Words ain't good enough
May 12, 2015 6:32 AM Subscribe
I spent the afternoon at the ER just to rule out a new painful symptom in a complicated diagnosis, and there's that gap when half of your mind is thinking how it's probably nothing and what needs to be packed for tomorrow's school lunches and homework, and the other half is tracking how the doctors are flipping through the stack of test results and frowning, and that half is thinking how soft your son's face was when you snuggled against him this morning and what if you need a cane and can't carry your toddler on your back anymore, can you refit the place for a wheelchair, if they got it early, early, early, be early enough so you can see them grow up.....
Coincidentally, my "Dance Party" soundtrack for the hospital had about fifteen 1D hits mixed in.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:55 AM on May 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
Coincidentally, my "Dance Party" soundtrack for the hospital had about fifteen 1D hits mixed in.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:55 AM on May 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
I've been one of the 100 men at a 70,000 seater 1D gig. The toilet scenes were insane.
posted by colie at 7:02 AM on May 12, 2015
posted by colie at 7:02 AM on May 12, 2015
Now I have this weird image of a little minion weaving through the crowd at these shows whispering: "Remember thou art mortal!"
posted by Wretch729 at 7:07 AM on May 12, 2015
posted by Wretch729 at 7:07 AM on May 12, 2015
dorothyisunderwood: and there's that gap when half of your mind is thinking how it's probably nothing and what needs to be packed for tomorrow's school lunches and homework, and the other half is tracking how the doctors are flipping through the stack of test results and frowning,
A friend passed away of Ovarian cancer a few years ago, and after her diagnosis we talked every once in a while about this exact thing. She described it as if her mind was trying to maintain its grip on normalcy while everything else in her life was on the verge of collapsing. So she could maintain a certain amount of mental control, and the news wouldn't be so overwhelming.
--
I deliberately didn't include a spoiler in the post, and I apologize for the slightly mystery meat nature of the way it's presented. Didn't want to dilute the impact of the essay's revelation: as a soft, sobering note of fear and sadness that gives unexpected, insistent depth to the surrounding content.
posted by zarq at 7:12 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
A friend passed away of Ovarian cancer a few years ago, and after her diagnosis we talked every once in a while about this exact thing. She described it as if her mind was trying to maintain its grip on normalcy while everything else in her life was on the verge of collapsing. So she could maintain a certain amount of mental control, and the news wouldn't be so overwhelming.
--
I deliberately didn't include a spoiler in the post, and I apologize for the slightly mystery meat nature of the way it's presented. Didn't want to dilute the impact of the essay's revelation: as a soft, sobering note of fear and sadness that gives unexpected, insistent depth to the surrounding content.
posted by zarq at 7:12 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
From the article, I really liked this aside about Stephen Hawking and how he responded to a girl's question about Zayn Leaving One Direction:
A few weeks ago, the internet exploded with an amazing clip. Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking was answering viewer questions for a live audience in Sydney, Australia. The male emcee posed a question submitted by the presumably female Samantha Su. “What do you think is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of girls across the world?” The emcee then added his own commentary, behaving as if he has no responsibility whatsoever to try to understand an enormous population — girls — who are clearly so confoundingly incomprehensible he has wholly discounted their contributions. “I haven’t a clue what that’s about,” he said.
But Stephen Hawking, generous and clearly even more intelligent than I had already thought, answered, “Finally a question about something important. My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics, because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies a different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.”
posted by honestcoyote at 7:12 AM on May 12, 2015 [36 favorites]
A few weeks ago, the internet exploded with an amazing clip. Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking was answering viewer questions for a live audience in Sydney, Australia. The male emcee posed a question submitted by the presumably female Samantha Su. “What do you think is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of girls across the world?” The emcee then added his own commentary, behaving as if he has no responsibility whatsoever to try to understand an enormous population — girls — who are clearly so confoundingly incomprehensible he has wholly discounted their contributions. “I haven’t a clue what that’s about,” he said.
