My friend Lauren, on her blog, was basically asked what she thought pretentiousness was. For her answer, you can find it here: http://ljavaly.tumblr.com/ ( it’s really funny)
I am going to respond to her answer, because I thought it would be interesting. (I know it’s pretentious to talk about what defines being pretentious, but thats the catch 22 of life, so just go with it.)
Personally, I think being pretentious is the act of planning to mold into the ‘unexpected’ when in reality, that is the expected reality. I just feel that pretentiousness is the ultimate non- cliche cliche. It would not exist if it weren’t for the obsession with the niche. But whatever. It’s just another form of control that society tricks us with (not to be angsty, or anything.) “Oh lordy, that person might be a little different and may have different feelings and talents, and shit that might not go over well in corporate America. I know! lets get groups of them together so instead of dealing with these non- profitable youths, we can direct them as a group! We can even let them have different clothing styles and haircuts! What was once a person who liked things to be a little different is now just a hipster. Or an emo. Or a goth. Whatever, the list goes on and on and on and on. There. Labeled. Done. Get them down to shipping and we can make a nice profit.”
How can we all be different if we are all different together and in the same way? How can we deal with the fact that we have been transformed from human beings in walking dollar signs? And not that I hate shopping or anything, but in a way our ‘social systems’ are scooping up budding, promising, soulful intellectuals and spewing out fashion statements. We can be different, but only collaboratively. If everybody was different on their own, it would be an impossible society to mass produce for and sell things too.
How can we blame ourselves and others for being pretentious if it’s basically the only other choice? If un-pretentious is defined as quiet and competitive yet non-threatening to only the ‘right’ people, that doesn’t look so good either.
If we stop putting people into these stupid ‘types’ (an age old complaint, I know) and maybe just started trying to live a little, we all wouldn’t bee so miserable. Or at least as miserable. You do the best you can.
