Hipster's Complaint
I’m probably going to conflate a bunch of different social and literary trends in this post. You’ve been warned.
Responding to Dara’s post on why we ought to care about hipsters, James asks:
The question… is whether a damn good novel — to say nothing of a great American novel — can be written about The Hipster Habitus. If the answer is no, there really is something qualitatively more ‘worried’ — and worrisome — about Hipsteria than ephemeral youth niche identities of yore.
I think Keith Gessen tried, though I don’t think his novel rose to the level of “damn good,” and it certainly wasn’t a “great American novel.” But I think we may already have a good model for what such a novel would look like: Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. Here’s a novel about an arrogant, self-deprecating young New York striver who ( much to his parents’ dismay) gives up on God, dates a ditzy model, has a threesome (twice!), rabidly pursues his sexual obsessions, feels guilty about his sex life, brags about his IQ, stands up for socialism, takes a job in public service, and so on and so forth.
It’s the hipster habitus, nearly in full; all that’s missing, really, is the indie rock and internet. In fact, Portnoy’s Complaint may actually already be the great American hipster novel. From a stylistic perspective, it seems to have helped capture and set the tone for indie/bloggy snark: All those exclamation points! And italics! The hysteria and snideness! The manic self-examination and self-deprecation! Take this passage, for example, in which Alexander Portnoy relays his wonder at the gentle way the family of one of his college girlfriends converses.
“Good morning,” as he uses it, refers specifically to the hours between eight a.m. and twelve noon. I’d never thought of it that way before. He wants the hours between eight and twelve to be good, which is to say, enjoyable, pleasurable, beneficial! We are all of us wishing each other four hours of pleasure and accomplishment. Why, that’s terrific! Hey, that’s very nice! Good morning! And the same applies to “Good afternoon”! And “Good evening”! And “Good night”! My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn’t just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you’ve got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren’t only bombs and bullets — not, they’re little gifts, containing meanings!
Yes, the passage is intended to amusingly evoke a young New York Jew’s marvel at the politesse of a Midwestern Christian family. But it also nails the rapid-fire back and forth of hipsterish New York blogs like Gawker. So insofar as Gawker and its ilk are currently the prime cultivators of hipster rhetoric, Portnoy’s Complaint seems to be present-day hipsterdom’s predecessor and a key influence on its literary and stylistic obsessions. And if someone were to write a great novel of hipsterdom today, I suspect there’d be more than a few similarities to the complaints of Alexander Portnoy.
So, in summary, it appears that you are saying that “hipster” = “young and Jewish”?
Interesting.
— Steve Sailer · Apr 23, 08:53 PM · #
I’d nominate You Shall Know Our Velocity as a damn good hipster novel.
— Conor Friedersdorf · Apr 23, 09:32 PM · #
Steve — not exactly, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that young, urban Jewish intellectuals have been a significant influence on contemporary hipsterdom.
— Peter Suderman · Apr 23, 09:35 PM · #
outside of the stylistic echoes, portnoy’s complaint seems at least as good a choice as any for its (almost exclusive) focus on social and familial alienation. but i wonder whether it would bother the hipster set for alex portnoy to be the portrait of that alienation, when roth takes such pains to make it clear that it’s portnoy’s own ugly flaws that estrange him from the world outside.
— Max Socol · Apr 23, 10:05 PM · #
I know I’ve said this again, but…. you give way to much credit and thought to hipsters. They are followers of a style. They are not creators of anything. They do not influence anything. And they are not in any way uniqe as a phenomena. Societies have had young people unconsciously organizing into identity groups for thousands if not millions of years. It is a stage of human development. How old are you Peter Suderman? You may belong to an identity group yourself. Are you profound? I was a self conscious and therefor half-assed post-punk poophead. I was anything but profound.
— cw · Apr 24, 12:02 AM · #
The Great Hipster novel (or at least the Great SWPL novel) has already been written, and behold! It is chicklit.
See my review here: The Time Traveler’s Wife.
— mr tall · Apr 24, 05:24 AM · #
Uh, I don’t think I could possibly agree less, from equating hipsterdom with Gawker to the absurd but inevitable Philip Roth corollary. That entire approach seems ridiculously New York-centric. But then, I guess that deos sort of confirm Dara’s point about the subtle yet polarizing effect of culture.
Here’s some advice: you want the Great Hipster Novel? Look outside the U.S. and outside traditional literary fiction. My suggestions would be William Gibson’s recent “Blue Ant” books, or Haruki Murakami’s mid-80s duology of A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance.
But then it could just be that what I, as a 24-year old lifelong Floridian who grew up alongside Respectable Street Cafe and got into blogs via LiveJournal, have an entirely different concept in mind when I hear the word “hipster” than any of you do.
— Joseph FM · Apr 25, 04:24 AM · #