But Stephen Hawking, generous and clearly even more intelligent than I had already thought, answered, “Finally a question about something important. My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics, because one day there may well be proof of multiple universes. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies a different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.”
posted by honestcoyote at 7:12 AM on May 12, 2015 [36 favorites]
My 1D fandom is not part of some cute act of delayed maturity like an adult who insists she just loves eating SpaghettiOs straight from the can.Surely one could just as easily assert "My love of eating SpaghettiOs straight from the can is not part of some cute act of delayed maturity like an adult who insists she just loves listening to One Direction."
Now, I don't get One Direction fandom. And that's okay; my age and my gender inform me that I'm not meant to get it, and I hold no acrimony towards those who do. All I want to know is what's unique about the 1D phenomenon? Is there something sui generis about it, something to distinguish it from Beatlemania or the hordes of teenage girls who swooned at the sight of Elvis Presley's swinging hips? Or is it just another symptom of our amnesiac, short-attention-span culture, in which everything is happening for the first time and historical context doesn't exist?
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:12 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Now, I don't get One Direction fandom. And that's okay."
You have answered your own question, I think.
posted by mysticreferee at 7:21 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
You have answered your own question, I think.
posted by mysticreferee at 7:21 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
For young people, this is the first time it ever happened. They can't see Elvis or the Beatles and if even if they could, those guys would be outdated and wouldn't speak to current trends. Boy bands provide young girls a way to connect with outside culture when so many other avenues are cut off to them.
For older people, I suspect a lot of the attraction is participating in something that's just so nice. Except for the sick hate that people give Taylor Swift, the biggest arguments are over who's better looking.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:24 AM on May 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
For older people, I suspect a lot of the attraction is participating in something that's just so nice. Except for the sick hate that people give Taylor Swift, the biggest arguments are over who's better looking.
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:24 AM on May 12, 2015 [5 favorites]
Is there something sui generis about it, something to distinguish it from Beatlemania or the hordes of teenage girls who swooned at the sight of Elvis Presley's swinging hips? Or is it just another symptom of our amnesiac, short-attention-span culture, in which everything is happening for the first time and historical context doesn't exist?
Can't it be neither? Couldn't it be another reiteration of a tendency among young women to invest a "safe" person or persons with strong emotions you don't know how to deal with otherwise yet? A thing can just happen again, without being pathological or amnesiac. These girls can know about Elvis without finding him particularly interesting. It's like asking why people keep writing novels for young adults; don't they know Treasure Island exists?
posted by penduluum at 7:25 AM on May 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
Can't it be neither? Couldn't it be another reiteration of a tendency among young women to invest a "safe" person or persons with strong emotions you don't know how to deal with otherwise yet? A thing can just happen again, without being pathological or amnesiac. These girls can know about Elvis without finding him particularly interesting. It's like asking why people keep writing novels for young adults; don't they know Treasure Island exists?
posted by penduluum at 7:25 AM on May 12, 2015 [6 favorites]
Faint of Butt - obviously the author had some more complicated thoughts on the subject but for many of the young fans swept up in 1D mania it is happening for the first time, isn't it? Not that historical context doesn't matter but why should they care what happened with the Beatles 50 years ago when focusing on what they're feeling and experiencing right now? Should the Beatles fans have been required to listen to "Alexander's Ragtime Band" before they could be permitted to express their enthusiasm for the boys from Liverpool?
posted by Wretch729 at 7:30 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Wretch729 at 7:30 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Amazing piece of writing, by the way.
posted by penduluum at 7:34 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by penduluum at 7:34 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
OK, the new rule is that you must be smarter than Stephen Hawking if you want to sneer at 1Direction and/or their fans. That guy rules.
posted by straight at 7:36 AM on May 12, 2015 [20 favorites]
posted by straight at 7:36 AM on May 12, 2015 [20 favorites]
Ecclesiastes 1:
9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.
11There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:52 AM on May 12, 2015
9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.
