what are 'hipster' books?

some thoughts i had abt .s today:

- iatee kinda sd this but imo the biggest problem in discussing a subject like 'hipster books' is that .s arent really that interested cultural products as products but more as signifiers like if yr spending most of yr time at gallery openings or retro dance nights or trying to score coke yr probably not actually reading all that much, period

- but like even if yr 'personal brand' is sorta founded on some idea of individual taste in practice ppl still end up reading/seeing/doing the things their friends are doing so there is some conformity/continuity w/in the larger 'community' and so you can probably identify specific works that are in vogue at any moment as a means of 'identifying hipsters'

- however these specific books are always situational/relational/transitory as 'hipster signifiers' and so its more useful to think of the set of values or connotations that these products have that might make them attractive to .s

- there is no such thing as a 'hipster book' in practice since any actual book is freighted w/ all sorts of contradictory connotations that can disqualify it any time but you cld describe a 'hipster book' in theory p accurately if u tried

well go on then

is zizek passim yet?

haha is this a super-hibrow way of saying 'passé'??

i like murakami but to my knowledge this has never gotten me any credit for hipness or lubricated my social life among hip people.

yes. yes, it is

i mean

well go on then

lol f u 2

just wanted to stop by and say that confderacy of dunces sucks and so does murakami

armscrossed.gif

always felt like hipster ANYTHING was defined by genre exceptions. hepcats will listen to townes van zandt and ancient string band comps, but not, you know, 99% of the country music that most people would listen to. people will read jim thompson novels but avoid most crime/mystery novels completely. etc. etc. (PKD being the one exception as far as SF goes for most people)

its the willful narrowness that bugs me. but, you know, this isn't JUST hipsters that do this. lots of people do. metal for people who don't like metal. jazz for people who don't like jazz. its a thing. i understand it. and i get it with books too. people want to be in on the cool thing. there will always be cool things.

always felt like chuck fight club was horror for people who don't read horror.

^^^ this is a good point; so is lamp's a few back. i wonder how far apart they are? isn't the idea of literature (or any art, really) as 'personal brand' defined a little bit by dilettantism and a lack of actual understanding but an appropriation of the exceptional w/in(out) a certainc canon?

219 posts on an ILB thread and i excitedly click to read...this

wait this is an ilb thread?

loling

ILB is like a soiled, rumpled, sweaty bed now

"ursula leguin or someone who is like the timbaland of novelists maybe"

??? please to unpack.

hey, you guys up there, don't you worry, ilb will never become hip. you're safe. i only started this board cuz i was a sad stay at home dad living on a rock in the ocean. i'm glad if anyone still comes here. and i'm no help cuz i forgot how to read.

maybe he meant octavia e butler?

is cormac mccarthy the townes van zandt of lit? he must be. how else could you get someone to read a western?

he's more like johnny cash american recordings

or mayble uncle tupelo

uncle tupelo, particularly their version of 'no depression'

jeff tweedy and cormac mccarthy, together at last

hey, you guys up there, don't you worry, ilb will never become hip. you're safe.

Hey, I'd love this much participation every day--I was just disappointed that we finally got so many visitors, but to such a worthless discussion

"ursula leguin or someone who is like the timbaland of novelists maybe"

??? please to unpack.

― Philip Nunez, Monday, August 29, 2011 3:54 AM (4 hours ago)

fantasy is a fairly maligned genre like r'n'b but it's good to have a couple of auteurs you can pick out and like tokenistically for reasons that aren't necessarily the reasons that genre fans will give you straight off (2002 hipsters comparing timbaland to aphex twin, ursula leguin as like gender studies undergrad accessory) I used timbaland and not say the dream or like the weeknd or something here because those are different examples. timbaland is hipster personal brand component where you are "getting" something that is also mainstream popular but for, like, more highbrow reasons.

I don't find this a worthless discussion

I've found it enjoyable, funny and interesting

I think it's great to see an ILB thread with 200 posts, that isn't 'what are you reading?'

http://dvdspindoctor.typepad.com/dvd_spin_doctor/images/2007/08/27/ringo_brimley_hard_days_night_2.jpg

Hey, I'd love this much participation every day--I was just disappointed that we finally got so many visitors, but to such a worthless discussion

well i had fun

a worthless discussion

Nah. The people have spoken and they considered it worthwhile. Not deep, mind you, but worthwhile.

i bought the nyrb edition of euripides' plays today, am i a hipster now

i think that depends if you're going to make a purse out of it.

re: leguin, i thought the gender studies aspect and the SF fandom appreciation was more or less aligned, the same way horror fans and kubrick fans like the shining for pretty much the same reasons?

Nah. The people have spoken and they considered it worthwhile. Not deep, mind you, but worthwhile.

Fair point. Sorry, I realise I was being like a grumpy old man in the library, wondering why all the kids were borrowing DVDs rather than books.

i have read through this thread but am stuck on why these people are reading a biography of David Hume, and which one they are reading.

you probably haven't heard of it

I don't know if anyone has posted this because I didn't read this thread but there are no such things as hipster books

oh.

maybe someone cld get in touch with joni & let her know the outcome.

Joni!

Would Pessoa's Book of Disquiet appear on a list of hipster books in 2011? Or has it become too widely known to qualify?

hip, but not hipster

(immense feeling of relief) thx

guys I 'pounded some pavement' and I went on the streets to find out what hipster books really are

I took this photo of an urban outfitters display window of course would a real hipster work at urban outfitters?? likely no but maybe a pseudo hipster who works at outban urfitters would copy what a real hipster outfitter likes to read

so I present to you HIPSTER BOOKS, EMPIRICALLY COLLECTED

http://i.imgur.com/9LUUQ.jpg

good work

where is "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

it's inside the bag

where is hipster puppies

i am mad that there is a rob sheffield book in that pile

fuck u urban outfitters u can't have that book

i know what i'm doing this weekend.

i guess i missed the 'books deej reads' joek

anyway:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/CalamityPhysicsBookCover.jpg

no i don't think so

(posts cover of 'a short history of tractors in ukrainian')