Imaginary solutions
Posted on October 23rd, 2006, under Reading
By far my favourite quote from Resistance Through Rituals:
“Every mod was existing in a ghost world of gangsterism, luxurious clubs, and beautiful women even if reality only amounted to a draughty Parker anorak, a beaten up Vespa, and fish and chips out of a greasy bag.” (p 90)
- Dick Hebdige, ‘The Meaning of Mod’
On October 23rd, 2006 at 9:57 pm, jean said:
yeah, nice. actually the bit of ‘classic’ subculture theory I like the most is the bit that talks about (sub)cultural practices being both the representation and symbolic (but not ‘real’) resolutions of tensions between the structural position (and temporal orientation, e.g. possible imagined futures) of the subculture and those of the ‘parent’ culture. That’s why the fish and chips are so noice in the quote.
On October 24th, 2006 at 10:03 am, melgregg said:
Of course. Can you tell I’m working on the longer version of the blogging paper?
The beauty of the quote is the way that it expresses the idea in such a poetic and approachable way. Hebdige is quite rare in that, I think: evidence that good theory doesn’t need to read like Theory.
On October 24th, 2006 at 2:45 pm, jean said:
yeah, hebdige is a-ok by me too! Like you say, it’s cos of all the description, and I’m all about the description at the moment!
On October 24th, 2006 at 2:46 pm, jean said:
PS what are our fish’n'chips? cheap beer at plastic tables in the beer garden of the staff club?
On October 24th, 2006 at 4:06 pm, Mark Bahnisch said:
The not so glamorous Brisvegas mod scene of the mid 80s awaits its Hebdige!
On October 24th, 2006 at 4:14 pm, melgregg said:
What I’d give for a beaten up Vespa anyway, what with Brisbane’s traffic chaos and my confinement to the ferry route running from one suburb of jacaranda lined streets to another. Middle class counter-cultural angst am I.