sundries

[rm]

There's a lot of comment out there about Amanda Palmer's new project, Evelyn Evelyn, which for those of you who don't know is one of those concept project with fictional characters presented as real things. Think, kinda sorta, Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars, except in this case it's about conjoined twins rescued from the circus.

Now, I've seen people upset because it's fiction being presented as truth and bilks the audience. I've seen comment on the ableist narrative that drives the thing, and I've seen comment on the now removed child pornography element of the backstory.

And, it turns out, I have something to say too, although it's about none of those things, largely because I don't feel qualified as I am neither immersed in the project or the activist issues from which other people are writing to eloquently.

On the subject of the band itself, I don't know what my opinion is at present, but I think these discussions are important.

On the truth/fiction issue, I probably have a lot to say (some of it, apparently, in the comments to this post -- short version: the "all fictions should be consensual" argument is one I've little patience for), but that's a discussion I can have over less murky subjects on other days.

I probably also have something to say about the sexualization of twins (conjoined or not) and the whole lesbians for your entertainment narrative, but again, that's for another day.

What I want to talk about is a current segment of pop culture's obsession with the first half of the 20th century in general and the period between the wars, specifically. The steampunk "movement" which historically focused a bit earlier, by and large, is also at issue here (and as is noted in the comments, us REgency-era fans are not excepted either). And everything I am about to say I say as a full and at least partially guilty participant in these aesthetic fixations.

I think in America we do this thing where we divide time from itself. WWII exists, apparently, only in the years we fought in it and most high school educations don't really look at Hitler's rise to power or the social and economic conditions in the 1920s and 30s that precipitated it. And because of that, I think we are, as a culture, incredibly blind to the racism, antisemitism, and a host of other evils that flourished in the 1920s and 30s, while we're all sitting around talking about decadent parties in a Berlin we never saw instead.

And it makes me uncomfortable.

It makes me uncomfortable when I hear that the new hot thing in YA literature is "hobos" because they're "scary". I haven't missed that it's apparently fashionable to call the homeless on Americas streets hobos either. Whether we're romanticizing or making that monstrous with that nomenclature, I'm uneasy with it.

It makes me uncomfortable when I go to an event like Dances of Vice and the only time I've ever seen a PoC perform burlesque there it was a recreation of Josephine Baker in a skirt made of bananas while a crowd of nearly entirely white people stood around and ogled. Great dancer and savvy as hell and as an audience, ogling was our job. But still, at a painfully pale party, it was icky. And I've written before about the presumably unconscious but no less distressing for its use of race in other burlesque performances I've seen.

It makes me uncomfortable every time there's another Asian-themed party about opium dens in the 1920s.

It makes me uncomfortable every time there's another "evil circus people" (because apparently women who actually have sex, people with disabilities and con men as best friends forever is a narrative we cannot escape) party.

Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't play with these tropes and historical facts as artists. I go to these parties, often with great excitement (and a bit of concern). Nor, am I saying you can't have a theme party about Germany (or anywhere else) between the wars. But I think people think it's easy. I think they think it's an instant sell (okay, and let's face it, I think it probably is). I think they think it says decadence and comes at the expense of no one.

And I don't think that's true (hi, non-gender conforming person of Jewish and Catholic origin here). I think if you want to work with the perceived decadence of this period and its tropes, you need to know your history and have something to say about something than your own clever wickedness.

There's really nothing I like more than a good bit of 1920s German cabaret stuff (I'm thinking of the very smart/aware Isengart here who has managed to move me to tears more than once because he talks about the bad stuff as bad stuff and frames the joy or the partying than coexisted with the bad stuff in that context). But the cheap/easy show of privilege as our own opportunity to dress up in a casual society is something I've found unsettling for some time and as our cultural fixation with the era gains a lot of mainstream steam, as evidenced by things like and including Evelyn Evelyn, I'm more and more uncomfortable.

Circus freaks. Nazi experiments. Hobos. Racism. Anti-semitism. Playing dress-up.

