Friday, February 15, 2008

Muse on the status of the systematic loveliness

This is one of those random posts where I don't know what I might say before I say it.
It might just be nothing. SO maybe I will talk about magazines and the youth aesthetic.

So you know magazines, or television sometimes or advertising agencies and how frequently and often they are advertising the youth aesthetic, the youth culture, etc? What is the youth aesthetic as it is called or branded or advertised? And very often it is sculpted toward a particular suit, like a deck of cards.

And sometimes when they sell it, because they do sell it.. it is a shiny thing, sometimes it is a sparkly thing, you know?
It is glistened and quite glossed.. and sometimes there are many different colors flashing all around in a circle, because sometimes that seems to be a ubiquitous symbol for something described as young ( though of course we do like colors)
or just bossed like the hood of a car..and we think to ourselves this is the youth aesthetic.. this is that zig zaggy, somewhat sweet and sour delectable nature
and everyone is like ahhhhh and applause and oooohh if I could get some of that youth aesthetic into my game, man
my life would be so tight

it gets to be where even some of the young people are trying to get this youth aesthetic into their game
i mean really, instead of making their own game up

hmmm
there are some magazines and of course other diverse media publications that ...
.. how do i say this.. of course do have a grasp on the style.. but its too clean you know.. its just too clean
Some of the aesthetic that is being proferred back to young people and to the world in the name of them (yikes!) is just too clean and just a little too packaged

Do we really all look like that...? I mean do we really all want to look like that...? I mean if we could choose to live in the pages of some of these magazines (or various diverse media) would we? actually? (my mouth would go dry..) whether its that hip hop aesthetic
or hipster
or emo
or artistic nerd with the vans and the red backpack and this is where it gets ingenious and complicated and it can get tricky a little .. its aight.. its alright)
or that northeastern boarding school gig
or that down south dirty
and these are all realities, but they shouldn't be too perfect
i don't think

---------------
I wonder. Something about the youth aesthetic is that it is perpetually new seeming, though of course it is as old as the dickens ( what is the dickens by the way..) It will perpetually be new.. it will perpetually be cashable.. it will perpetually produce as life does you know... you know? That's why its so marketable.
I wonder though... I really wonder.. if it's so marketable and so many industries are fueled by the youth aesthetic...

It's like a spritz. It really is. You spritz some here and there and the flowers grow or something you're selling has more appeal.. a car sells more.. or this package looks so much more appealing. Its like an essence. Flower essence. Young people life essence.

My deal is.. if its so valuable and so profitable then.. how and when and where do young people get paid for their youth aesthetic...? How and when and where do institutions for young people get served through the use of this youth aesthetic by big and small industries? (
Not just institutions for young people, but BY young people and all the many combinations of the two.)

How, when, and where do the
ideas ideas! ideas! that young people have get funded, supported, and lifted through the use of their life, their beauty, their overwhelming continuing creation and ingenuity by and for so many diverse industries?.. through the use of these same ideas.. but in hyphenated format..

How does that come back to us? How does that feed us, serve us?
If this is the case all children should have healthcare.
(And this shouldn't be an issue.. why is this pulling teeth?..)

I don't believe that young people should have to take low-paying work or even that you have to suffer under a ridiculous internship ( unless it is a good internship that serves you! and where you have a great relationship with a mentor, etc..yes!) or just be a student.
Student! Such contested word.

I think we can do so much more than this..
I think young people have so much power ( and everyone.. i only talk about the young because this is my focus group) We just have to identify where our power lies, name it. Understand it. Feel it in the palm of our hands. the weight of it. How shall we mold this thing into our creation? Use it to weigh the balances. Check the balances.

I think it is a ruse the whole idea that young people have EVERYTHING to learn from older people. ( Though we do have MANY things to learn from them and all in respect of course!) And even then it has to be done within a framework of mutual respect. Otherwise I believe young people are only taught to be second place citizens in our own lives.. and this goes from the pre-schooler to the post-grad. If you're consistently taught to bow or something or sit down in your seat, when do you unlearn yourself to stand up? When do you learn to take the reins? To become the author of your own living and breathing... to go to the bathroom when you friggin feel like, take hold of your survival or better yet abundance, yeah i said it abundance.. like feeling alright and feeling good and feeling great.. hmmm
I want to talk about this more.. but actually.. i mean actively.. as in words that are actions.. there are such things.. hmm

- the Indelible In

ADDENDUM to this message:
( Oh my God! They're selling our dreams back to us. OMG! I think this is what it is.
..We want our dreams so bad, of course! we will pay for them. I actually have to come back to this on the next one.. but this has soooo many implications.. ).. And of course like all things we can do something about it
and about ourselves..
ummhmm

2 comments:

  1. Yeah you are very right.
    I like what you're saying.
    I like it alot.
    phphhhlllllllooooooo
    -k

    ReplyDelete
  2. In case you didn't know (and I bet you did know) here is a dot com that is right UP ya'lls alley.

    MyAfricanDiaspora(dot)com
    http://www.myafricandiaspora.com/mission.html

    Check it out. You all should post/link your stories, pictures and films there

    ~ Nicole

    ReplyDelete