Goth night
This entry was originally posted on 2 August 2002 at 2:24 p.m. This is a slightly abridged version of the original.
The night before last i went to ManRay in Cambridge with my friend mpr. It was a Wednesday night, which meant that all the 18+ goth types in the area were there by about 11 PM.
ManRay is an interesting place: two nights a week are devoted to either the goth crowd or the fetish/bdsm crowd, one night a week is gay night, and i can't remember what happens on the fourth night. Regardless, there's usually an interesting mix of people there.
Until this week, i've only ever been on Friday nights (Fridays alternate between five different events including Sin, Hell, 5, and two others i can't remember). I was accustomed to seeing the die-hard, i-live-my-life-in-this-costume crowd. Wednesday, however, was different.
One clarification before we move on: i am not a goth. Granted, many people who fit into the goth scene don't consider themselves goths--the movement itself seems to be characterized more by individualism than conformity. But i really don't fit into the scene: i don't know much of the music, i don't have the wardrobe, and my social circle mainly involves people who work at the restaurant, readers of certain kinds of literature, and academics or semi-academics. I've had friends (including my college roommate for two years) who are goths, but sadly, i don't have the same cultural background as they do.
But i'm fascinated by the concept of "goth." The ICA had an entire exhbition dedicated to goth art (note that i'm not using the term "gothic"--i want it to be clear that i'm not talking about art produced between the 12th and 15th centuries in Europe). I didn't get the see the exhibition, but the museum keeps a video collection of some of its stuff, which i watched with great interest--great enough that i bought the hardcover book while i was there.
I love its self-mocking sense of absurdity. I love the music, i love the focus on man as subtle monster, and i love the general oddness and intelligence of the goths that i've known. These are important things. David Lynch, for one, is a major champion of absurdity.
And this is why i had to laugh when we visited the club Wednesday night: probably a quarter to a third of the people who were there were just like us--non-goths, wearing all black, come to watch the bizarre video loop, catch some tunes, and have a couple of beers.
Toward 11 or so, most of the people were actual goths in varying costume. But what struck me most about them is that very few of them were the i-live-my-life-in-costume kind. Most of them seemed like normal folks who have this secret alter-ego. In a sense, this was disappointing. I mean, hell, what's the point of being goth if you're not living the goth life?
On the other hand, it was interesting to speculate on the things that brought this crowd together. These are the questions that darted through my head as i walked home from the T:
* What is it that defines a movement?
* What is it that brings such an individualist crowd together?
* How does one become a part of this crowd?
* And why was the crowd representative of only a few subgroups?
I know, not the deepest questions in the world, but i think they have implications for any culture or subculture.
The night before last i went to ManRay in Cambridge with my friend mpr. It was a Wednesday night, which meant that all the 18+ goth types in the area were there by about 11 PM.
ManRay is an interesting place: two nights a week are devoted to either the goth crowd or the fetish/bdsm crowd, one night a week is gay night, and i can't remember what happens on the fourth night. Regardless, there's usually an interesting mix of people there.
Until this week, i've only ever been on Friday nights (Fridays alternate between five different events including Sin, Hell, 5, and two others i can't remember). I was accustomed to seeing the die-hard, i-live-my-life-in-this-costume crowd. Wednesday, however, was different.
One clarification before we move on: i am not a goth. Granted, many people who fit into the goth scene don't consider themselves goths--the movement itself seems to be characterized more by individualism than conformity. But i really don't fit into the scene: i don't know much of the music, i don't have the wardrobe, and my social circle mainly involves people who work at the restaurant, readers of certain kinds of literature, and academics or semi-academics. I've had friends (including my college roommate for two years) who are goths, but sadly, i don't have the same cultural background as they do.
But i'm fascinated by the concept of "goth." The ICA had an entire exhbition dedicated to goth art (note that i'm not using the term "gothic"--i want it to be clear that i'm not talking about art produced between the 12th and 15th centuries in Europe). I didn't get the see the exhibition, but the museum keeps a video collection of some of its stuff, which i watched with great interest--great enough that i bought the hardcover book while i was there.
I love its self-mocking sense of absurdity. I love the music, i love the focus on man as subtle monster, and i love the general oddness and intelligence of the goths that i've known. These are important things. David Lynch, for one, is a major champion of absurdity.
And this is why i had to laugh when we visited the club Wednesday night: probably a quarter to a third of the people who were there were just like us--non-goths, wearing all black, come to watch the bizarre video loop, catch some tunes, and have a couple of beers.
Toward 11 or so, most of the people were actual goths in varying costume. But what struck me most about them is that very few of them were the i-live-my-life-in-costume kind. Most of them seemed like normal folks who have this secret alter-ego. In a sense, this was disappointing. I mean, hell, what's the point of being goth if you're not living the goth life?
On the other hand, it was interesting to speculate on the things that brought this crowd together. These are the questions that darted through my head as i walked home from the T:
* What is it that defines a movement?
* What is it that brings such an individualist crowd together?
* How does one become a part of this crowd?
* And why was the crowd representative of only a few subgroups?
I know, not the deepest questions in the world, but i think they have implications for any culture or subculture.
posted by Circus at 11:01 AM
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