We need to think harder about how we're designing parties and performances. Which isn't to say we can't use ugliness (or beauty) to critique ugliness. But if no one notices the critique then there starts to be a problem.

Gay conservative group triggers Republican discomfort and infighting.

Haiti, voodoo and the media.

Women and werewolves. As you might guess, a lot of it is about the sin of hair. via catherineldf

Tonight Patty and I are joining a friend and a person we've not met yet at a swanky bar. It'll also be the debut of my tux, since I have this _thing_ where I decided I had to wear it once before Gallifrey for the sake of my mental health. If I ever manage to finish one of the eight billion half-written fics on my hard drive, it'll become clear.

Anyway! I am excited. Less about the tux than going out and functioning. I've been dead dead dead since my trip to DC and I hate that feeling of exhaustion and underwaterness. I'm looking forward to seeing friends and having a date night.

Buffy! We're continuing to watch, and I have to say, I remain very impresed about how plot lines are not just dropped. Giles was tortured and we see that acknowledged after that episode (fine, fine acting in those acknowledgments too). I'm really impressed and moved on that front. Also it really matters how much grieving/mourning we see on the show. It completely changes the audience response to various events that there's a blueprint and that we're not left to do it alone. Meanwhile, I really the Willow/Oz getting back together/virginity-and-OMG-Barry-White soundtrack thing was handled SO WELL, and I thought Giles dealing with the scorned woman fairy raised some interesting gender issues that I'm wondering if the shoe will develop further as I'm having thinky academic thoughts on that front.

The winning look on Project Runway last night. How much do I want the jacket for the adult?

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

"It makes me uncomfortable when I hear that the new hot thing in YA literature is 'hobos' because they're 'scary.' "

....this is news to me. I kept hearing that fallen angels were the new vampires.

"Circus freaks. Nazi experiments. Hobos. Racism. Anti-semitism. Playing dress-up."

As with all that ridiculous Mad Men-style fifties nostalgia, and the Regency stuff, nobody seems to give a shit about any of that because ZOMG TEH CLOTHES!11!!1!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have to say, taking a woman of color to a Regency ball was interesting. People kept cheerfully explaining to her how she was historically accurate. It was pretty appalling.

[splix.livejournal.com]

Oh, Amanda Palmer, Jesus. Far more annoying and less transgressive than a thousand performance artists from the 80s.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I keep looking at her and thinking, "Dame Darcy did this whole act seventeen years ago, why am I supposed to care?"

[kurometarikku.livejournal.com]

Aww man, I can't believe you didn't have much to say about the fiction presented as truth wackiness going on in the Evelyn Evelyn drama drama. As some that seems to travel so effortlessly between the worlds of fact and fiction, I was hoping you had some insight on an argument that includes people saying things like "All fiction should be consensual".

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have something to say about it, but I wanted to vent about 1920s theme parties, first apparently.

As you might guess, I have little patience for the argument you describe, largely, because I think consensual fiction is going on here and is going on ALL THE TIME and people just don't notice it.

I also think the barriers between fact and fiction are a hell of a lot thinner than most people think.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

I am in love with that jacket from Project Runway. I also would have worn an adult-sized version of the little girl outfit, too.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

It makes me uncomfortable when I go to an event like Dances of Vice and the only time I've ever seen a PoC perform burlesque there it was a recreation of Josephine Baker in a skirt made of bananas while a crowd of nearly entirely white people stood around and ogled. Great dancer and savvy as hell and as an audience, ogling was our job. But still, at a painfully pale party, it was icky.

Yeah.... part of the reason I've been wanting to get into burlesque as a POC is to bring a bit of color to the stage - and to do something OTHER than Josephine Baker recreations.

N.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

In Seattle's burlesque community, there's a few POC burlesque performers. Definitely not the majority, but I've seem a couple perform and have only been to a few shows.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

There is just too much fail on the Evelyn Evelyn thing to be discussed in less than a week. I posted on the BARCC Blog instead of my LJ specifically to contain myself to one subtopic of the fail and to keep myself from just going off in a string of profanity.

