‘‘Let’s all remember this moment!’’
August 29, 2015 3:38 PM   Subscribe

‘Moment’ Is Having a Moment [New York Times]
“What, exactly, is a cultural moment? How long does it last? Who participates in it? Who on earth gets to decide? Can you marshal literally anything that has happened in the last 10 years, or 10 months? What are the parameters? Is there a minimum Q rating? Who has to experience a thing, be aware of it, find satisfaction (or prestige) in discussing it? And how do we distinguish kairos from chronos — a moment from an ordinary shred of time? How do we distinguish a meaningful, fateful, crucial moment from all the other moments that fall all over the place like bread crumbs out of an overturned toaster?”
posted by Fizz (13 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Also, this is my moment, it's my 700th post on metafilter.
posted by Fizz at 3:38 PM on August 29, 2015 [12 favorites]


Descends from "spirit of the age," perhaps?
posted by thomas j wise at 4:13 PM on August 29, 2015


Back in Junior High my two best friends and I had this weird tradition/craft project/mememto-making thing we had that we called "moments" - I think the first time it happened was the first time they heard me say the word "hell" or something equally inane, and they thought it was so spectacularly funny (I was a goody-two-shoes) that one of them said that she wanted some sort of tangible reminder of the moment, and she grabbed a napkin and dabbed it on her ice cream sundae and then shoved it in her pocket. From that moment on, these "moments" were sort of totemic tangible souvenirs from the silly moments we shared, and they indeed usually were made of napkins or kleenex dabbed into whatever we were eating.

I'm still BFF's with one of them, and years later she told me she was cleaning out a closet and came upon this box filled with wadded-up scraps of napkin - and after a few seconds of sentimentality, she said she asked herself, "what the FUCK were we thinking????"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:26 PM on August 29, 2015 [11 favorites]


How long does it last? Who participates in it?

Pretty sure it's just whenever two hearts are carin'.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:00 PM on August 29, 2015


Ahahahahha, my roommate used to say this all the time! I think of her usage of it as originally coming from the gay fashion world to mean more of a "vibe" or "sense," though, which I didn't see mentioned in the article -- like, "oh, that outfit is a real Grace Jones moment," or "I'm having a little leather-and-lace moment."
posted by en forme de poire at 5:19 PM on August 29, 2015


Momentous.
(which uses 'moment' at its base to declare something much biggest than just momentary)

Just another English Language Absurdity (file next to 'horror/horrofic--terror/terrific')
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:32 PM on August 29, 2015


Oh if life were made of moments / even now and then a bad one
But if life were only moments / then you'd never know you had one
posted by deludingmyself at 8:03 PM on August 29, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wait
posted by clavdivs at 9:43 PM on August 29, 2015


"It's awesome..."

"Like a hot dog?"
posted by Windopaene at 11:27 PM on August 29, 2015


A moment of real moment gives momentum.
posted by Segundus at 2:13 AM on August 30, 2015


I blame Kodak.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:11 AM on August 30, 2015


We know it when we see it. Unless we disagree with another in or out group. In which case we dismiss it.

Either way, it gets press, no?
posted by clvrmnky at 6:27 AM on August 30, 2015


Mariah Carey is always on point.
posted by Gor-ella at 1:19 PM on September 2, 2015


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