TASTE ENVY
Have you even been jealous of your friends or colleagues taste in music, books, movies, design or clothes? You are suffering from a malaise sociologists call Cultural Capital Inferiority Complex. In a multicultural world the way you sample strains of different cultures and mix it into your own style statements have become increasingly important. It is, no longer enough, or even necessary, to be wealthy, or to have gone to the right schools. Nor it is necessary, or maybe even possible to be perceived as a truly original thinker or artist. All we have are all these different cultural heritages, styles, religions and opinions. Choosing your songs to your iPod –playlist is no longer just a matter of personal preference. It is a statement, almost as visible as your choice of clothing. The content of the most popular websites, like http://www.myspace.com are really just style statements: Look at me, this is what I like! Ain’t I cool? A cynical intellectual has no other choice than to become anti style statement. Just like black clothing and a blank stare used to mark out the 80’s intellectual, with a T-shirt Kafka did not have any fun either, the 21st century intellectual has no other choice than to answer the question what music do you like, “I don’t like music”, what are your favourite books, “I don’t read book anymore” and to live in an empty apartment naked. That has to be the ultimate style statement and the best antidote for taste envy.
Did Franz Kafka feel taste envy? We don’t think so.
check it out:
www.myspace.com/tuomastoivonen
i’m cool!
interesting observation, although i would disagree that blank statements epitomise style, since it has turned into a cliche itself. in places like myspace, the users/members are required to define themselves througha multiple array of fields, however it gets nowhere close to portraying the essense of the individual. sometimes it’s self-serving to rant and sometimes to say nothing. but in an individualised forum that is so self-centric you could never expect anyone to surprass the trap of the inferiority complex. it’s impossible when you get anything between 20 and 100 hits per day. too many people are already watching and you dont even know who they are.
Surely presenting oneself as a cultural void in this context would be defined as a reaction if not a retalliation. Either of the above would only become necessary when the individual is actaully concerned about how their reaction to others statements may compare with other reactions to others statements, oh bugger ive confused myself again. Oh well, I will go and rest safe in the knowledge that my taste enviable
Great boysc4be7eb1e4516f1eea8d399dc0300729