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

I get an "eve of the apocalypse" feel from these "between the wars" things: The contradiction of "Nothing we do matters, because tomorrow the world will come crashing in and erase all that we are, so right now is *all* that matters". It creates both meaning in the moment and allows abdication of responsibility towards a future, it makes the dark things into portents and the good precarious. It also fails to enchant me, because having grown up in the eighties, I feel that the entertainment value of looming apocalyspes is overrated.

Maybe it is a dark mirror, but I am not sure what is says about us who see ourselves mirrored. Anyway, cool clothes.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think this is a great observation, and I think it compels me in part because I grew up in the 80s. These sorts of events, with all their problems, are the glamorous adulthood I dreamed of. But I'm a sucker for end of the world narratives.

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

First, I am enjoying your recapping of Buffy as a first-time viewer. I really loved the early seasons, and I smile when reading your take on the episodes.

On the subject of the inter-war years - I agree, there was far more racism, sexism, anti-semitism than people openly acknowledge. I have never been to the parties in question, though I love many of the fashions from the era. I have a profound fascination with the time period. For me, it is because that was when my grandparents were young. My grandmother was a greater influence on me when I was growing up than my parents were. I used to admire the way she would wear gloves with a sundress and everything had to be accompanied with the perfect lipstick (she's much more casual now that she's in her nineties and can't wear her beloved high heels anymore).

I took a pop culture of the 1930s class in college (in 1995) and we got to see the fashions, the movies, the advertisements and (hear) the radio shows. This was presented with a backdrop of history, and we learned about racism, censorship, prohibition, stereotypes, the Great Depression, and what was going on in Europe throughout. What I took away from that (and from my continued reading, and from talking to grandparents) is that this idealized glamorous life was in place as a fantasy at the time, too. Most people were poor, hungry, having to cut back on basics and make-do without...but you could see a double-feature at the movies for a nickel (and get actual moving, talking news at a time when literacy wasn't as widespread) in an air-conditioned theatre. For a few hours every week, you could escape the fear and worries of your life and imagine yourself living in this grand society with amazing clothing and food. I think people needed the escape, and I think that sense of fantasy and escape into the movies of the time has survived to this day.

That said, many of the great movies of the time make a point of having at least some mention of the people who were struggling at the time, and there are plenty of more dramatic movies that really highlight deeper issues from the time. I personally also LOVE a lot of the great jazz artists of the period - especially Bessie Smith. I really love the amazing power of the music, and how a woman could cleverly state in a song that she wanted to get intimate. That is a culture less explored in the Hollywood films of the time, and I do feel that racism was quite prevalent in the movies well beyond the 30s and 40s (Breakfast at Tiffany's?).

I guess what I am trying to say is that the parties you refer to are more a celebration of the one very positive thing that was very strong in that time period: Hope. The fantasy of the films survives today because it kindled hopes and dreams in the hearts of so many people, and it gave them a sense that they, too, could find something to lift them above the fear and the striving. I think that we, as a new generation, recognize that hope as we also look for brighter horizons of our own, and so we celebrate that feeling by celebrating the positive aspects of the time.

I agree that people should know about the rest of the history from the time - i think that more people would be more kind and enlightened if they took the time to learn from the history of humankind and take care not to repeat the same mistakes, but I also think that finding hope where one can is a beautiful thing. :)

[rm.livejournal.com]

I guess what I am trying to say is that the parties you refer to are more a celebration of the one very positive thing that was very strong in that time period: Hope

The hope thing is a large factor in WWI and WWII reenactment events/dances I have been to. It is almost nonexistant in the fashionable parties that are all about darkness.

[stephl.livejournal.com]

I remain very impresed about how plot lines are not just dropped.

The show is very strong on continuity throughout the seasons, which is generally done very well. There's a moment -- literally a moment, maybe 10-15 seconds, with no dialogue -- in season 6 that remains my favorite scene from the series, and it's all about continuity.

Giles was tortured and we see that acknowledged after that episode (fine, fine acting in those acknowledgments too).

