Is there a cap to the size something can be and still be considered a subculture? Because you've also written about like China. I mean I think it's basically because my origins are as a foreign correspondent but in a way what is fundamentally the task is trying to make something familiar that is strange. The good stuff is where you get to the end and not to be sort of pat about it but you're like well I guess actually there is a relatable element to this always.
Evan Osnos is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury.
“I'm always trying to get inside a subculture. That's the thing that I think has been the most enduring, attractive element for me. Is there a world that has its own manners and vocabulary and internal rhythms and status structure? And who looks down on whom? And why? And who venerates whom? Who's a big deal in these worlds? And if I can get into that, it doesn't even really matter to me that much what the subculture is. I'm fascinated by trying to map that thing out.”
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