Comments on: Seven hundred hoboes.

Seven hundred hoboes.

EarBucket — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 04:48:20 -0800

The hoboes' time has come. Inspired by John Hodgman's book "The Areas Of My Expertise," The 700 Hoboes Project gathers pictures of hoboes. Some are better than others.

By: stilgar

stilgar — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:38:06 -0800

Is it me or is there no way to easily navigate the pictures? they look interesting however.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:53:43 -0800

Oh my god, that's fantastic. I'm so submitting a hobo drawing this weekend.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:55:16 -0800

That John Hodgeman recording was linked to in another thread recently. Let me see if I can dig 'er out.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:57:59 -0800

Doh! It was on the Areas Of My Expertise site. Ignore me. I'm ill.

By: terpsichoria

terpsichoria — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:16:53 -0800

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:26:47 -0800

I think the new wave of hobosploitation refers to the Platonic ideal of the hobo. The sanitarized rail-riding tramp of the Great Depression, not the modern, actual homeless of today.

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:28:46 -0800

Next up - 700 Chavs.

By: terpsichoria

terpsichoria — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:30:00 -0800

Hah, yes, I can definitely see that in it, actually - the cheery old geezer with his bindle and overcoat getting through life on his wits and a song. Or something. Thanks!

By: terpsichoria

terpsichoria — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:35:41 -0800

Joeforking, yeah, that's why I asked - having just been pouring my amateur sociolinguistic chav analysis into the other thread, I found myself idly wondering if the word 'hobo' really meant a specific group of people and had been watered down through clumsy use like the word 'chav' has. Seeing a lot of US culture and language from the outside, I feel like I only see the end product of all those little cultural and linguistic evolutions, and the bits I miss intrigue me.

By: zpousman

zpousman — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:55:10 -0800

metafilter: amateur sociolinguistic chav analysis

By: zpousman

zpousman — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:56:16 -0800

on topic: I agree, this is kinda bleh for me. Sure it's funny to make up names for hypothetical hobos, but isn't that like making up 700 names of pornstars and illustrating that?!

By: WidgetAlley

WidgetAlley — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 06:59:57 -0800

The best part of this post is the site's domain name. Who doesn't want to own e-hobo.com?

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:06:03 -0800

What's the difference between a hobo and a homeless person? Is there one? I often see a sort of 'oh god, a hobo! eww!' or 'haha, look hobos are funny!' reaction from Americans who otherwise sit so firmly on what I suppose you'd call the liberal side of the fence (the side of the fence where people argue against verbal racism, homophobia etc, at least) that it never fails to surprise me. Is it a linguistic or cultural thing I'm missing, or are hobos the group it's okay to dislike? The artistic stereotype of hobos are sort of like the artistic stereotypes of pimps- it's a glorification of an archetype that doesn't exist in the real world. "Hobos" are an early-20th-century stereotype of (generally) voluntary homeless/drifters/vagrants in some kind of underground community collective with its own unspoken laws, culture, etc. A better example maybe would be pirates- the ones that exist today are ruthless murderers who hijack boats in the South Atlantic and pretty much violently kill everyone on board. They're about as cuddly as a South American Contra group. The image of pirates we love in contemporary culture don't exist, and probably never did. Basically, like pimps, in reality there's no "homeless culture." There is a "hobo culture" based on the stereotype, just as there's a culture for pirates, pimps, etc.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:25:52 -0800

terpsichoria: ...an expression of dislike of the homeless, or mocking them or anything. I have a homeless friend, he prefers Hobo, or else some euphemism like non-domiciled or garbologist.

By: Miko

Miko — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:45:58 -0800

What's the difference between a hobo and a homeless person? Although there is a degree of overlap, I'd say the difference is "choice". Despite what you may think, hoboes still exist. They are itinerant homeless people, who support themselves with odd jobs. They have been a topic of ethnographic research in recent years. Rail-riding is not dead either; some hoboes ride rails, and in the present day, they often use GPS-like systems to identify trains and destinations. I would hesistate to make broad generalizations, but when we identify a group as 'homeless', we think of them as people who are residents of a geographic area without permanent shelter who, given the opportunity, would like to have permanent shelter. Hoboes, however, have no permanent city of residence and might not choose to accept permanent shelter.

By: terpsichoria

terpsichoria — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:46:42 -0800

Thanks for the answers, everyone - that's really interesting stuff (and sorry if I derailed the thread a bit). A girl I spent an awful lot of time with a couple of years ago was recently ex-homeless and I never heard her use it, which is sort of why I wondered if it was a derogatory thing, a specific one or just one that never made its way over the Atlantic. And now I know!

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:53:18 -0800

THERE'S A SPOON IN MY EAR!

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 07:57:55 -0800

The romanticizing of the hobo is nothing new. O. Henry wrote on the happy-go-lucky vagrants as early as '04, I think, and I seem to remember some old civil war songs that reference bums.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 11:22:27 -0800

Much cuter and more commercial than the Freight Train Riders of America of late '90's fame.

By: ryanrs

ryanrs — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:46:19 -0800

Hoboes ride trains, the homeless do not. In my experience, most hoboes have a fair bit of contempt for the homeless. I suppose it's a bit like Metafilter vs. internet communities in general.