Bohemias. Alternative subcultures. They were a crucial aspect of industrial civilization in the previous centuries. They were where industrial civilisation went to dream. A lot of unconscious R&D, exploring alternate societal strategies. Each one would have a dress code, characteristic forms of artistic expression, a substance or substances of choice, and a set of sexual values at odds with those of the culture at large. And they did, frequently, have locales with which they became associated. But they became extinct.
We started picking them before they could ripen. A certain crucial growing period was lost, as marketing evolved and the mechanisms of recommodification became quicker, more rapacious. Authentic subcultures required backwaters, and time, and there are no more backwaters. They went the way of geography in general.
[All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson p.174]
[[04/2000]]
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