Among other episodes/scenes, the scene when Giles pulls out the crossbow when Angel shows up at his door is played perfectly.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Yes, this continuity, even when it was rejected (ie Dawn) was always the strongest thing about Buffy. When I compare story arcs across series, I've always thought that Whedon did that aspect of scripting better that Russell T Davies or Chris Carter. I suppose I should watch Supernatural to see how well or badly they do it.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Did you ever read " The Eyre Affair " ? There's an interesting bit about werewolves , and how they keep it in check by taking pills & the cops that are assigned to go around making sure they keep taking their pills.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

I think at least a few people are attracted to such things exactly for that feeling of unashamed privilege.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

After skimming many of the Evelyn Evelyn links, the only conclusion I have reached is that Amanda Palmer doesn't understand her own privilege. She understands that she offended some people. She may even be sorry for it. She just doesn't understand why it's offensive. Why it bothers people. Sympathy, but not empathy. Admittedly, when a lot of the people critiquing your work are actually flaming it, it's hard to be objective. You want to defend your work, your art. It's your baby, your brainchild. But at the same time, I think it would be of benefit to Palmer if she'd take a break from the internet and really think things over. Maybe do some reading about able-ism and dis/ability issues, and about the concepts of privilege and oppression.

Oy.

Art can make people uncomfortable, but it has to make them uncomfortable for the right reasons. Art is supposed to be enlightening, not oppressive and insulting.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Of course, it's all a matter of who the art is supposed to enlighten (I say this as someone who has a great interest propaganda poster art).

[jgcr.livejournal.com]

I think in America we do this thing where we divide time from itself. WWII exists, apparently, only in the years we fought in it and most high school educations don't really look at Hitler's rise to power or the social and economic conditions in the 1920s and 30s that precipitated it. And because of that, I think we are, as a culture, incredibly blind to the racism, antisemitism, and a host of other evils that flourished in the 1920s and 30s, while we're all sitting around talking about decadent parties in a Berlin we never saw instead.

This is not a new thing, or an exclusively American thing. (You probably know this). It's also not always a thing for the most privileged in a society -- in fact often not. I think about the Teddy Boys, for example -- working class folks putting on clothes that evoked a forgotten golden age. They were also, often, racist (see: Notting Hill riot). The key (for me) is that the folks putting on the clothes of a previous era were of a different class of the folks who originally wore those clothes. There's some kind of almost magical will-into-being there. And yeah, it often happens during eras of relative lack of prosperity. And it can (I think not necessarily, but often) go with the exclusion / whitewashing of both the negative aspects of the period being emulated *and* reinforce the relative privilege of the participants.

Ergh. I'm not sure that's clear. Let's take any of the current revivals (which I adore all of): burlesque, cabaret, steampunk. The participants are more privileged than many (usually white, usually educated, usually not hand-to-mouth poor), but neither are many of the creators exactly Captains of Industry. And in our current economic environment, the distance between the borderline OK / comfortable and the Captains of Industry is staggering. So, we create a space where we *are* the Captains if Industry, by mimicking a previous era. And in so doing, if not careful, create the problems you're highlighting.

I'm also not sure the line between the "hopey" and "darkness" era parties is as clear as you say. But maybe that's because I associate hope with partying before the end of the world, and darkness with WWI and WWII.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thank you for mentioning Teddy Boys, because that is something I know about, but never would have organically popped into my head.

As for your more generalized comments on class issues, I think that's right on, although I think it's also worth noting that at least in the US, what class privileges exist from generation to generation change rapidly. Class as we thought about it in 1920 largely doesn't exist today (the stratifications and trappings are different). And I say that as someone who grew up in a world where the stratifications and trappings largely were the same.

I think the hope/darkness line depends on which parties you're going to. And my lens is just where I happen to be and New York nightlife has always been a certain sort of dark/predatory animal, and I think always will be.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

..."Hobos"? Seriously? WTF?

The first DoV party aboard the Jewel featured some dancers who were PoC, but they were members of a belly-dance troupe, so, yeah.

