Writing worth Reading

[Faust]

Every American must read this. Free country, you say...

[Pumpfish]

"Curbing crime does not depend on reversing social pathologies or alleviating social grievances; it depends on erecting small, annoying barriers to entry."

Yay for small erections.

Best barrier to crime, satisfaction guaranteed.

[between]

A handful of dust

a great essay about modernism, death and bunkers by J.G. Ballard.

[stagename]

I'm a bit late to the party but I wanted to share a few thoughts in regard of the discussion on hipsterism. I'll cite some stuff if you guys are interested in a deeper dive into the subject. PM for articles. I'd be most interested to extend the conversation in another thread if there's an interest..

(1) What links communities today? Lowrey notes that "social background was entirely overlooked and it plays a big role". Most academic research in consumption communities done in the last 10 years agrees that traditional categories such as social class, demographic traits, etc. are not as central as they used to be for youth communities (or any communities for that matter; see Schouten and McAlexander 1995; Holt 1997). What seems to link communities in our post modern consumption-based world is the linking value (Cova 1997) of products, services, brands and places. Thus, rather than organizing around their class (e.g., Hebdige 1979), consumers organize around particular products, brands, etc. SZ is a great example of this. This fits the central idea behind the consumer culture theory school of thoughts that goods are symbolically used by consumers for their meanings to pursue their life projects, e.g. see Holt 2004).

(2) Rebellion, modernism and the post modern consumer: First, there is still an opposition to mainstream/dominant culture in consumption communities (see Kates 2002, 2004; Kozinets 2001; Luedicke, Giesler and Thompson 2008; Goulding et al. 2009). This opposition, though, is not as linked to political projects as it once has been (e.g., hippies). My point of view on the subject is that through our move from modern to post modern consumers (Firat and Venkatesh 1995), we lost binary opposition that were central for that type of political projects (e.g., hippies vs the establishment) to fragmented, multiple, and often oppositional selves. Thus, since those opposition are now played at the individual level and between multiples consumption communities (tribes might be more adequate here, see Maffesoli 1996), there is no central project around which to organize political action. This somewhat echoes Faust ideas of the co-option of rebellious ideas by the market. You named Kurt Cobain but I believe Madonna was one of the first artist to push this to its peak. But even in the 50s, movements with rebellious components was co-opted by the music industry (e.g., the apparition of rock'n'roll) so we might be looking at a more complex phenomenon here. I'm slowly working on a paper on ideological transgression, where artists borrow "rebellious/transgressive" aspects of subcultures to enhance their persona..

Schouten and McAlexander 1995, Subculture of consumption.
Holt, Douglas 1997; Post-structuralism lifestyle analysis;
Holt, Douglas 2004; How Brands become Icons
Cova, Bernard 1997; Community and consumption
Hebdige, Dick 1979; Subculture: The meaning of style
Kates, Steven M. 2002, The Protean quality of subcultural consumption
Kates, Steven M. 2004, The dynamics of brand legitimacy
Kozinets, Robert V. 2001; Utopian Consumption
Luedicke, Thompson and Giesler 2008; Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism
Goulding et al. 2009; The marketplace management of illicit pleasures
Firat and Venkatesh 1995; Liberatory postmodernism and the reenchantment of consumption
Maffesoli 1996; The times of the tribes

[endersgame]

today's nyt op-ed

Why I'm leaving Goldman Sachs

[Faust]

/\ H.O.L.Y. SHIT. This should set off a serious media storm. Bravo!!!

[Urthwhyte]

Rather than setting off a media storm, I feel it'll merely reinforce the notions of those who dislike the current financial system while changing nothing for those invested in the status quo. I got the sense that he's bitter about receiving a small bonus this year and wants to set himself up to be the next Michael Lewis.

His seniority is also less than the article implies.

[michael_kard]

Yup, I felt the same way when I read this. As if Goldman Sachs was an ethical company in the 90s.

[MJRH]

this thread needs a bump

"What's, in a way, missing in today's world is more biology of the Internet. [...] Many of these things we read about in the front page of the newspaper every day, about what's proper or improper, or ethical or unethical, really concern this issue of autonomous self-replicating codes. What happens if you subscribe to a service and then as part of that service, unbeknownst to you, a piece of self-replicating code inhabits your machine, and it goes out and does something else? Who is responsible for that? And we're in an increasingly gray zone as to where that's going."

edge

memory locations are just wires turned sideways in time

[Faust]

The Case for Criticism.

This is so sorely needed, doubly so in fashion. RIP, Robert Hughes.

[Faust]

A.O. SCOTT on materialism and the culture of entitlement in movies (and live, obviously). Very zeitgeisty article, I think.

[peerc]

One of my faves

A Modest Proposal: For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to the Public

Jonathan Swift

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

#eatyourkids

[galia]

How Hijackers Commandeered Over 130 American Planes — In 5 Years

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-of-hijacking/

[Macro]

Another example of why this man was quite possibly a genius... his continued polarization, coupled with his apparently omnipotent influence in every conceivable strata of society, of human awareness, prove irrefutably this man was not only a prophet, but an iconoclast in the strongest, vilest sense.

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4424/the-art-of-fiction-no-36-william-s-burroughs

an exerpt....

"Why is the wordless state so desirable?

BURROUGHS

I think it's the evolutionary trend. I think that words are an around-the-world, oxcart way of doing things, awkward instruments, and they will be laid aside eventually, probably sooner than we think. This is something that will happen in the space age. Most serious writers refuse to make themselves available to the things that technology is doing. I've never been able to understand this sort of fear. Many of them are afraid of tape recorders and the idea of using any mechanical means for literary purposes seems to them some sort of a sacrilege. This is one objection to the cut-ups. There's been a lot of that, a sort of a superstitious reverence for the word. My God, they say, you can't cut up these words. Why can't I? I find it much easier to get interest in the cut-ups from people who are not writers—doctors, lawyers, or engineers, any open-minded, fairly intelligent person—than from those who are."

[Faust]

George Saunder commencement address

http://nyti.ms/14DN0yv