Phoebe Maltz says:
A hipster lives in the world of irony, and as such hates sincerity, not global warming. Hipsters look with scorn upon student activists, politicians, and, of course, those bastard trust-fund-having, Williamsburg-colonizing hipsters. Al Gore's sanctimonious An Inconvenient Truth is quite possibly the least hipster cinematic production of all time. So much so that if pressed to define "hipster," I would point to that movie and say, "Something not like that."That said--and this is the real point of this post--if "hipster" is being used in "Newsweek," maybe the phenomenon is finally over and the women of New York will at last trade the leggings in for the long-abandoned pants.
I have no idea how old Phoebe Maltz is . . . but she can't be very old if she thinks that the hipster phenomenon is going to be over soon.
Somewhere in the past few years, I crossed the threshold at which I m now old enough to remember how it used to be. Which makes it very hilarious to hang around people who think that they just invented sex and drinking binges. I was recently amused to be informed by a 28-year-old friend that, unlike the fogies I went to college with, people in his generation, frequently have friendly flings with buddies they do not actually intend to date seriously. No, really? Tell me more. And is it true that the people of your tribe slice the bread before you make the sandwiches?
Hipsters have been around at least since I was in college, which, as any fogey can tell you, is when the universe began, anyway. To be sure, we did not have iPods, and without cell phones we had to engage in rather elaborate signalling mechanisms so that people would know what bar you were likely to be at on Saturday nights circa 11 pm. But the ironic cynicism, the clothing rumpled with exquisite care, the chain smoking, the obsessive competition over who could discover the obscurest band, all these we had. We even had the habituating of coffee shops, though I'm not sure one could then procure a triple chai latte with soy milk. We used to write in them, you see; we had this stuff called paper that was very useful for creating parodic autobiographies of Karl Marx penned in the style of John Irving.
It will never be over, Phoebe. It will never be over. Only the players will change.
People I went to college did many of these things and yet, I would never consider them "hipsters"... Maybe it's the lack of carefully rumpled clothing. Our clothes were rumpled because we were lazy.
Maybe it's a regional thing.
EI
And in the even darker, pre-McArdle ages revealed by my name, we didn't even have CDs. Or PCs. Just these things called records and typewriters. But, interestingly, we did have both irony and casual sex.
Phoebe Maltz may be young, but she has stupidness beyond her years. Is someone out there claiming that "An Inconvenient Truth" was hip, or non-hip? How about the new Army counterinsurgency manual -- hip, or non-hip? What about GIS Crescent imaging of the Anatolian plateau? Hipster? Non-hipster? I wonder what Jelly Roll Morton thought of the resolutions of the Second Zionist World Congress. Or, rather, what some boring reactionary girl in the 1920s resentful over her own lack of hipness thought about some progressive political initiative which had nothing to do with hipness, but which she opposed, just as she opposed "hipsters", out of her own fearfulness and reactionary instincts. But we'll never know, will we? Because no one remembers such people, or cares what they thought.
Hipsters have been around, under that name, since the 1940s. Not continuously -- the word fell out of common usage in the '60s, and didn't get picked up again till the '90s. But ironic slackers who hang out in coffee bars and go to nightclubs are nothing new.
are you a hipster megan? I have never met anyone who would admit to it.. your writing captured the essence of hipster "we are betterness, because we are different." Which is great irony when you run into groups of hipsters. I love that.
are you a hipster megan? I have never met anyone who would admit to it.. your writing captured the essence of hipster "we are betterness, because we are different." Which is great irony when you run into groups of hipsters. I love that.
Ah for the days of "slipsticks" and drafting tables, back there in the 60s hipster gap.
Leggings? I don't think I've seen anyone over 8 wearing leggings. Are women in New York wearing leggings? Are mukluks the next big thing?
"Everything changes except the avant-garde"
I think that's from 1924 or thereabouts.
brooksfoe, you said,
"Is someone out there claiming that "An Inconvenient Truth" was hip, or non-hip?"
No, but many, along with you in this post are claiming that it is "progressive", a devastating misnomer, considering the entire ecovangelist movement wreaks of hysterical atavism and its own brand of reactionary pastoral romanticism, which in my eyes brands it as blindingly re-gressive. If we are to assume that hipsters are those who embrace aesthetic trends for their progressiveness, and that they seek to constantly improve and reinvent those in themselves in order to achieve some sense of individuality, combined with a hyper-awareness of the irony of human existence, we must also assume that naively sentimental altruistic theories and endeavors such as global warming activism would seem just as reactionary to hipsters themselves, whatever they may truly be.
My guess ... the skeptics, the iconoclasts, the undefinable. Most relevant, the hipster that drives his vintage 1976 Caddy Eldorado Convertible with the same pride as the ever contemptible Prius-owner is not going to give that talisman of hipness up because some moral blow hards tell him the emissions are contributing to the rapture.
hich makes it very hilarious to hang around people who think that they just invented sex and drinking binges.
Who, Baby Boomers?
Peter-
Fisking Time!
"No, but many, along with you in this post are claiming that it is "progressive", a devastating "misnomer, considering the entire ecovangelist movement wreaks of hysterical atavism and its own brand of reactionary pastoral romanticism, which in my eyes brands it as blindingly re-gressive. "
Well, Al Gore is not a radical ecovangelist, so you are way off the mark here. Unless you are conflating ALL environmentalists (i.e., those people who do not want the environment destroyed) with ecovangelists, what you say is meaningless. This phrase is hysterical: "wreaks of hysterical atavism". Peter, put down the thesaurus. You are improperly using multiple words in this singular phrase. Give it up. Your writing sucks. Cut out the hyphens.
