the better. As such, I encourage any sort of feedback in the comments section of my blog and I will do my best to get back to your comments, questions, concerns, retorts, and so-on in a timely manner. But please try and be respectful of others ideas and feelings. This does not mean that you have to agree with others to post comments but just do it in a respectful fashion. I would hate if some sour ingredients spoiled what I hope can evolve into some important discussions.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my first post, and I hope you’ll come back soon when I put up my first post proper. In which, I will pose the question of whether or not fun is a necessary component of an enjoyable and important Video Game.