11There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:52 AM on May 12, 2015
I love this, and I like neither getting older nor One Direction. Thanks for posting.
posted by Gorgik at 8:05 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Gorgik at 8:05 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I will never tire of reading that story about Hawking, and it wasn't even the best thing about this piece. Thanks for sharing it, zarq.
posted by Etrigan at 8:11 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 8:11 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
a fiendish thingy: “Lest anyone think this is just another piece about boybands... ”
But it is a piece about boybands, and ripping that bit out of context sort of ruins it.
Anyway, this is a great essay.
posted by koeselitz at 8:18 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
But it is a piece about boybands, and ripping that bit out of context sort of ruins it.
Anyway, this is a great essay.
posted by koeselitz at 8:18 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
I like this piece from Brad Nelson that eloquently makes a case for their music.
In most One Direction choruses, five voices of varying integrity collapse into a single, compact chord. It’s an arena rock aesthetic, treating harmonies as if they’re a system of collapsing stars; it gives the condensing voices a kind of internal velocity. It also makes One Direction songs near-impossible to simulate at karaoke without profound breath and pitch control. (I’ve tried. A lot.) I think this is the source of a lot of their appeal; their voices and the instrumentation, which is usually minimal guitar figures against fluorescent banks of synths, cause their songs to feel like a form of glam rock that’s rushing at you in three dimensions.
posted by naju at 8:18 AM on May 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
In most One Direction choruses, five voices of varying integrity collapse into a single, compact chord. It’s an arena rock aesthetic, treating harmonies as if they’re a system of collapsing stars; it gives the condensing voices a kind of internal velocity. It also makes One Direction songs near-impossible to simulate at karaoke without profound breath and pitch control. (I’ve tried. A lot.) I think this is the source of a lot of their appeal; their voices and the instrumentation, which is usually minimal guitar figures against fluorescent banks of synths, cause their songs to feel like a form of glam rock that’s rushing at you in three dimensions.
posted by naju at 8:18 AM on May 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
Very thoughtful and well-written piece. And this hits it right on the head: "[1D] are a code sequenced specifically for my DNA, made to produce emotions I really want to feel, thoughts I really want to think." This (not 1D, but other stuff) is most (if not all) music I listen to in my "twilight years." I don't care who likes it, how "cool" it is, how many units it's sold, how many years ago it was on the charts (if it was on the charts). That's one of the gifts of getting old -- not having time or giving any fucks about stuff like this. Now, if I could only have zero fucks to give about most other things, I'd be all set.
But it is a piece about boybands, and ripping that bit out of context sort of ruins it.
Not really, or not exclusively. As I read it, it's also (or even more so) a piece, as the writer says, about growing older with elegance and grace, to the extent that's allowed anymore. Perhaps, even, as one of my favorite "I don't give a shit" songs has it, sometimes "elegantly wasted."
posted by blucevalo at 8:27 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
But it is a piece about boybands, and ripping that bit out of context sort of ruins it.
Not really, or not exclusively. As I read it, it's also (or even more so) a piece, as the writer says, about growing older with elegance and grace, to the extent that's allowed anymore. Perhaps, even, as one of my favorite "I don't give a shit" songs has it, sometimes "elegantly wasted."
posted by blucevalo at 8:27 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
But it is a piece about boybands, and ripping that bit out of context sort of ruins it.
Sorry, that was totally not my intention. (Sorry zarq! I love this post! I feel crappy that I maybe kind of messed it up! It definitely did not occur to me that it might seem like I was second guessing your framing, until now, and that sucks. I'm sorry.)
I love boy bands as a constant cultural genre dating back through human history, I lecture a lot of people about boy bands, and I would happily read dozens of articles that are, in fact, “just” about boy bands. I meant that phrasing to be playful, not demeaning, but I guess it didn’t come off. :(
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:33 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
Sorry, that was totally not my intention. (Sorry zarq! I love this post! I feel crappy that I maybe kind of messed it up! It definitely did not occur to me that it might seem like I was second guessing your framing, until now, and that sucks. I'm sorry.)
