Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Hipster-Hating And Its Discontents
[My brief correspondence with Aimee Plumley, of The New York City Anti-Hipster Forum. She seems to have a response posted here.]
From: rowan@media.mit.edu
To: aimeeplumley@hotmail.com
Subject: hipstersareannoying
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 17:35:44 -0400
I've heard that denouncing hipsterdom is the new hipsterdom. Where can I sign
up, and are there ironic "I hate hipsters" t-shirts that I can buy? What's the
uniform? And where is the cool hipster-hating neighborhood where I can move?
I mean, seriously: when you stare into the abyss, et cetera. You have become
what you loathe. Or was that the point?
I live in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. I hate posers as much as the next
reasonable, intelligent person. I hate the empty quest for "authenticity", the
pretense, the meanness. But while I grumble about it to my friends, I would
hesitate before taking the grudge public: by doing that, you enter the hipster
game. You are trying to out-irony and out-hip the ironic hipsters. That way
lies madness. And future generations of hipster-hater-haters will eventually
lampoon you the way you have so cleverly lampooned the current crop.
Repent.
Matt Norwood
----
From: "Aimee Plumley"
To: rowan@media.mit.edu
Subject: Re: hipstersareannoying
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 16:15:05 -0400
Matt,
Great letter. You're officially the first person to write anything challenging my writing. Umm, well, as far my somehow squeezing out a little corner of the most uber-ironic self-hating hipster agenda that could ever be: that of the anti-hipster, I contend that your view on this topic is really just emblematic of the hipster bent anyway. How do you think anything becomes 'ironic' in the hipster sense? Because hipsters make it that way, it's not that Atari is in-and-of-itself ironic, it's because somebody thought that the marketing was cheesy and dated, so it became funny. But it's not cheeky or ironic until somebody makes it that way, poises it. That's the hipster frame and that's your frame too, apparently. But it's not mine. Hipster-ism (pardon the expression) as I think of it is based on consumption, based on becoming the ultimate savvy consumer, so savvy that you can buy things that everybody else thinks are stupid and old, but you, the maven hipster, see them a different way, in an IRONIC way, much like you apparently see my writing. But, again, I don't see it that way at all. You suggest that I might coin a catchphrase: "I Hate Hipsters," or deem a "cool" neighborhood. No: This is your hipster frame. This is not mine. Mine is simply that of opposition, and so mine is not based on consumption i.e. catchphrase, neighborhood, T-Shirt etc, mine is based on writing, and that's it. Nothing else. I believe we humans contain many, many volumes of overlapping and contradictory conviction, so perhaps I haven't become what I loathe, perhaps I always was what I loathed, but I have room for all of it. How's that strike you? I am not trying to out-do anybody, I'm not trying to corner a market, I'm not trying to 'enter the game,' I'm just having a good time and adding to what I see as an endless public discourse. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have your letter, it makes me think more about what I write, and that is, after all, the whole point.
All the Best,
Aimee P.
From: rowan@media.mit.edu
To: aimeeplumley@hotmail.com
Subject: hipstersareannoying
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 17:35:44 -0400
I've heard that denouncing hipsterdom is the new hipsterdom. Where can I sign
up, and are there ironic "I hate hipsters" t-shirts that I can buy? What's the
uniform? And where is the cool hipster-hating neighborhood where I can move?
I mean, seriously: when you stare into the abyss, et cetera. You have become
what you loathe. Or was that the point?
I live in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. I hate posers as much as the next
reasonable, intelligent person. I hate the empty quest for "authenticity", the
pretense, the meanness. But while I grumble about it to my friends, I would
hesitate before taking the grudge public: by doing that, you enter the hipster
game. You are trying to out-irony and out-hip the ironic hipsters. That way
lies madness. And future generations of hipster-hater-haters will eventually
lampoon you the way you have so cleverly lampooned the current crop.
Repent.
Matt Norwood
----
From: "Aimee Plumley"
To: rowan@media.mit.edu
Subject: Re: hipstersareannoying
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 16:15:05 -0400
Matt,
Great letter. You're officially the first person to write anything challenging my writing. Umm, well, as far my somehow squeezing out a little corner of the most uber-ironic self-hating hipster agenda that could ever be: that of the anti-hipster, I contend that your view on this topic is really just emblematic of the hipster bent anyway. How do you think anything becomes 'ironic' in the hipster sense? Because hipsters make it that way, it's not that Atari is in-and-of-itself ironic, it's because somebody thought that the marketing was cheesy and dated, so it became funny. But it's not cheeky or ironic until somebody makes it that way, poises it. That's the hipster frame and that's your frame too, apparently. But it's not mine. Hipster-ism (pardon the expression) as I think of it is based on consumption, based on becoming the ultimate savvy consumer, so savvy that you can buy things that everybody else thinks are stupid and old, but you, the maven hipster, see them a different way, in an IRONIC way, much like you apparently see my writing. But, again, I don't see it that way at all. You suggest that I might coin a catchphrase: "I Hate Hipsters," or deem a "cool" neighborhood. No: This is your hipster frame. This is not mine. Mine is simply that of opposition, and so mine is not based on consumption i.e. catchphrase, neighborhood, T-Shirt etc, mine is based on writing, and that's it. Nothing else. I believe we humans contain many, many volumes of overlapping and contradictory conviction, so perhaps I haven't become what I loathe, perhaps I always was what I loathed, but I have room for all of it. How's that strike you? I am not trying to out-do anybody, I'm not trying to corner a market, I'm not trying to 'enter the game,' I'm just having a good time and adding to what I see as an endless public discourse. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have your letter, it makes me think more about what I write, and that is, after all, the whole point.
All the Best,
Aimee P.