Re: ignorance of America's early-20th-C race!fail, I remember my utter astonishment (and gut-churning horror) the first time I saw this picture of a 1925 KKK march in Washington, D.C. I knew the Klan was popular then, but I'd had no idea it was so mainstream that this could happen.

OTOH, I was still ahead of the dorm-mate who had to have the context of Casablanca explained to her: what all those Europeans were doing in Africa, why visas were so valuable, the significance of Louis dropping the Vichy bottle in a garbage can. All of this had to be spelled out to a college student. I have a sinking feeling that things are only going to get worse.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Also, let's not forget the way the US denied entry to Jews fleeing the Nazi march across Europe. It seems counter-intuitive since we also liberated death camps and let Jews in after the war. But we chose not to save lives in advance and it was an agenda many politicians supported to enhance their own electoral chances.

[iterum.livejournal.com]

Let's all start taking bets now on what the Amanda Palmer internet controversy will be for 2011.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Does she have a yearly one? I like some of the stuff The Dresden Dolls puts out, but I don't really follow her.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

But I think people think it's easy. I think they think it's an instant sell (okay, and let's face it, I think it probably is). I think they think it says decadence and comes at the expense of no one.

I've just been through a rather heated debate on pimps'n'ho's-themed parties in the local BDSM community, and right now I want to kiss you. In a fraternal way. Instead, I will just yell "yes! exactly! thank you!" at my screen. And maybe even kiss it instead. Because boy am I tired of having to repeat "I didn't say you couldn't have your party."

And thank you, too, for linking it to the fin de siecle and interwar eras, because I've been thinking a lot about that, too, lately, partly but not just because of Evelyn and Evelyn. I appreciate very much your thinky thoughts here; they're helping to clarify my own.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I saw your post about those parties, and it's so complex, because we also get into "what turns you on" and do our arousal scripts (i.e., fantasy narratives) have to be ethical (to which I say the answer is no, but to which I also have to say you have to be careful where you bring them out to play and how)?

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

And oddly? I am drawing parallels to the brill Cabaret.

Yet even there, with the secondary storyline of the landlady and the greengrocer and the uncomfortably comical "If You Could See Her As I Do" there is an acknowledgment of the anti-Semitism running rampant at that time, both in Berlin and elsewhere.

Which people are wont to gloss over, just as they do with the ickier bits of imperialism/colonialism in Neo-Viccie and steampunk. And I say this as one who has lately dabbled in the world of steampunk.

True story: When I saw Cabaret in NYC a few years ago at the old Studio 54, I was seated next to two women about my age (40 at the time). After the lights came up, one turned to the other and said "What was the whole bit with that pink triangle the MC was wearing at the end?" The other one shook her head.

I just...and then...bogglement. Sheer, unadulturated bogglement.

[natf.livejournal.com]

I share your bogglement. Then again, hubby (44) said to me the other day, while we were discussing the latest gender fail on LJ (and I apologise to everyone reading this - I was shocked that he had no idea), "What the F*** is 'gender fluid'?" He knew about trans and inter but had no idea about anything outside those more acceptable/known criteria. To be totally honest, and knowing that I would never get him to listen to me enough to educate him, I just clammed up. I can only hope that, knowing him as I do, I have sown the seed of curiosity. I know that the only way he will learn and not merely reject is if he is interested to look into it himself.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It makes me uncomfortable when I go to an event like Dances of Vice and the only time I've ever seen a PoC perform burlesque there it was a recreation of Josephine Baker in a skirt made of bananas while a crowd of nearly entirely white people stood around and ogled.

Dear gods, that's disturbing.

As for female werewolves, it becomes stupidly formulaic at the end, but Gingersnaps is well worth watching, it's about girls growing up and changing (and in the film, growing fur and fangs). I think you'd like it.

As for steampunk and the other retroculture fads. I find many of them disturbing because while gender attitudes are no worse than in the rest of our culture (and in portions of steampunk culture are much better). The attitudes towards colonialism (and all of the racist overtones thereof) are often fairly disturbing. There's way too much Kipling in lots of steampunk and suchlike.

