[Astromancer]

Popular Media

Hierarchical societies always seem to have issues with popular entertainment. Japan constantly put the harshest restrictions on the Kubuki theatre ( the aristocratic Noh drama fared far better). The actors, even when acknowledged as great artists, were treated as whores and often had to earn most of their livings as such. Christian Rome outlawed theatre, but kept gladitorial games. Islam didn't even allow the formation of live theatre traditions outside of Iran and often outlawed music. If a performer became too popular for the comfort of the scholar class in China, they were often exiled to poor districts. Too popular generally meant little more than name recognition.

Even Elizabethan England, known for its theatre, treated actors as beggars under law. And Scotland, which in the same period had its own brilliant theatre, often praised by the English who saw it as the equal of their own, got rid of all the manuscripts and printed little if any of its literature for religious reasons.

So the question would be, how does the 3I suppress popular art and media?