what are 'hipster' books?

wow, some of our dads know who band of horses is, that doesn't make them hipsters iirc

― brrr-icane aye-rene (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, August 28, 2011 3:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

NPR covering band of horses is not the same as the new york times book review writing about ... anything they acclaim

deej, you're coming in here setting up a false dichotomy and I don't like it

Whiney, do you have a copy of Oran Canfield's memoir? Also, where would that fall on the hipster lit spectrum?

false dichotomies!!!!!!!

deej, i love u like a brother, but u did the same thing with Gucci Mane. Just because a bunch of hipsters like something that the "normals" in your world of young ppl and moms like, it doesn't mean that A) it makes your friends/families hipsters or B) these things don't have a unique life of their own in hipster circles

i really want to read oran's memoir. his band is on the hipster puppies tape!

i know, i bought the book from him when they were on tour last fall!

is it good?

haven't read it yet ;/

i never claimed "a" and wtf is a 'unique life of their own'

YOU did the same thing w/r/t gucci mane -- just because hipsters do something doesnt make it unique to hipsters or a characteristic of hipsterdom. "hipsters breath -- ergo..."

"because hipsters do something" kind of by definition makes it a characteristic of hipsterdom

i bet hipsters tie their shoelaces much the same way i do -- i must be a hipster

a 'unique life of their own' is being street music in atl and flav of the month in billysburg

i guess the question is whether something as overground as confederacy can be said to have its own unique hipster life...probably it can

are you saying you aren't a hipster, deej? That a proper definition of "hipster" would exclude you?

the counterpoint to whiney's point against deej is that the boundaries of these "hipster circles" are subjectively defined by a critical mass of "these things" that people need to accrete. there is no "correct" or "accepted" definition for that critical mass.

every hipster human life is unique like a snowflake, guys.

are you preparing to be a contestant on jeopardy? is that why your posts are always in the form of a question? xxp

like for my teenagers in my classes, white sunglasses = hipster.

but in my world, everybody from the bro-iest brah to the dirtiest dirtbag has white sunglasses.

i mean vonnegut and wallace are kind of rock n roll

cofederacy guy died in obscurity that's kind of rock n roll

bolano died young that's kind of rock n roll

i think u can get more hipster, like actual counterculture presses, counter to the culture or just the publishing culture, see my post above for big little presses or some of the more fringe stuff like semiotext(e) or the stuff sarahel mentions

a 'unique life of their own' is being street music in atl and flav of the month in billysburg

i guess the question is whether something as overground as confederacy can be said to have its own unique hipster life...probably it can

― zvookster, Sunday, August 28, 2011 3:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

maybe this is LOL chicago but i never heard ppl in wicker park repping for gucci mane but w/e

deej, i don't know whether to feel dissed or grateful that you don't pay much attention to my posts.

I Love Books is the place to be seen

zvookster that stuff is generally the worst but i still have a HAKIM BEY book somewhere does that make me a hipster y/n

i sort of want to post pics of my bookshelves and see if i meet the criteria

sarahel your post was a corny 'gotcha' that im above
feel dissed

we should really just turn this into who has the hipsterist bookshelves photo thread

the hipster-iest books i have are probably the music related ones

I lost all my McSweeneys and 33 1/3s in the fire and now no one knows I'm smart and cultured when they come over

pretty sure i would win by a country mile

your post was a corny 'gotcha' that im above

There's a first time for everything.

idk if u mean the fringe stuff but "rebel inc. and city lights and new directions and payback press and nyrb pub" as generally the worst is really really stupid

but i am applying a value-neutral attitude to the "hipster book", could be good, could be bad, but "is it brostep hipster?"

There's a first time for everything.

― sarahel, Sunday, August 28, 2011

lol!

Agree with mr Klata, this extended thread discussion has joyously made quiet ILB into Kreuzberg for one night only.

I'm having a miniature penguin logo tattooed behind one ear in celebration

http://www.nogoodforme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/damonpenguin2.jpg

i still have a HAKIM BEY book somewhere

lolll

pretty sure i would win by a country mile

i have a stack of two dozen-ish nyrb classics sitting next to me as a post this...

actually really tempted to post more photos i took of the books piled in our living room (lol)

s.thing like confederacy of dunces feels again to me like the sorta thing that some .s might like but has lost meaning as a 'hipster book' as it became more widely read... regardless of the actual cannon i think a sensitivity to a title's cultural currency is one of the hallmarks of the . & so there will always be some fluidity in the 'cannon' e.g. pynchon or murakami becoming increasingly passé and ppl getting into knut hamsun (growth in the soil is total top tier hipster title imo)

in some ways i think its easier to describe a set of criterion that defines a 'hipster book' and/or 'hipster cinema' the primary quality of which imo is a sense of inclusive exclusivity e.g. it has to be both difficult or obscure or gauche enough that 'alts with good taste' or whoever wont be into it but recognizable and relatable enough that it can serve as a currency w/in the . community

Lamp otm

I accused my ex-bf of reading hipster lit because he was reading a Murakami book.

His response, "My dad bought it for me for christmas. He read it and thought i might like it."

i would have assumed hipster lit was like joy williams, french post 68 theory and like ursula leguin or someone who is like the timbaland of novelists maybe

plax! didn't we have a discussion about a year ago or so about whether Deleuze & Guattari were hipster lit?

haha i just read 'a thousand plateaus'

what did you guys decide, ive read deleuze -- this might have a bearing on the deej hipster poll thread

my man

by standards of the last couple dozen posts i have a lot of 'hipster lit' on my i-really-should-read-this pile. i mean it may exclusively be hipster lit, right now, except for a steve erickson novel. there is a hakim bey. lots of zizek. is zizek passim yet?

this thread sucks, it's like it's been booby trapped so you can't say "oh how was that i've been meaning to check it out?" without collaterally revealing your plaid-gang membership. HOW WAS A THOUSAND PLATEAUS, i was just thumbing a copy, social baggage bedamned.

i think we've progressed to the point where "revealing your plaid-gang membership" is totally ok and nothing to feel self-conscious or negative about. At least that was my goal.

but do we want to proudly belong to a club in which no-one else is proud to be a member

I've been wanting to read Murakami for a while actually

xp - we post here, don't we?

ha sure but i thought that was more of an support group dynamic