[svollga.livejournal.com]

how plot lines are not just dropped
That's why I love Buffy so much. They sometimes use small storylines from a couple of seasons ago. There are samll background storylines that go on and on, from 1st season till the 7th, appearing from time to time, and then - BOOM!
They sort of reuse their own stuff instead of using yet another deux ex machine.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I've already written my piece on Evelyn Evelyn which you may have read so I'll not expand on that - but what you have to say about that time "between" the 1920's and 1930's as a time of decadence and all that, I saw "Cabaret" for the first time this week and it feels that today people forget the goose step routine.

I'd actually like to hear what you have to say about the "fiction" vs. "non-fiction" aspect of Evelyn Evelyn and the other things you didn't write about, but as you said, that's for another day.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think in terms of the fictional/nonfictional aspect, aside from my disagreement with those who want fiction to be clear-cut and consensual, that I feel Evelyn Evelyn suffers from more tell and not enough show. It lacks, I feel, the murky elegance of a number of David Bowie's personas as well as the more recent phenomenon of Lady Gaga.

[rose71.livejournal.com]

So, taking a break from brooding about Evelyn Evelyn (which upsets me horribly because I usually LOVE Amanda Palmer)... thanks for your great post about the problems with an ahistorical, sensationalist view of the between-wars period.

My own interest actually is more in Weimar Germany, but I'm constantly frustrated by how people jump to the celebration of "decadence." Because of course that's how the Nazis themselves saw any dissident expression of leftwing/ feminist/ Jewish/ queer culture--as "degenerate" art. I love how the real Berlin cabaret artists explored a situation of political catastrophe--and potential positive change--through wit and wordplay. And I can't stand the movie "Cabaret" for emphasizing female objectification and doomy "decadence" instead. But I do love Ute Lemper's Berlin cabaret albums for recreating the full spectrum of songs from the time. Along those lines, thanks for the link to Isengart--I hadn't run across him before.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ute Lemper is a great example of people doing it right. So's Isengart. I've seen performances of his where I've been deeply, DEEPLY uncomfortable with some of his choices and Every Single Time, he's ultimately brought it back to a making a historically/culturally-informed point that totally justifies whatever set me off. Also, he's got a voice and a half and is one hell of a performer.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

The new hot thing in YA literature is NOT hobos. That was a joking prediction of shadesong's based on the fact that she heard several teens describe hobos as scary.

http://shadesong.livejournal.com/4053938.html

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've actually heard it from non shadesong related sources recently that cited some manuscripts making the rounds.

[marchek.livejournal.com]

I've always felt a bit conflicted about that fact while I'm mostly asian I really like a colonial aesthetic. However, I guess that means I'm at least conscious of the big cultural mess that involves and assume others do as well. Call this my private school education priviledge.

I believe however, that my experience with WWII is very different than most Americans. Growing up in Hawaii WWII was always very present in my life. I can see Pearl Harbor from my parent's driveway, I was a tour guide on the Battleship Misourri, and the state senator for my entire life was a Japanese WWII vet (like my grandfather) who's service was constantly mentioned in the media. The fact that I had fascination with concentration camps as a child is probably for entirely different reasons though.

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

I think this may be the reason I am occasionally uncomfortable with steampunk. Don't get me wrong, I love the look of it and some of the thoughts in it-- but when all the focus is on the independently wealthy sky captain/gentleman adventurer/upper class layabout, it makes me really uncomfortable.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

The same might be said of the SCA, but they do own up to it in their name (Creative Anachronism). In reality the lives of most people living in the time frame 600-1600 was pretty damn hard, sometimes even if you were part of the elite.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, a lot of my modern werewolf experiences have included women. Mostly, that's the Ginger Snaps series and Being Human. Oh, and I totally dug the Black Furies in Werewolf: the Apocalypse.

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

There was also this British TV show http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/tv/misc/wildness.htm which I was pretty taken with at the time.