The next big thing
Aug. 18th, 2002 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
godreamFirst off, the apology to myself and my imaginary readers for opening a diary and proceeding to ignore it for weeks. The working excuse is Fun With Blended Families. In spite of the previous sentence, I wouldn't give up (most of) either of my families for the world. It's just that DSL at one house and 14.4 bps on a good day at the other makes for schizophrenic spoiled/impatient net access.
All right then. In this, the first link-peppered entry, I'll first cross my fingers that HTML works 'round here... {edit after posting: It does, doesn't it. I'll have to see if I can change the default blue link color tomorrow... sorry about that, IRs.}
Big Fat Ugly General Disclaimer: (This bit goes for everything, I suppose.) This journal is my outlet. If you're offended feel free to tell me in that little comment section below, though I'd prefer civilly. Words I have to look up are an added bonus. :) But anyways -- I'm writing for myself and I'm not trying to be mean, but I may end up that way. Oops.
Big Fat Ugly Specific Disclaimer: I am neither punk nor goth. I doubt I fit the elite qualifications of any particular subculture, except perhaps geek. Frankly, that's what the whole rant's about. I'm not at all qualified, though, to be writing this. I know I don't know much on this particular topic, you don't have to tell me that. And I've nothing against punks/goths/whoever in general, only possibly certain ones mentioned below.
Addition: I reread this a day after posting it. It didn't make sense. Note to self: writing diary entries at 12:30 with a killer headache = bad idea. :P Not that that'll stop me in future.
Now. Today's rant, boys and girls, has been triggered by this, imsocomplicated's web journal. This is an entry in a blog that was probably made entirely as a troll for the "anti-Avril community". It features such gems as "56. What is the elusive quality that makes someone Punk? y0u dress like one!!!1". Now, I don't consider myself remotely punk. I haven't the faintest how one would go about dressing like one, my knowledge of punk music is scant, and personally I haven't a clue what the aforementioned "elusive quality" might be. The punk community, though, pounced on this like myself leaping upon a suitably vicious metaphor. In no uncertain terms they informed her repeatedly that if there was nothing less punk than thinking dressing punk was punk. Or something. And, even more important, that Avril Lavigne was not punk. Five pages of comments mainly along these lines. If it was a troll, someone is sitting and giggling, ecstatic, in a basement somewhere. All it takes is a few minutes of typing "pxnk", "AVRiL", "hot topic", and "lolz" and out of the walls come swarms of irate punks flaming the girl and telling her, in effect, "get out of our counterculture". As a certified antisocial freak, my idea of counterculture may be wrong. But the influx of flames to the troll left me feeling cynical. At the mere sight of a poser (or poseur, if you want to look classy and French or something) these herds of unique youth who spurn pop culture and mainstream ideas mob around to tell how much cooler they collectively are and how this one outsider will never ever manage to be really truly punk. Huh.
Someone wiser than I, a frequenter of the now defunct pleiades-net.com, once posted, "You want to be different like everyone else." It seems counterculture is being dragged kicking and screaming into the spotlight, where teenage consumers can see its coolness and flock to it, so it can become the new mainstream to be rebelled against. I don't know, does it ever seem silly to anyone else? (For a more reasoned "Avril Lavigne sucks" commentary you might try here
. I have no issue with this lady's reasoning (for that matter, I've little problem with the slavering mob's points); I just happen to be irrational on subjects I know nothing of.)
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Gother Than Thou, which (besides having the only address I've ever seen to spell it "luvcraft", earning a laugh in and of itself) proudly proclaims itself the Most Pretentious Card Game Ever. I know little more of goths than I do punks, but I am told this game is brimming with in-jokes that only begin with "This Corrosion". The impression I get is that it's a game for goths with senses of humor, who appreciate making fun of themselves. While I doubt there's a goth out there who cares what my opinion is, the website leaves me with a far different impression than even the most educated of Lavigne dissection, feeling whoever made this insane game is more mature than The Mob, in spite of appearances not quite so deathly serious and aware of their own pride.
