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I'm not sure if the sociological experiment that the author conducted was really immersive enough to produce a good take on the subculture. It's fairly obvious
by photochemsyn 4y ago
I'm not sure if the sociological experiment that the author conducted was really immersive enough to produce a good take on the subculture. It's fairly obvious this was intended along the lines of Hunter S. Thompson's "Hell's Angels" - which may have spawned an entire genre of sub-culture literature (I don't know if Thompson really originated it or not, there may be earlier examples, perhaps Zora Neale Hurston). The theme is pretty consistent: a writer inserts self into subculture, gets the full experience, writes magazine articles/books that others can gawk at.
Maybe this particular subculture is just fairly boring and shallow, mostly fabricated by moneyed interests (NFTs...) and there's just not much to say about it? Kind of sad, has the USA turned into a cultural wasteland?
- greenhearth 4y agoRaymond Williams has theorized the nature of subcultures (residual and emergent), which are almost always incorporated into the mainstream in one form or another. I'm afraid that because this culture is so incredibly toxic that the effects of this incorporation will be like a collective poisoning. This can already be seen in the resulting superstructure (art, politics, finance) and mainstream social relations, all of which are deteriorated and confused more than ever it seems. In any case, I noticed the Thompson similarities as well. This kind of reportage flicks the light switch in a dark room, in which then the cockroaches run for the corners.
- photochemsyn 4y agoYeah, I can't really blame the author for not wanting to go any further down that particular rabbit hole. From what I've read, it also sounds unpleasantly similar to conditions in the FTX/Alameda warren.