Thursday, November 10, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
HIPSTER ANIMALS & AFICIONADOS & HEMINGWAY VS. OSCAR WILDE
I really love this blog, I really do.
http://hipster-animals.tumblr.com
As much as I do love the blog, not sure how I feel about this whole hipster thing.
I mean, it's the same with every thing that you label - it's hard to define! Sometimes I feel it's just some imaginary kind of thing - does it really exist? It probably does. Eric said it's about liking something not because you like it, but because you're being ironic or you do it to put it on. I guess it's uncool or unhipster to be really into things or passionate about something? I don't know and don't care.
The great American author, Ernest Hemingway, talked about passion or "Aficion" as it was called in Spain, in a conversation about matadors with the hotelier Montoya in his novel Fiesta - The Sun Also Rises. In Montonya's eyes only the truest bull-fighters had "Aficion" and only the truest lover of anything can be called an "Aficionado". It's a great book - it's about a young writer hanging around Spain with his friends during a Fiesta in Pamploma. The book involves lots of bull fighting, running with the bulls and lots of descriptions of them sleeping, eating breakfast at cafes, getting drunk, hitting each other, getting angsty and generally being dramatic.
I love reading Hemingway. I remember the first time I read the first 8 chapters of Fiesta and I dreamt in his prose - it was weird - like I wanted to read it so badly that my mind, in some weird dream logic, was trying to finish the book. I was just dreaming of an empty page, just filling up with Hemingway-ish sentences made up by my mind. There's something deep and true about his work. It's stark and subtle and frank and straightforward.
He served in the First World War as an American ambulance driver in Italy and then after working as a journalist for a while decided to turn his hand at writing novels, travelling around the world and generally being manly - hunting, running with the bulls, shooting things. His book, A Moveable Feast describes his times in Paris as a young man. Hemingway isn't for everyone, his prose is very sparse, he rarely uses adjectives and you can get frustrated with the pace sometimes. I think to appreciate him, you need to read past the simple language. There's a lot of subtext, and while he doesn't explicitly describe the mindsets of the characters, you kind of realise their hopes and losses and dreams and fears that haunt them and insecurities in the simple way he writes and describes the way they talk and act. Once you read more and more of his books, you realise that it's very autobiographical and there's a lot of things that are probably true and lived and experienced by Hemingway in his books - when you look closely some of those details and observations sound a bit too authentic to be made up. It's wonderfully subtle in that way, too.
To use a comparison, he's the opposite of Oscar Wilde. Wilde was a dandy, all wit and flourishes and irony with an impressive command of written word; a true virtuoso and purveyor of gorgeously ornamented prose. In some ways, using Eric's definition again, I'd say Oscar Wilde is like the hipster and Hemingway is like the aficionado. Hemingway doesn't say much, but when he feels something, at least he means it and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks - Wilde's more about impressing, insulting, provoking a reaction and being part of a tight knit circle, all-knowing glances and all-knowing smiles from which sharp little retorts emerge.
While Wilde is more skilled than Hemingway, I like them both. However, I feel more of an affinity (perhaps, aspirational) with Ernest Hemingway. He takes up much more of my bookshelf than Wilde.
http://hipster-animals.tumblr.com
As much as I do love the blog, not sure how I feel about this whole hipster thing.
I mean, it's the same with every thing that you label - it's hard to define! Sometimes I feel it's just some imaginary kind of thing - does it really exist? It probably does. Eric said it's about liking something not because you like it, but because you're being ironic or you do it to put it on. I guess it's uncool or unhipster to be really into things or passionate about something? I don't know and don't care.
The great American author, Ernest Hemingway, talked about passion or "Aficion" as it was called in Spain, in a conversation about matadors with the hotelier Montoya in his novel Fiesta - The Sun Also Rises. In Montonya's eyes only the truest bull-fighters had "Aficion" and only the truest lover of anything can be called an "Aficionado". It's a great book - it's about a young writer hanging around Spain with his friends during a Fiesta in Pamploma. The book involves lots of bull fighting, running with the bulls and lots of descriptions of them sleeping, eating breakfast at cafes, getting drunk, hitting each other, getting angsty and generally being dramatic.
