Comments on: Anti-Edgy

By: TGGP

TGGP — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Alex Tabarrok has a paper on avant-garde vs popular art that can be found via his page if you have JSTOR access.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:03:12 +0000

The problem in this prompt is that it divides shock value into two mutually exclusive groups: that which shocks the public and not artists, and that which shocks artists but not the public. The goal of most artists that aim for edginess is to shock everyone. The problem is that most fail to shock the desensitized artist population but can still cause a stir among the general population. There are some, however, that have succeeded in being truly edgy (eg Manet, Miro, Picasso).

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:43:01 +0000

The following well-known Bohr quote seems relevant: “If you are not shocked by quantum physics, you don’t understand it”. Mediocre popularizations often make it seem like the big QM surprises are indeterminism and an obesrvation-changes-reality effect. Both ideas are rather banal and much less shocking that the accurate statement of the theory. I think quantum mechanics is the perfect example of the anti-edgy theory

By: MrHen

MrHen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:28:32 +0000

To skip the comments and reply directly to the question of the post:

Because most people do not like to be shocked. Anti-edgy is more likely to shock those who created it. A simple conclusion is: anti-edgy shocks yourself, edgy shocks others. It is more fun to shock others.

By: Crush on Lyle

Crush on Lyle — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:08:59 +0000

Pete: I think laughing at lectures (and poetry readings, which I attend a lot of) is almost always just signaling of “insider” status. It’s obnoxious, but also very difficult not to engage in.

By: Addam

Addam — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:40:37 +0000

The first way to do something anti-edgy that come to my mind is: a straight ripoff of a historical work, or a subtle ripoff of something contemporary, people who know the norms of the medium will notice the lack of originality.

Any others?

By: Firebrand

Firebrand — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:17:40 +0000

And now I’m wondering if there’s a name for things that seem obvious to non-experts but shocking to experts… and it’s the experts who are wrong. Some areas that come to mind are:

economics, genetics of intelligence, immigration, child rearing, ethics…

By: Pete Carlton

Pete Carlton — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:09:51 +0000

The “whatever you like” lyrics represent a rather orthodox evol-psych view of asymmetric human mating strategies. I’d have to go with edgy.
..
I really like that Brian Micklethwaite quote, Stuart. It reminds me of a lecture I attended in San Francisco, by Slavoj Žižek. A very entertaining thought-provoking lecture as usual, but I got the distinct impression that for a large part of the audience the point was actually to play the I’m-not-shocked game: to laugh at certain moments (dealing with the topics of the holocaust, incest, cannibalism, etc), not as a reflection of genuine amusement, but precisely to signal “I am the kind of person who can laugh at this content, instead of being shocked by it.” I wasn’t shocked, I tried to understand what Žižek was trying to say about it, but I didn’t find it laughable (and neither, I suspect, did he.)

By: josh

josh — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:52:55 +0000

Daniel,

I’m 27, so I am pretty familiar with mainstream hip hop. I’ll take back the “should”, but not the “most”. What I am really saying is that I am surprised that most square people aren’t shocked by most rap lyrics considering how prude our culture is about other things. The highest charting hip hop song is currently T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” followed by “Can’t believe it.” Google the lyrics and tell me you aren’t a little surprise that this is considered music for ordinary people.

By: Katja Grace

Katja Grace — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:44:50 +0000

Correction: opposite topics are called equivalent things the other way round.