In this emergency roundtable report, we discuss how clownery has become a dominant mode of aesthetic and ideological expression, perhaps symbolizing the defeat of authenticity.
- Bowie (important to note he’s bisexual, only because queerness is a theme here) having been trained as a mime before becoming a rockstar. The red hair the very pale face, the theatrical looks and eras, the makeup, I think there’s a case to be made about him being Chappells muse over the kiss goth rockers.
- Again with musicians going clown, in the era of Bob Dylan wearing white face paint (a tribute to the mime Baptiste with respect to the face paint specifically,) Dylan during this period was fond of quoting the poet Arthur Rimbaud's dictum that "I is another." He told Rolling Stone's Jonathan Cott that, "In Renaldo and Clara, the mask is more important than the face.” The personas we put on and adopt are more important. I think this goes with your ideas about identity and self personas.
- Rise of the clown (comedians) and fall of the public intellectual. This is something I talked about with a friend after reading that one substack article about the death of the public intellectual, all the places we used to host and admire the intellectuals, schools, special events, giving book deals too, etc have been taken up by the comedian. Not literal stand up comedians (but sometimes yes literal stand up comedians. Where we used to have James Baldwin vs William F Buckley, now we get Adam Friedland with Ritchie Torres on a podcasting show) but funny people and personalities in general. Even journalistically where we once had, David Foster Wallace's THE WEASEL, TWELVE MONKEYS AND THE SHRUB / UP! SIMBA or David Lynch Keeps His Head or Joan Didions Where the Kissing Never Stops and everywoman .com, now we have Brittany broskis royal court and chicken shop date. Luxury brands collaborate with people like Enya Umanzor where they once collaborated with academy award winners. My university literally hosted a group of comedy podcasters. Comedy is celebrated over anything else. Maybe this is a vapid useless nothing point, but idk.
- The connotation of clowns = fear, and the association of clowns = queerness. Queer people embodying clownery more than ever in response to the current climate of villainized queer people, both in the Chappell Roan aesthetic way “yes I am a clown” and in the clownish queer rocky horror way like in Sabrina's tears mv, “queer people are uncanny in a clownish way” I don’t know I think there’s something interesting going on with queerness and clownery.
my reading of the carnivalesque was less "silly clown" and more like the wild hunt\short con\the wicker man. but a little camp never hurt anybody. those other three things have though. a lot.
good reason to be careful at what you laugh at. this would have been a good christmas episode. or at least more on theme
here's some of my random jumbled thoughts;
- Bowie (important to note he’s bisexual, only because queerness is a theme here) having been trained as a mime before becoming a rockstar. The red hair the very pale face, the theatrical looks and eras, the makeup, I think there’s a case to be made about him being Chappells muse over the kiss goth rockers.
- Again with musicians going clown, in the era of Bob Dylan wearing white face paint (a tribute to the mime Baptiste with respect to the face paint specifically,) Dylan during this period was fond of quoting the poet Arthur Rimbaud's dictum that "I is another." He told Rolling Stone's Jonathan Cott that, "In Renaldo and Clara, the mask is more important than the face.” The personas we put on and adopt are more important. I think this goes with your ideas about identity and self personas.
- Rise of the clown (comedians) and fall of the public intellectual. This is something I talked about with a friend after reading that one substack article about the death of the public intellectual, all the places we used to host and admire the intellectuals, schools, special events, giving book deals too, etc have been taken up by the comedian. Not literal stand up comedians (but sometimes yes literal stand up comedians. Where we used to have James Baldwin vs William F Buckley, now we get Adam Friedland with Ritchie Torres on a podcasting show) but funny people and personalities in general. Even journalistically where we once had, David Foster Wallace's THE WEASEL, TWELVE MONKEYS AND THE SHRUB / UP! SIMBA or David Lynch Keeps His Head or Joan Didions Where the Kissing Never Stops and everywoman .com, now we have Brittany broskis royal court and chicken shop date. Luxury brands collaborate with people like Enya Umanzor where they once collaborated with academy award winners. My university literally hosted a group of comedy podcasters. Comedy is celebrated over anything else. Maybe this is a vapid useless nothing point, but idk.
- The connotation of clowns = fear, and the association of clowns = queerness. Queer people embodying clownery more than ever in response to the current climate of villainized queer people, both in the Chappell Roan aesthetic way “yes I am a clown” and in the clownish queer rocky horror way like in Sabrina's tears mv, “queer people are uncanny in a clownish way” I don’t know I think there’s something interesting going on with queerness and clownery.
my reading of the carnivalesque was less "silly clown" and more like the wild hunt\short con\the wicker man. but a little camp never hurt anybody. those other three things have though. a lot.
good reason to be careful at what you laugh at. this would have been a good christmas episode. or at least more on theme
Hey so sorry to post a little off-topic, but it looks like the Discord invite link for subscribers has expired! Is there a new one anywhere?
something is most definitely in the air…
And now there’s a new wildflower clown case
it’s giving artaud