I love boy bands as a constant cultural genre dating back through human history, I lecture a lot of people about boy bands, and I would happily read dozens of articles that are, in fact, “just” about boy bands. I meant that phrasing to be playful, not demeaning, but I guess it didn’t come off. :(
posted by a fiendish thingy at 8:33 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
(Sorry zarq! I love this post! I feel crappy that I maybe kind of messed it up! It definitely did not occur to me that it might seem like I was second guessing your framing, until now, and that sucks. I'm sorry.)
No, no. You absolutely, positively have done nothing wrong, didn't mess up my framing or ruin anything in any way and have zero need to be sorry! I appreciated your comment, and I apologize if mine implied you had done any of those things. It's all good!
As far as I'm concerned, it's an essay about boy bands and being an adult fan, about growing older, (as blucevalo put it) and about receiving her medical diagnosis, her relationship with her children, and other themes. They're all intertwined with one another. I think it should be okay to engage with those themes individually, in collective groups or in gestalt, if that makes sense?
posted by zarq at 8:44 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
No, no. You absolutely, positively have done nothing wrong, didn't mess up my framing or ruin anything in any way and have zero need to be sorry! I appreciated your comment, and I apologize if mine implied you had done any of those things. It's all good!
As far as I'm concerned, it's an essay about boy bands and being an adult fan, about growing older, (as blucevalo put it) and about receiving her medical diagnosis, her relationship with her children, and other themes. They're all intertwined with one another. I think it should be okay to engage with those themes individually, in collective groups or in gestalt, if that makes sense?
posted by zarq at 8:44 AM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's all good!
Okay, whew.
I have found boybandery to be especially useful for screening social acquaintances, actually-- I was reminded of how I did that for several years in my twenties (people who are too cool to let other people like "uncool" things=not my tribe) when she told this other story:
"I was taking a music-theory course in college when a young man, a fellow music-lover trying to court me, asked, “What are your favorite bands?” It was the '90s. Grunge and the riot grrrls urged listeners to demonstrate how their lives were more messed up than the next person’s. Our tragedies connoted gravitas. I knew the answer this young suitor expected/hoped I’d provide: Pavement, Velvet Underground, Television, and Bikini Kill. I kind of liked these bands, but they were indie bands, cool-kid bands, and cool kids had so often struck me as cruel kids. I’d had enough cool kids to last a lifetime.
“Bon Jovi,” I told the boy. “Poison. Skid Row. Damn Yankees.” That was the truth.
“You can’t,” he told me. “You can’t like those bands.”"
Some people find it very upsetting to think that you can like mainstream things for your own reasons, that you can find comfort in the commercial, for some reason. This guy is trying to date her, but first she has to conform to liking the "right" kinds of music? Screw that.
Also, as a former member of multiple madrigal-singing a capella groups, boy bands are one of the only genres where you can reliably find harmonies beyond "the bassist is singing a third above the lead singer, and now he is singing a FIFTH above the lead singer". Give me multiple voices! People who aren't playing instruments or keeping rhythm but who are getting ready to resolve the chord-- I love it in boybands and I love it in Broadway musical ensemble casts and I love it in The King's Singers and I love it in chorales. I love it, but boybands (and girlbands, but they are always scarcer) are the only ones who regularly put it on the radio.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 9:04 AM on May 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
Okay, whew.
I have found boybandery to be especially useful for screening social acquaintances, actually-- I was reminded of how I did that for several years in my twenties (people who are too cool to let other people like "uncool" things=not my tribe) when she told this other story:
"I was taking a music-theory course in college when a young man, a fellow music-lover trying to court me, asked, “What are your favorite bands?” It was the '90s. Grunge and the riot grrrls urged listeners to demonstrate how their lives were more messed up than the next person’s. Our tragedies connoted gravitas. I knew the answer this young suitor expected/hoped I’d provide: Pavement, Velvet Underground, Television, and Bikini Kill. I kind of liked these bands, but they were indie bands, cool-kid bands, and cool kids had so often struck me as cruel kids. I’d had enough cool kids to last a lifetime.
