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Mar. 13th, 2003 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labrujahSome interesting thoughts from my friend Shel, (which I wish I'd happened upon a couple years ago when I was trying to talk about my photo show, which was Mardi Gras/Circus/Xtra Action Marching Band: Spectacle and the Moment)--
"last night a friend asked me 'how do i describe to people outside your scene what your scene is about, like someone from the new york times... marching
bands, costumes, fire, rides, parades, these words don't tell them about the essence.'"
i thought... and suggested the word "Rabelesque."
Francois Rabelais (about 1483-1553) was a writer, most famous for his story about Gargantua and Pantegruel, which took nearly 20 years to write and is
probably my favorite book of all time. it's pure, raw humor, that spares no one of any class, gender, or race the pleasure of being made fun of. its about a giant and his absurd life of excessiveness in education, libations, play, sleep, and relationships.
once upon a time, before the post-feudal class system of the rennaisaince, the 'grotesque' alongside the fool, the feast, and the carnival sat parallel to the 'beautiful', the king, the marketplace, church and ritual. for every event that represented piety and professionalism, there was a corresponding
festival that mocked its institution. this was not about satire. it was not about irony. laughter, name calling, masks, costumes, trickery, pranks, and
spectacles were not a reaction *to* institution, but a part of it. the world, in this way, was one world of two dimensions, with laughter the unifying element. and more importantly, everyone, from the king to the street bum, participated in a space where all rules were suspended. people could drink excessively, deficate in public, pat eachother on the belly and call each other names. [you can read 60 pages about this in the introduction of mikhail bahktins 'rabelais and his world' (1968) which i highly recommend.] it could be argued that rabelais, shakespeare, and cervantes were the last writers in history to really capture this spirit before it was
known there was a spirit to be catched. later writers and philosophers demonstrate elements of the carnival spirit, but its diluted and reduced from equality, or two sides of the same coin, to what is now called "lower" art. it's labeled "amusing" but not profound. and in our world that has separetd carnival from institution, carnival can only be a reaction to
institution, because of its lower place in the hierarchy. this is why most comedy is satire... it isn't just for laughter's sake, it is a response to
it's 'parent' authority.
that said, you and i both know there are movements very alive that are fun for funs sake, at least at their essence. the cacaophony society being the
best example of this. i've heard people at madagascar talk about wanting to create the unexpected, the magical, the wonder. i've heard people at blackkat talk about the freedom of festival culture. rubulad has always been a festival of fools. burningman promotes a society of all spectacle. there are many others.. marching bands, twirlettes, burlesque dancers, pornographic clowns, puppet makers, bicycle pirates, giant chickenskunks, sword swallowers, trapeze artists, contortionists, music makers, story
tellers, pranksters, and so on among us. we make parades, and carnivals, practical jokes, and all night dance parties that celebrate moving the body
in strange ways. we dazzle. we celebrate. we suspend the rules. not because we hate institution (though some may), but because we are *part* of that
institution, we are part of culture. therefor we make culture. we play. and we are free. we are united in our constant making and breaking, inventing /re-inventing, death and renewal.
i was looking through an old book i have called carnival of chaos, which is actually dedicated to arrow's (blackkat) little girl felix. it's about a two
and a half month nomadic festival (of which arrow was a big part) that occured the summer of 95. originally it was a bunch of zines, but autonomedia released it as a collection in 96. this is some of what it says,
"This is the story of our traveling outlaw party. our dropout circus. our carnival of chaos. the whole sordid tale of when we left new york in june,
to when we all went our separate ways in minneapolis, two and a half months later.... it's the story of a bunch of clueless but slightly talented
people, not at all knowing what they were doing, racing against time along the highways and the train lines, not always knowing why, but somehow
managing to make it across the country with virtually no money. it's the story of a bunch of very different networking subcultures. the cultures underground - feeding off the waste of a dying parent culture - growing out of the cracks in the cement like weeds, slowly taking root under all the strip malls and the jails.... it's a story about breaking down barriers,
putting up walls, building bridges and burning them down.... it's a story of wild ecstatic success and no hope crash and burn failure. whatever it is,
it's a damn good story."
making and breaking, inventing / re-inventing, death and renewal. carnival for carnival sake.
rabelais is the person who i think best exemplifies this state of being, this freedom and all the ugliness of which beauty is a part. mockery to
unite, not divide. i propose we are rabelesque - part of a long lineage rooted in the possibilities of imagination. we can call it something else
once we, together, make something truly spectacular that is remembered and still inspiring, hundreds of years later. and i bet it won't be a book.