I love reading Hemingway. I remember the first time I read the first 8 chapters of Fiesta and I dreamt in his prose - it was weird - like I wanted to read it so badly that my mind, in some weird dream logic, was trying to finish the book. I was just dreaming of an empty page, just filling up with Hemingway-ish sentences made up by my mind. There's something deep and true about his work. It's stark and subtle and frank and straightforward.
He served in the First World War as an American ambulance driver in Italy and then after working as a journalist for a while decided to turn his hand at writing novels, travelling around the world and generally being manly - hunting, running with the bulls, shooting things. His book, A Moveable Feast describes his times in Paris as a young man. Hemingway isn't for everyone, his prose is very sparse, he rarely uses adjectives and you can get frustrated with the pace sometimes. I think to appreciate him, you need to read past the simple language. There's a lot of subtext, and while he doesn't explicitly describe the mindsets of the characters, you kind of realise their hopes and losses and dreams and fears that haunt them and insecurities in the simple way he writes and describes the way they talk and act. Once you read more and more of his books, you realise that it's very autobiographical and there's a lot of things that are probably true and lived and experienced by Hemingway in his books - when you look closely some of those details and observations sound a bit too authentic to be made up. It's wonderfully subtle in that way, too.
To use a comparison, he's the opposite of Oscar Wilde. Wilde was a dandy, all wit and flourishes and irony with an impressive command of written word; a true virtuoso and purveyor of gorgeously ornamented prose. In some ways, using Eric's definition again, I'd say Oscar Wilde is like the hipster and Hemingway is like the aficionado. Hemingway doesn't say much, but when he feels something, at least he means it and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks - Wilde's more about impressing, insulting, provoking a reaction and being part of a tight knit circle, all-knowing glances and all-knowing smiles from which sharp little retorts emerge.
While Wilde is more skilled than Hemingway, I like them both. However, I feel more of an affinity (perhaps, aspirational) with Ernest Hemingway. He takes up much more of my bookshelf than Wilde.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Mixed Six: I Want You
Made a mini-mix of pop-songs that involve the words "I Want You". These songs are awesome to listen to because they deal with desire, lust and obsession - gotta love it!
Apparently was written as UK dance-duo Moloko was on the cusp of breaking up as a couple and as a band. Really dig the disco-y, YMO vibes in this one but it doesn't hide the longing in Roisin Murphy's voice.
Needed to add in some Marvin too. Those chords and the combo of those vocal harmonies makes me shiver. If there ever was a chord progression for longing and desire, it's in this song.
Speaking of brooding, just watch her face as she sings. Haunting. Great accompanying by the band but god, such a brave performance from Fiona Apple.
Crazy riff. I couldn't make a "I want you" mixtape without throwing this one in!
Cool little Jeff Buckley cover by Kylie Auldist and South-Pacific Antipodean soul-funk band The Bamboos. Ouch. Throbby.
Here's something a bit more contemporary from Cali-surf-pop-fuzz-girl-group rockers Best Coast. I love the light and shade in the song. In fact, if you ever want an album of unrequited love songs, buy the Best Coast album.
Apparently was written as UK dance-duo Moloko was on the cusp of breaking up as a couple and as a band. Really dig the disco-y, YMO vibes in this one but it doesn't hide the longing in Roisin Murphy's voice.
Needed to add in some Marvin too. Those chords and the combo of those vocal harmonies makes me shiver. If there ever was a chord progression for longing and desire, it's in this song.
Speaking of brooding, just watch her face as she sings. Haunting. Great accompanying by the band but god, such a brave performance from Fiona Apple.
Crazy riff. I couldn't make a "I want you" mixtape without throwing this one in!
Cool little Jeff Buckley cover by Kylie Auldist and South-Pacific Antipodean soul-funk band The Bamboos. Ouch. Throbby.
Here's something a bit more contemporary from Cali-surf-pop-fuzz-girl-group rockers Best Coast. I love the light and shade in the song. In fact, if you ever want an album of unrequited love songs, buy the Best Coast album.
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