Perhaps bonghits will fix my social consciousness

[substitute]

I was talking to eyeteeth earlier who asked a pertinent question about the last heat-inspired rage festival I'd posted. The question (paraphrased) was: If you don't like pseudo-ironic bigotry, why do you like jerkcity, when it's all about gaybashing, misogyny, and similar tasteless crap?

Matters of taste are hard to dispute, and matters of bad taste doubly so, but I'll try.

I think Jerkcity appeals to me because the characters are weak, unhappy, embarrassed losers who keep saying and doing the wrong thing. They're all like Charlie Brown to me. As I think it was Pants once said, OH MY GOD THIS IS WAY TOO PERSONAL WHERE IS THE BACKSPACE?

Also, my objection to pseudo-ironic bullshit blaxploitation and midget shows is that the people who do this believe they're above actually being bigoted twits and that this is somehow an airy Post-Neo-Deconstructionist commentary. The Jerkcity guys just seem to be really high and later on to be terribly hung over and worried what happened, which is at once less mean and more realistic. T QUENTIN FECHEZ LA TEXTE I MEAN LA VACHE OH FUCK THOSE WERE MY GOOD DIAPERS

Watching some upper middle class kids wear fake afros and sing "Shaft" on stage or seeing the midget cohost on the extreme sports show feels to me like watching someone kick a dog and laugh. Reading Jerkcity makes me feel like watching someone who has had 8 shots of tequila and thinks he *is* his dog, and then later hearing him tell the story of that night.

Does this make sense? If not, please explain and/or clarify.

also: THE POO SHOULD BE SCARED

Comments

I dunno

[rpkrajewski.livejournal.com]

I would cut Tarantino a little slack, if only for Jackie Brown. Pam Grier was a goddess in that movie, probably the best role she's ever had, and how often does a women over 35 get that in most American movies these days ? Jackie Brown is so unlike any QT-wanna-be-product that spewed out post-1995 that when my friend and I saw it, we were thinking, "Jeez, this is practically a chick flick !"

As far as Jerkcity goes, it's worth maybe one read for the bumper-car ride of quasi-transgression and abject despair. Like, yay !

The real theme underlying both Jerkcity and a lot of gangsta-and-after rap-influenced pop culture is that all hipsters are now supposed to be able to chuckle over the use of prison culture as the subject for humor, and a big part of that is male/male sex as a tool of domination. It's been mainstreamed to the point where people can say things like "so-and-so is my biatch" and not get much of a reproach.

Re: I dunno

[effluvia.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about Tarantino. I think he is genuinely in awe of the blaxploitation genre, its style and its characters. I see his stuff as more of a send up. Not ironic at all.

Also, I lovev Pam Grier so much and have ever since I saw Foxy Brown. Any filmmaker who casts her as the lead in a slick Hollywood movie is okay with me.