"last night a friend asked me 'how do i describe to people outside your scene what your scene is about, like someone from the new york times... marching
bands, costumes, fire, rides, parades, these words don't tell them about the essence.'"
i thought... and suggested the word "Rabelesque."
Francois Rabelais (about 1483-1553) was a writer, most famous for his story about Gargantua and Pantegruel, which took nearly 20 years to write and is
probably my favorite book of all time. it's pure, raw humor, that spares no one of any class, gender, or race the pleasure of being made fun of. its about a giant and his absurd life of excessiveness in education, libations, play, sleep, and relationships.
once upon a time, before the post-feudal class system of the rennaisaince, the 'grotesque' alongside the fool, the feast, and the carnival sat parallel to the 'beautiful', the king, the marketplace, church and ritual. for every event that represented piety and professionalism, there was a corresponding
festival that mocked its institution. this was not about satire. it was not about irony. laughter, name calling, masks, costumes, trickery, pranks, and
spectacles were not a reaction *to* institution, but a part of it. the world, in this way, was one world of two dimensions, with laughter the unifying element. and more importantly, everyone, from the king to the street bum, participated in a space where all rules were suspended. people could drink excessively, deficate in public, pat eachother on the belly and call each other names. [you can read 60 pages about this in the introduction of mikhail bahktins 'rabelais and his world' (1968) which i highly recommend.] it could be argued that rabelais, shakespeare, and cervantes were the last writers in history to really capture this spirit before it was
known there was a spirit to be catched. later writers and philosophers demonstrate elements of the carnival spirit, but its diluted and reduced from equality, or two sides of the same coin, to what is now called "lower" art. it's labeled "amusing" but not profound. and in our world that has separetd carnival from institution, carnival can only be a reaction to
institution, because of its lower place in the hierarchy. this is why most comedy is satire... it isn't just for laughter's sake, it is a response to
it's 'parent' authority.
that said, you and i both know there are movements very alive that are fun for funs sake, at least at their essence. the cacaophony society being the
best example of this. i've heard people at madagascar talk about wanting to create the unexpected, the magical, the wonder. i've heard people at blackkat talk about the freedom of festival culture. rubulad has always been a festival of fools. burningman promotes a society of all spectacle. there are many others.. marching bands, twirlettes, burlesque dancers, pornographic clowns, puppet makers, bicycle pirates, giant chickenskunks, sword swallowers, trapeze artists, contortionists, music makers, story
tellers, pranksters, and so on among us. we make parades, and carnivals, practical jokes, and all night dance parties that celebrate moving the body
in strange ways. we dazzle. we celebrate. we suspend the rules. not because we hate institution (though some may), but because we are *part* of that
institution, we are part of culture. therefor we make culture. we play. and we are free. we are united in our constant making and breaking, inventing /re-inventing, death and renewal.
i was looking through an old book i have called carnival of chaos, which is actually dedicated to arrow's (blackkat) little girl felix. it's about a two
and a half month nomadic festival (of which arrow was a big part) that occured the summer of 95. originally it was a bunch of zines, but autonomedia released it as a collection in 96. this is some of what it says,
"This is the story of our traveling outlaw party. our dropout circus. our carnival of chaos. the whole sordid tale of when we left new york in june,
to when we all went our separate ways in minneapolis, two and a half months later.... it's the story of a bunch of clueless but slightly talented
people, not at all knowing what they were doing, racing against time along the highways and the train lines, not always knowing why, but somehow
managing to make it across the country with virtually no money. it's the story of a bunch of very different networking subcultures. the cultures underground - feeding off the waste of a dying parent culture - growing out of the cracks in the cement like weeds, slowly taking root under all the strip malls and the jails.... it's a story about breaking down barriers,
putting up walls, building bridges and burning them down.... it's a story of wild ecstatic success and no hope crash and burn failure. whatever it is,
it's a damn good story."
making and breaking, inventing / re-inventing, death and renewal. carnival for carnival sake.
rabelais is the person who i think best exemplifies this state of being, this freedom and all the ugliness of which beauty is a part. mockery to
unite, not divide. i propose we are rabelesque - part of a long lineage rooted in the possibilities of imagination. we can call it something else
once we, together, make something truly spectacular that is remembered and still inspiring, hundreds of years later. and i bet it won't be a book.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-14 07:21 am (UTC)I try to live in that world, sometimes I succeed sometimes not.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-14 04:44 pm (UTC)