I just wrote a rather long post that I trimmed for clarity, for brevity. There are more ideas, these are rough, rough, rough.
* * *
I thought today, without any real justification or evidence, that decadence is masculine. i.e. Decadence often represents a position of privilege or power that grants one the ability to indulge in overtly selfish acts. What I am struggling with is whether or not decadence can operate as a mode of resistance. I see the beauty in the idea; in Foucault's limit experience, in Bataille, even in Camille Pagilla (hi jr). But in my everyday life, in the operation and negotiation between myself and the world, I have little tolerance for what decadence has come to mean. Perhaps I'm not opposed to the idea, but only the 1960s-nostalgia-based pursuit of it that centers around drug use, casual (in this sense it might mean stranger based, but more accurately thoughtless) sex, and general self-abuse.
With some good reason, the community that has come to represent the greatest collective representation of decadence is gay men (often gay white men). Free from societal expectation of children/family, those "out" individuals often fairing from middle-to-upper class backgrounds, with all the power and privilege of patriarchy and skin privilege, were able to push boundaries of taste, culture, sex, models of living, etc...
I've thought about this a lot -- why I am such a prude. There is a responsibility I feel -- toward my family, my friends, my self, my community, to consciousness -- that preempts me from edge-walking behavior. Or rather, the tradition of decadence as it's developed in the U.S. over the last forty years. I think that other forms of decadence are easily accessible to me, interesting. Modes that are radical, that are revolutionary, but that are not without regard for others, for self, for ethics. When I consider decadence, I find that it often isn't radical, but a celebration of the unradical and a rumination in the individual-obsessed fiction of U.S. culture -- that we act alone, that we grow through taking the world on cowboy style, let the women and children fall to the side, shrug off the government, shoot-em-up ride, ride, ride.
More structured thoughts pending....
* * *
I thought today, without any real justification or evidence, that decadence is masculine. i.e. Decadence often represents a position of privilege or power that grants one the ability to indulge in overtly selfish acts. What I am struggling with is whether or not decadence can operate as a mode of resistance. I see the beauty in the idea; in Foucault's limit experience, in Bataille, even in Camille Pagilla (hi jr). But in my everyday life, in the operation and negotiation between myself and the world, I have little tolerance for what decadence has come to mean. Perhaps I'm not opposed to the idea, but only the 1960s-nostalgia-based pursuit of it that centers around drug use, casual (in this sense it might mean stranger based, but more accurately thoughtless) sex, and general self-abuse.
With some good reason, the community that has come to represent the greatest collective representation of decadence is gay men (often gay white men). Free from societal expectation of children/family, those "out" individuals often fairing from middle-to-upper class backgrounds, with all the power and privilege of patriarchy and skin privilege, were able to push boundaries of taste, culture, sex, models of living, etc...
I've thought about this a lot -- why I am such a prude. There is a responsibility I feel -- toward my family, my friends, my self, my community, to consciousness -- that preempts me from edge-walking behavior. Or rather, the tradition of decadence as it's developed in the U.S. over the last forty years. I think that other forms of decadence are easily accessible to me, interesting. Modes that are radical, that are revolutionary, but that are not without regard for others, for self, for ethics. When I consider decadence, I find that it often isn't radical, but a celebration of the unradical and a rumination in the individual-obsessed fiction of U.S. culture -- that we act alone, that we grow through taking the world on cowboy style, let the women and children fall to the side, shrug off the government, shoot-em-up ride, ride, ride.
More structured thoughts pending....
posted by good golly at 3:36 PM
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