(no subject)

[kradeelav]

There is something that feels defanged about the current zeitgeist. Not that everything being made feels that way. There are weird twitters and weird blogs and Nathan For You, and any number of other good things that are not strictly uncomfortable. But when I think of art that most reflects “the moment” it strikes me as having a curious lack of bite. It’s not punk. There are “aesthetically” punk scenes. There are zines, mohawks, and edgelords galore. But these things, though they’ll still discomfit someone, nonetheless feel in some way de rigeur. They’ve gotten institutional. They’ve become models. Making a zine because you want to be the kind of person that makes a zine. Aspiring to be published. Aspiring to get an Oscar. Aspiring to get into a school or work at a company. Wanting to succeed in an immediately legible way.

And it’s not that that’s bad, on its face. It’s natural to aspire, and institutional success is a neutral thing. If a movie is popular it’s popular—that doesn’t mean it’s either good or bad. Same with an aesthetic that goes mainstream. It’s not bad, say, that professional clothing has gotten less formal or that people don’t laugh so much at certain kinds of jokes. But it does mean that (in America in 2018 at more companies than ever in the past) you won’t be a rebel if you wear jeans to work. It wouldn’t be “bad” to wear jeans. It just wouldn’t be punk.

The punk thing is the thing that’s actually uncomfortable. The punk thing is the thing that is indifferent to reward, though it might get rewarded. The punk thing is the thing that doesn’t care if you like it. The punk thing is not always good. The punk thing also isn’t the angry thing or the rebellious thing. Not even the anti-institutional thing. The punk thing is simply the thing that doesn’t treat institutions sacredly. It treats them as mutable, or ridiculous, or unimportant, or any other way you treat things that you don’t put on a pedestal. A Marvel movie could be punk if it didn’t care if anyone saw it.

(And when I say “institutions” I don’t just mean organizations with money, logos or brick and mortar locations. I mean things that are organized and legible, period. The car commercial TV aesthetic feels like an institution.)

Perhaps what I count as “the moment” is wrong. Perhaps I’m biased. Perhaps it’s always been this way. But it nonetheless feels like most things being made these days are unusually unsuspicious of social approval. And that seems like a shame. Not, again, because one mode is inherently good or bad. But because a lack of punk means a lack of variety. Fewer new experiences. Less interesting discomfort.

Originally by thesublemon