“Bon Jovi,” I told the boy. “Poison. Skid Row. Damn Yankees.” That was the truth.
“You can’t,” he told me. “You can’t like those bands.”"
Some people find it very upsetting to think that you can like mainstream things for your own reasons, that you can find comfort in the commercial, for some reason. This guy is trying to date her, but first she has to conform to liking the "right" kinds of music? Screw that.
Also, as a former member of multiple madrigal-singing a capella groups, boy bands are one of the only genres where you can reliably find harmonies beyond "the bassist is singing a third above the lead singer, and now he is singing a FIFTH above the lead singer". Give me multiple voices! People who aren't playing instruments or keeping rhythm but who are getting ready to resolve the chord-- I love it in boybands and I love it in Broadway musical ensemble casts and I love it in The King's Singers and I love it in chorales. I love it, but boybands (and girlbands, but they are always scarcer) are the only ones who regularly put it on the radio.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 9:04 AM on May 12, 2015 [8 favorites]
For my part, I think mostly the essay is about death. That's the One Direction we're all headed in, after all.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:37 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by ocherdraco at 9:37 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
how best to understand their mania
Going to posit a radical idea: I think their music is really, really good pop music. I realized the other day that I've never heard a One Direction song that I didn't love. Sure, maybe the young heartthrobs themselves are interchangeable, but the songwriting ... there's some really good songwriting going on in there. Is it by committee, designed to sell as many copies as possible? Of course it is, but so was everything the Brill Building did.
1D4L, haters.
posted by jbickers at 10:00 AM on May 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
Going to posit a radical idea: I think their music is really, really good pop music. I realized the other day that I've never heard a One Direction song that I didn't love. Sure, maybe the young heartthrobs themselves are interchangeable, but the songwriting ... there's some really good songwriting going on in there. Is it by committee, designed to sell as many copies as possible? Of course it is, but so was everything the Brill Building did.
1D4L, haters.
posted by jbickers at 10:00 AM on May 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
There is no shame in liking what you like. Take it from a life-long Rush fan.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:04 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:04 AM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
minimal guitar figures against fluorescent banks of synths, cause their songs to feel like a form of glam rock that’s rushing at you in three dimensions.
This may be accurate now (from 'Midnight Memories' onwards 1D have consciously been striving for a more 'mature' soft-rock sound), but their first two albums are much more guitar-driven power pop than anyone would have expected at the time of release, when Justin Timberlake-style funk pop was more likely to have shifted records fast for these competition winners.
In fact their deliriously ardent early hits like Live While We're Young are based almost entirely around prominent guitar riffs and exploding drums, and the vocals are all clearly delineated so you can tell who's who. On Little Things, an acoustic guitar number, Niall's lovably amateurish middle eight vocals are the antithesis of 'condensing vocals' and in fact are mixed perceptibly higher in the mix than usual, very 'dry' and central, which naturally lends this passage an almost unbearable level of intensity for his fans. All of which didn't happen by accident of course.
I suspect that once they were the biggest group in the world, Cowell took his foot off the gas in terms of songwriters. He'd announced to the world that he was going to hire the best songwriters for 1D after they won X Factor - if you read his biography this is partly because he was permanently wounded by the humiliation of not being able to interest anyone good to write songs for his earlier protege Sinitta.
But the quality of their material has nose-dived since the triumphantly demented Baba O Riley rewrite, Best Song Ever.
posted by colie at 10:15 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
This may be accurate now (from 'Midnight Memories' onwards 1D have consciously been striving for a more 'mature' soft-rock sound), but their first two albums are much more guitar-driven power pop than anyone would have expected at the time of release, when Justin Timberlake-style funk pop was more likely to have shifted records fast for these competition winners.
