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Mark's Reviews > Hip: The History
Hip: The History
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I had an incredible amount of fun progressing through this well organized catalogue and chronicle of how hip came to be and what it has been and is (please tell me) in America. The author articulated more than a few of my intuitions into truths (for example, the notion that "hip" is uniquely American and that everyone else has to import it from us, not that this makes us any less ugly).
What made this book much richer than, say, Lewis MacAdams' also worthwhile Birth of the Cool is the power of Leland's central thesis: hip was spawned from the nuanced and complicated juxtapositions and exchanges between the cultures of white and black people who found themselves in a new rough beast of nation being born some 240 years ago. Calm down all PCs and members of world-saving Justice League of America. Leland neither denies nor minimizes that this juxtaposition has also been the cradle of immeasurable injustice and inhumanity which sticks with us today, but his focus is that between the cracks of that wall of evil and woe, in sneaked "Hip".
A prime example of how Leland is more comparative and integrating of the hip themes than MacAdams was would be Chapter 4 (Would a Hipster Hit a Lady?) in which he makes some deep but fairly apparent connections between pulp fiction and film noir but is then able to stretch to encompass Gangsta Rap in the same theme. Not so tough a stretch one might say after reading the chapter, but were you mindful of it before you did?
A particular thrill to read the Hip has Three Fingers chapter too. Is it any wonder that I am so transgressive when it comes to what passes for social probity in these United States? Those cartoons I consumed unfiltered and in huge doses when my brain was forming were out and out subversive. I realized, with a fair amount of perverse pride, the extent to which Mad Magazine had warped my views so far out of kilter from the unwoken ofay myrmidons, but not until reading Hip: The History did I realize the gratitude I should have toward Bugs Bunny.
I recommend the book, it's a goody. Leland has several other books and writes for the New York Times.
What made this book much richer than, say, Lewis MacAdams' also worthwhile Birth of the Cool is the power of Leland's central thesis: hip was spawned from the nuanced and complicated juxtapositions and exchanges between the cultures of white and black people who found themselves in a new rough beast of nation being born some 240 years ago. Calm down all PCs and members of world-saving Justice League of America. Leland neither denies nor minimizes that this juxtaposition has also been the cradle of immeasurable injustice and inhumanity which sticks with us today, but his focus is that between the cracks of that wall of evil and woe, in sneaked "Hip".
A prime example of how Leland is more comparative and integrating of the hip themes than MacAdams was would be Chapter 4 (Would a Hipster Hit a Lady?) in which he makes some deep but fairly apparent connections between pulp fiction and film noir but is then able to stretch to encompass Gangsta Rap in the same theme. Not so tough a stretch one might say after reading the chapter, but were you mindful of it before you did?
A particular thrill to read the Hip has Three Fingers chapter too. Is it any wonder that I am so transgressive when it comes to what passes for social probity in these United States? Those cartoons I consumed unfiltered and in huge doses when my brain was forming were out and out subversive. I realized, with a fair amount of perverse pride, the extent to which Mad Magazine had warped my views so far out of kilter from the unwoken ofay myrmidons, but not until reading Hip: The History did I realize the gratitude I should have toward Bugs Bunny.
I recommend the book, it's a goody. Leland has several other books and writes for the New York Times.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
November 14, 2008
– Shelved
October 10, 2022
– Shelved as:
my-physical-copy-is-m-i-a
October 10, 2022
– Shelved as:
read-and-reread
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Petergiaquinta wrote: ""Unwoken ofay myrmidons"???Yowza!"
Petergiaquinta - I religiously read about a dozen Marvel titles during what I consider their golden age, but what is probably not defined as such by the unified front of comic book aficionados . . . around the time that the cover price moved from 25垄 to 35垄 as I recall. I was a huge fan of Man-Thing ("Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!"), so Gerber's on my list (although I don't think I was that conscious of him as an individual artist at the time, I don't think I was conscious of much, I just gobbled the stuff up). I was raised by hippies, so I perused my fair share of Zap! comix and the like.
George Clinton I didn't discover until late in life. But dig him the most. Recently read a great interview with Crumb (link below) about his recent work and how Hef fucked with Harvey Kurtzman's work (Little Annie Fannie). Hef was a brilliant business man who was probably a bit of a bastard once established, so I admire him for his pluck, but don't know if he really had any impact on me. Besides all those great interviews I read as a young man. Ha ha ha.
Thanks for the link. That's a fascinating interview. Crumb's a fascinating guy.Speaking of interviews, yeah I read those too, and I read them closely. They impacted me almost as much as the photography. I read the articles, the comics, the letters and the short stories; heck, I prolly read every single word in those magazines when I was a kid...and of course I looked at the nekkid ladies. But I don't think I'd be the person I am today without those articles. Without being too silly about it, I owe Hugh Hefner a huge debt of gratitude and not just for the nekkid ladies. Both the journalism and the literature he published back then were top notch, probably the best a regular kind of guy could find. I don't know what I think of Hef anymore...he's a wrinkled caricature of himself, but as an older guy myself looking backward now I have to acknowledge that back in the '70s he was one of my heroes.
Yowza!
In addition to Bugs Bunny and Mad Magazine, do Stan Lee or Steve Gerber get any credit in helping develop/warp that young mind of yours? I'd also drop in George Clinton, Hugh Hefner and R Crumb into my own list. And maybe I should add Gilbert Shelton, although I didn't know his name at the time...