Popular Culture
Iain Sinclair's book and film, London Orbital which was published in 2003 is based on a year long journey around the M25 on foot.
The M25 (including the A282 Dartford Crossing) is known for its frequent traffic jams. These have been the subject of so much comment from such an early stage that even at the official opening ceremony Margaret Thatcher complained about "those who carp and criticise". The jams have inspired jokes ("the world's biggest car park", "the London Orbital Car Park") and songs (Chris Rea's "The Road to Hell").
The M25 plays an important role in the comedy-fantasy novel Good Omens, being "evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man". The demon character, Crowley, had manipulated the design of the M25 to resemble a Satanic sigil.
The M25 enjoyed a more positive reputation among ravers in the late 1980s when this new orbital motorway became a popular route to the parties that took place around the outskirts of London. This use of the M25 for these raves inspired the name of electronic duo Orbital.
Read more about this topic: M25 Motorway
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)
“The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)