In fact their deliriously ardent early hits like Live While We're Young are based almost entirely around prominent guitar riffs and exploding drums, and the vocals are all clearly delineated so you can tell who's who. On Little Things, an acoustic guitar number, Niall's lovably amateurish middle eight vocals are the antithesis of 'condensing vocals' and in fact are mixed perceptibly higher in the mix than usual, very 'dry' and central, which naturally lends this passage an almost unbearable level of intensity for his fans. All of which didn't happen by accident of course.
I suspect that once they were the biggest group in the world, Cowell took his foot off the gas in terms of songwriters. He'd announced to the world that he was going to hire the best songwriters for 1D after they won X Factor - if you read his biography this is partly because he was permanently wounded by the humiliation of not being able to interest anyone good to write songs for his earlier protege Sinitta.
But the quality of their material has nose-dived since the triumphantly demented Baba O Riley rewrite, Best Song Ever.
posted by colie at 10:15 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
But the quality of their material has nose-dived since the triumphantly demented Baba O Riley rewrite, Best Song Ever
My brain read what you wrote. I think I might even know that song. But what my brain did was try to make 1D sing Tribute. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, it's still playing.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:16 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
My brain read what you wrote. I think I might even know that song. But what my brain did was try to make 1D sing Tribute. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, it's still playing.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:16 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh my god, this was glorious. (So she doesn't get Riot Grrrl-- the one sour note in a well played symphony.) This was really, really wonderful and brave, and she's giving words--giving dignity-- to female fandom, something so maligned and trivialized, and here it's investigated and found to be full of life at its most profound. I feel like standing and applauding.
posted by jokeefe at 1:05 PM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by jokeefe at 1:05 PM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
For my part, I think mostly the essay is about death. That's the One Direction we're all headed in, after all.
Exactly.
posted by jokeefe at 1:09 PM on May 12, 2015
Exactly.
posted by jokeefe at 1:09 PM on May 12, 2015
And as someone who three years ago, though it feels like it happened much more recently, underwent surgery for what turned out (after many weeks of being outraged and desperate that I might die before my mother, for her sake) to be a benign mass in my gall bladder, this paragraph nearly made my heart stop:
I call the doctor. “Hold on,” the nurse says. “Let me look at your chart.” There’s silence on the line as she reads about me. “Okay. I’ve got it here in front of me.”posted by jokeefe at 1:17 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
“And?”
“I’ll say a prayer for you,” she tells me.
Not only are words not good enough, they can also be the unwilling bearers of pure terror.
"I see two girls in handmade tees both scrawled with the same message: "Future Mrs. Niall Horan.” The girls are walking arm in arm, disregarding any laws of logic, monogamy, civility, or cardinal numbers. "
Gorgeous writing, great post, thanks zarq.
posted by ellieBOA at 1:40 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Gorgeous writing, great post, thanks zarq.
posted by ellieBOA at 1:40 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
Am I a bad person if the heartbreak of cancer still doesn't convince me not to be weirded out by the phenomenon of women of a certain age buying wholesale into mainstream Capitalist hypno-media and getting loudly defensive about it?
posted by Mooseli at 2:17 PM on May 12, 2015
posted by Mooseli at 2:17 PM on May 12, 2015
Yes.
posted by jokeefe at 2:24 PM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by jokeefe at 2:24 PM on May 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
Counterpoint: no.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:26 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:26 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Who had 34th comment in the pool?
posted by Etrigan at 2:26 PM on May 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 2:26 PM on May 12, 2015 [4 favorites]
Very well-written and involving. As a cancer survivor and a fan of all kinds of silly things, there was a lot I could relate to here.
But the snotty guy who recoiled in horror when she said she preferred Bon Jovi to The Velvet Underground had a point. Like what you like and all that... But Bon Jovi is kind of beyond the pale.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:39 PM on May 12, 2015
But the snotty guy who recoiled in horror when she said she preferred Bon Jovi to The Velvet Underground had a point. Like what you like and all that... But Bon Jovi is kind of beyond the pale.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:39 PM on May 12, 2015
Is there something sui generis about it, something to distinguish it from Beatlemania or the hordes of teenage girls who swooned at the sight of Elvis Presley's swinging hips?