Repeat disclaimer: This is an unfairly biased sample of cultures. I'm sure there's tons of punks with excellent flame-recognition skills and goths who just get offended at poking fun at themselves. This just happened to be the sites I found today. It's past midnight as I type these words, and I'm enough of a loser to desparately need sleep. That's all for now, folks.
All right then. In this, the first link-peppered entry, I'll first cross my fingers that HTML works 'round here... {edit after posting: It does, doesn't it. I'll have to see if I can change the default blue link color tomorrow... sorry about that, IRs.}
Big Fat Ugly General Disclaimer: (This bit goes for everything, I suppose.) This journal is my outlet. If you're offended feel free to tell me in that little comment section below, though I'd prefer civilly. Words I have to look up are an added bonus. :) But anyways -- I'm writing for myself and I'm not trying to be mean, but I may end up that way. Oops.
Big Fat Ugly Specific Disclaimer: I am neither punk nor goth. I doubt I fit the elite qualifications of any particular subculture, except perhaps geek. Frankly, that's what the whole rant's about. I'm not at all qualified, though, to be writing this. I know I don't know much on this particular topic, you don't have to tell me that. And I've nothing against punks/goths/whoever in general, only possibly certain ones mentioned below.
Addition: I reread this a day after posting it. It didn't make sense. Note to self: writing diary entries at 12:30 with a killer headache = bad idea. :P Not that that'll stop me in future.
Now. Today's rant, boys and girls, has been triggered by this, imsocomplicated's web journal. This is an entry in a blog that was probably made entirely as a troll for the "anti-Avril community". It features such gems as "56. What is the elusive quality that makes someone Punk? y0u dress like one!!!1". Now, I don't consider myself remotely punk. I haven't the faintest how one would go about dressing like one, my knowledge of punk music is scant, and personally I haven't a clue what the aforementioned "elusive quality" might be. The punk community, though, pounced on this like myself leaping upon a suitably vicious metaphor. In no uncertain terms they informed her repeatedly that if there was nothing less punk than thinking dressing punk was punk. Or something. And, even more important, that Avril Lavigne was not punk. Five pages of comments mainly along these lines. If it was a troll, someone is sitting and giggling, ecstatic, in a basement somewhere. All it takes is a few minutes of typing "pxnk", "AVRiL", "hot topic", and "lolz" and out of the walls come swarms of irate punks flaming the girl and telling her, in effect, "get out of our counterculture". As a certified antisocial freak, my idea of counterculture may be wrong. But the influx of flames to the troll left me feeling cynical. At the mere sight of a poser (or poseur, if you want to look classy and French or something) these herds of unique youth who spurn pop culture and mainstream ideas mob around to tell how much cooler they collectively are and how this one outsider will never ever manage to be really truly punk. Huh.
Someone wiser than I, a frequenter of the now defunct pleiades-net.com, once posted, "You want to be different like everyone else." It seems counterculture is being dragged kicking and screaming into the spotlight, where teenage consumers can see its coolness and flock to it, so it can become the new mainstream to be rebelled against. I don't know, does it ever seem silly to anyone else? (For a more reasoned "Avril Lavigne sucks" commentary you might try here
. I have no issue with this lady's reasoning (for that matter, I've little problem with the slavering mob's points); I just happen to be irrational on subjects I know nothing of.)
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Gother Than Thou, which (besides having the only address I've ever seen to spell it "luvcraft", earning a laugh in and of itself) proudly proclaims itself the Most Pretentious Card Game Ever. I know little more of goths than I do punks, but I am told this game is brimming with in-jokes that only begin with "This Corrosion". The impression I get is that it's a game for goths with senses of humor, who appreciate making fun of themselves. While I doubt there's a goth out there who cares what my opinion is, the website leaves me with a far different impression than even the most educated of Lavigne dissection, feeling whoever made this insane game is more mature than The Mob, in spite of appearances not quite so deathly serious and aware of their own pride.
Repeat disclaimer: This is an unfairly biased sample of cultures. I'm sure there's tons of punks with excellent flame-recognition skills and goths who just get offended at poking fun at themselves. This just happened to be the sites I found today. It's past midnight as I type these words, and I'm enough of a loser to desparately need sleep. That's all for now, folks.
