Cult
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A cult following is a group of fans devoted to a specific persons or cultural artifacts, examples are films, television or radio programs, comic books, musicians, writers and directors. These dedicated followings are usually relatively small and pertain to items that don't have broad mainstream appeal due to their underground subject matter or experimental style.
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Definition
For a general definition of what it means for an item to be a 'cult item' there are certain guidelines. First of all keep in mind that many fans of cult items have a religious, idolatrous and fetishistic devotion -- appropriately so because the terms cult, fetish and idol have their origins in 'primitive' religion. Furthermore, cult items rarely belong to the mainstream and the devotion of their fans is often obsessive. There is also a historical and genre element: cult items generally don't gain that status until some time after their release and certain genres such as horror, erotica and science fiction attract cults more easily than others. In literary and cinematic fiction, cult items often contain "subversive" elements like references to non-normative forms of sexuality and as such have often been censored or banned. Lastly, cult items are collectible and are avidly collected.
By medium
cult fiction - cult directors - cult films - cult movie stars - cult objects - cult television - underground music
Related
audience - camp - classic - cult following - cult of personality - cult classic - cult status - fan - god - greatness - idol - love - minority - non mainstream - nostalgia - obsession - rare - religion - underground
AHD Definition
- Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
- The object of such devotion.
- An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest. --AHD
Devoted aficionados
Something that has a following of devoted aficionados.
See the following:
- cult fiction
- cult director
- cult figure
- cult film
- cult movie stars
- cult objects (product design)
- cult radio
- cult television
- A cult of personality is sometimes used to refer to a political leader and his following, voluntary or otherwise.
Definition (religion)
In anthropology, an organization for the conduct of ritual, magical, or other religious observances. Many so-called primitive tribes, for example, have ancestor cults, in which dead ancestors are considered divine and activities are organized to respect their memory and invoke their aid. A cult is also a religious group held together by a dominant, often charismatic individual, or by the worship of a divinity, an idol, or some other object. (See animism, fetish, and totemism.) --Bartleby.com
- A practice within a religion; see cult (religion).
- A religious group often existing on the margins of society; see cult and new religious movement.
- A group which exploits and destroys its members or even non-members; see destructive cult
- Some of these cults have been known to participate in cult homicide and/or cult suicide.
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_%28disambiguation%29 [Oct 2004]
Devotion
- Ardent, often selfless affection and dedication, as to a person or principle. See Synonyms at love.
--AHD
Defining cult items
- Cult items are in the eye of the beholders.
- Cult items are may or may not be mainstream.
- Cult items attract obsessive fans
- Cult items generally don't gain that status until some time after their release.
- An item that attracts too large a number of fans cannot be regarded as a cult item.
- In fiction, items of certain genres (horror, science fiction) are more likely to be regarded as "cult" items.
- The attraction of cult items is sometimes totally different to the original intentions of the author.
- In fiction, cult items often contain "subversive" elements like references to homosexuality.
- Cult items are collectible and are avidly collected.
Cult classic
A cult classic is a work of fiction, it can be a film or television show or book, that is extremely popular with a select audience. A cult classic may or may not enjoy mainstream success. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_classic [Oct 2004] Cult in the mass produced arts
In Literature, one might refer to "cult books" or "cult fiction", in cinema, one refers to "cult movies", "cult cinema" or "cult films", in music one refers not to cult, but to "underground music", "alternative".
