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!

[splix.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

When you look at the time periods that really inspire that sort of intense nostalgic/recreation urge--the Victorian era, the fifties, the antebellum South--they're nearly always also zeniths of a certain type of white/European cultural hegemony. I'm sure that's just a complete coincidence, of course.

[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".

[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.

[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.

[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?"

[splix.livejournal.com]

So much freaking word.

[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.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Leisure for the elites, at the expense of the have-nots. *sigh*

[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.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

And now with that "hobos" thing they can also enjoy good old nostalgie de la boue.

[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. :)

[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]

For me, graduating from high school in 1981, the end of the world narratives felt like a backdrop to my adolescence. A deep undercurrent of "what does it matter? nuclear war is next year, next month" underlay the culture. I'm thinking of all those movies: from The Day After to Red Dawn.

When I read about the Weimar Republic, I get a similar sense of the danse macabre.

[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.

[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.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

So would you say that there's an element of the Decameron about it? Let us eat, drink and be merry because we are dying?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I'd say there's also an element of sexuality cruelty to it, not usually overtly in the -isms of the time (although I was at one party where a group of peopel showed up in steampunk'ed Nazi looks and it was AMAZING costume work and hard to look away from, but also very, very uncomfortable), but in the sense of everything and everyone is disposable. There is not so much a sense of solidarity in these things.

The notable exception I can think of was one party where two of the performers did a duet of "Under Pressure" than moved me to tears and I think brought it back that we were not the elites, but those who were about to die.

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

I've been spending a lot of time in a slightly althistorical WWII universe, these past few months -- by 'time' I mostly mean headspace, but it animates a lot of what I do and think even outside of creative endeavors (which I'm sure you understand) -- and yeah, there's this thing about impending destruction, inevitable collapse, tenuousness, that is really resonant.

I'm not a child of the 80s (born in '85) -- and neither are my cowriters on this project -- but the resonance of the collapsing world feels immediate.

(Being a young creative professional in New York right now, it feels immediate. Yeah.)

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

That makes a great deal of sense. Being a child of the 80's myself I can totally get behind that.

[rm.livejournal.com]

That crossbow scene and the one in which he tells Buffy she has no regard for him because she didn't tell him about Angel were the two I'm thinking of.