"If we are to assume that hipsters are those who embrace aesthetic trends for their progressiveness,"
So, by your definition, someone who, say, embraces forward thinking architecture is a hipster?
"and that they seek to constantly improve and reinvent those in themselves in order to achieve some sense of individuality,"
As I've said before, your writing sucks. How many prepositions did you try and cram into this meaningless sentence? "Those in themselves in order to achieve"??? What are you saying?
"combined with a hyper-awareness of the irony of human existence"
Unless you are being self-referential, this is nonsense.
"we must also assume that naively sentimental altruistic theories and endeavors such as global warming activism would seem just as reactionary to hipsters themselves, whatever they may truly be"
My guess ... the skeptics, the iconoclasts, the undefinable. Most relevant, the hipster that drives his vintage 1976 Caddy Eldorado Convertible with the same pride as the ever contemptible Prius-owner is not going to give that talisman of hipness up because some moral blow hards tell him the emissions are contributing to the rapture. "
Until you explain "naively sentimental" means, your comment is nonsensical.
Rickm
I only conflate the environmentalists who speak in apocalyptic proportions, and thus call for increased centralization ... i.e. "the consumer cannot be trusted to make the right decision in terms of car purchases and power supply, so we (Gore, Leviathan, et al.) must make it for you." We will not piddle away on whether or not GW is happening, and if it is, if it is being caused by man, suffice to say that a UN body convened to review abstracts on the matter and turn in draconian restrictions based on that most cursory "consensus" is in my mind somewhat suspect and hasty, and in fact I would remind any liberal who balks at the idea of surrendering liberties to the war against terror, that this surrender of liberties is a similar compromise.
As for "wreak", I confess, I meant to write "reek" as in "stink".
As for my too inclusive definition of "hipster", that was somewhat the point, is that it is open to interpretation but grounded in individuality, and frankly I was hoping that those reading my comment had some small knowledge of the set we were talking about anyway. So, I guess you are just a very egalitarian guy with no preconceived notions about anyone and have no idea who these hipsters really are. How very "hip" of you.
Finally, "naively sentimental". To "save the earth" ... or the environment, is a somewhat naive and sentimental notion. That we as human beings would have any real impact on the planet is tragically small-minded. Before we got here, and we've been here for the tiniest fraction of it's existence, conditions were much worse than we could ever make them with our so-called unnatural machinations and technological blights. Once we're gone, the earth isn't even going to know we were here. It is self-preservation. But the fact that it too often takes the rhetoric of Pastoral is what makes it naive and sentimental, and ultimately irrational.
As for my grammar ... I am sorry that my sentences are a tad long, and no I do not use a thesaurus ... I'm educated. But I believe they are all grammatically correct. You are, however, entitled to your opinion. If not, I suggest you form the Intergovernmental Panel on Preferred Grammar. That's got a nice ring to it.
MM wrote: Somewhere in the past few years, I crossed the threshold at which I m now old enough to remember how it used to be. Which makes it very hilarious to hang around people who think that they just invented sex and drinking binges.
Interesting. My own moment of dawning comprehension occurred when I looked back over the span of People Younger Than Me, and realized for the first time that high school girls are are far too annoying to be "cute".
The "Hipster Olympics" (an apt and loving adaptation of M. Python's "Upper Class Twit Of The Year") plays out all of these memes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM A key phrase: "... for any man with a faux-hawk and an eating-disorder."
I'm old enough to remember grunge. It comes as a bit of a shock that my generation did not invent sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, but it'll sink in eventually.
My point was obviously not that hipsters are the first-ever youth culture, or that chainsmoking and irony are somehow 2007-specific. Leggings-as-pants, along with the rest of the hipster movement/aesthetic, are, however, specific to a certain generation. My problem is not with youth culture in general but with, quite literally, the practice of wearing leggings as pants, so that, to borrow from "Absolutely Fabulous," "the world's your gynecologist."
My problem is not with youth culture in general but with, quite literally, the practice of wearing leggings as pants, so that, to borrow from "Absolutely Fabulous," "the world's your gynecologist."
There's power in numbers.
I want someone 20 years older to point out the naivety of someone in their 30's only just now noticing that people in their 20's don't realize that the "trends" they follow aren't that new at all.
Now THAT would be irony!
Actually, somewhere in the archives there are pictures of me sporting the fly leggings-as-pants aesthetic about 12 years ago. Sartorially, the hipsters of today look pretty much like my college roomates and me with shorter hair. And even that is changing.
Of course leggings were around in 1995. I remember them being cool for moments even before that. And perhaps you and your roommates were the primary influence for the women of Williamsburg. But there is nevertheless a specific aesthetic of this moment--one that borrows heavily from other eras, as do all, as everyone with even a slight awareness of fashion knows--but the way it's assembled today, along with the accompanying attitude, is still something particular.
The claim, brooksfoe, is that "An Inconvenient Truth" is sincere, and thus the antithesis of hispter irony.
Not that it is or is not "hip", as in "with it", as we said back in The Day; merely that it is not ironic, which I don't think is in question.
Megan: Hopefully you had less facial hair than modern hipsters, as well!
dunno, Phoebs, I think the point is that every gen thinks they are the new hipsters. If the name is different or not doesn't matter, the attitude remains...
oh, and leggings? were an 80's thing. Perhaps they were an even older thing, but I can't remember seeing them much before that... That was back when Michael Stipe had hair, there was an evil empire with nukes pointed at us, and it wasn't just about finding the most obscure band, but telling your friends how much theirs sucked in comparison.
Irony may well be that every generation is shocked when the newer genration tell them their music is so old fashioned...
this is a public service announcement... with guitars!
I'm 27 and I'm not even sure exactly what a hipster is.
Wikipedia has an article on leggings that asserts they have been worn as pants since the 1960s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leggings
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