Elvis Presley was born in 1935. Ringo's going to be 75 this year. Beatlemania was a passed-down myth for the children of my generation and I'm one generation above the 1Ders.
There's nothing sui generis, nothing unique about 1D but there was nothing sui generis nor unique about the Beatles or Elvis either (Lisztomania was huge in the 1840s. We could go much further back if I wasn't feeling lazy).
Young women have undoubtedly worshiped a slightly androgynous boyish male(s) of some good looks and celebrity since time immemorial. Humans are as we ever were.
posted by librarylis at 6:42 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Elvis Presley was born in 1935. Ringo's going to be 75 this year. Beatlemania was a passed-down myth for the children of my generation and I'm one generation above the 1Ders.
There's nothing sui generis, nothing unique about 1D but there was nothing sui generis nor unique about the Beatles or Elvis either (Lisztomania was huge in the 1840s. We could go much further back if I wasn't feeling lazy).
Young women have undoubtedly worshiped a slightly androgynous boyish male(s) of some good looks and celebrity since time immemorial. Humans are as we ever were.
posted by librarylis at 6:42 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ursula Hitler: "Like what you like and all that... But Bon Jovi is kind of beyond the pale."
"Like what you like and all that...as long as it's stuff I think is okay for you to like"
posted by Bugbread at 7:47 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Like what you like and all that...as long as it's stuff I think is okay for you to like"
posted by Bugbread at 7:47 PM on May 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
It was supposed to be a joke, Bugbread. Sheesh. (But, Bon Jovi really is the worst.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:36 PM on May 12, 2015
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:36 PM on May 12, 2015
Oh, come on. Hootie And The Blowfish eat Bon Jovi for breakfast in the embarassingly bad band department.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:49 PM on May 12, 2015
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:49 PM on May 12, 2015
I could really give a fuck about the boy band, but
posted by hap_hazard at 11:05 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I already know what people think about moms: cookie recipes, Halloween costumes, hysterical uteruses, laundry, organic yogurt, kitschy comforts of home, chicken breasts, regular old breasts, frivolousness, pop music, vanilla flavoring, minivans. No one has ever looked at my kids and said, “Wow. You made three deaths. You must really understand life.” I’d like to see that Mother’s Day card.Yeah, no kidding. That's some good writing.
posted by hap_hazard at 11:05 PM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Bon Jovi: Anyone, even a hipster, can go to one of their gigs and by the third song you'll be amazed that they've written basically every soft-rock classic beer anthem there is to write, and you are in fact a hardcore fan. At several points Mr Bon Jovi will order you to put your hands in the air, and you will do so without hesitation.
posted by colie at 11:49 PM on May 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by colie at 11:49 PM on May 12, 2015 [7 favorites]
I spent my teens and twenties being subjected to the music of Mr. Bon Jovi, and I don't think seeing him perform live is what's gonna turn it around for me.
(Also, I think it's more likely hipsters would be into Bon Jovi, albeit ironically. I present exhibit A.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:39 AM on May 13, 2015
(Also, I think it's more likely hipsters would be into Bon Jovi, albeit ironically. I present exhibit A.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:39 AM on May 13, 2015
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"I’m showing symptoms of ovarian cancer, a disease the terrifying internet has told me has no symptoms until it’s too late. So insert the wand any way you want.
Very quickly the tech goes from being tired to being a poor actor. She adjusts the wand hoping for a nicer view. She asks the other tech to join her. They both look into the screen. Neither is tired anymore. They take a sudden interest in me. “Where do you live upstate?” I translate her question to mean, There’s a bad-looking thing here on your ovary. She continues, “How many kids do you have?” This translation’s even easier. Who’s going to take care of them when you’re dead?"
posted by a fiendish thingy at 6:38 AM on May 12, 2015 [4 favorites]