So allow me to show my age a bit. Back in the 80's I was by and large a heavy metal kid. I had a serious enjoyment of Joy Division and New Order, but if you wanted to me to come to the show please have a band with some serious rock guitars etc. I saw Iron Maiden Multiple times, and Judas Priest, Metallica etc.
So I had a burning passion for that kind of music, and part of me would die inside anytime I saw the normal press, or conventional music press do an article on or worse yet review any of these bands. Inevitably it would begin with "I hate Heavy Metal." Then they'd pull out their thesauruses find every word they never had a chance to use in the negative and slam the record or band with all their might.
Every time I would wonder. "So yeah you hate heavy metal, great so why did you out of everyone at the magazine review the record?"
Well long story short, no one there got it, understood or cared to take the time to understand the sub culture. Instead they looked at the world through hipster tinted goggles. Saw the kids in denim and leather and decided to simply record the sights they saw from the outside not wondering why people had such a passion for it. To them those kids were just stoners, burn outs and stupid for not liking the latest album by the Smiths. (The Smiths are a weird one for me. I never liked Morrissey, but I thought the music was brilliant.)
I was reminded of all of this while reading an article in the online edition of "The Daily Nebraskan." In it there was an article about Anime Nebraskon. A local convention that, big surprise, is a gathering of Anime fans. It was obvious that this creepy little git was not going to be very positive about it from the title, and his use of the phrase. "I don't like anime." He then indulged every stereotype of nerd dom in his comments about the event. Basically going to ridiculous lengths to portray the people involved as unwashed dirty escapists with a fetish for costuming.
It became obvious that he showed up with no desire to learn about the sub culture and simply looked for what he wanted to see.
Perhaps he could have noticed the skills people developed in making their costumes. How for a brief three day period the fans could hang out with others who got it. A welcome form of escapism from an everyday world that seems to bask in insanity like a snake on a fist full of valium. For many fans of any genre a gathering like this is a chance to recharge the batteries and make and renew friendships.
Of course he didn't do any of this, because the guy who wrote it is a crap writer.
It made me think of a book by Matt Taibbi. "Smells like Dead Elephants." In it he examined the election of 2008 and actually joined a megachurch and a call center for John Mccain. The book was quite a piece of work. Matt had nothing in common with these folks but he wanted to understand why it was that they held the beliefs that they did. He never made it a point to look down on the people and did an excellent job of showing the fear people have in our country regarding the direction (s) it's heading in. He was sympathetic, and while he disagreed with them, he showed why they had this feeling and passion.
And that's why Matt Taibbi is a brilliant writer. He went out of his way to understand and to show us why we should too.
Which is also why the guy who wrote that article in the Daily Nebraskan is a hack and will likely always will be. Sure there's always a market for smug snakes who wander through a crowd looking for reasons to view them all as rubes and fools. But frankly Fox news has enough of those right now, and the supply of brown lipstick for those jobs is getting thin.
The writers worst sin in this case was intellectual laziness. He never enquired, he just looked for evidence to support his hypothesis and wouldn't actually talk to anyone lest he be swayed from his opinion. You could feel his desire to be above the crowd in each sentence.
One can hope that the comments he got on his article might cause him to examine his method of reporting and as he is doing this for a college paper he might have a faculty advisor suggest that his work was functional but lacked any real depth. That he didn't put himself into the scene he was studying to get a feel for it.
Or translated into everyday language he's a lazy writer who needs to get over himself and maybe get out and live some.
Meanwhile after two weeks of serious video work I now have some spare time and I plan to be back writing some more for more amusement. Comments as always are welcome.
