Rules Of The Game #12: Jocks And Burnouts

[koganbot]

My latest column, where I try to justify my nonstandard use of the word "class."

The Rules Of The Game #12: Jocks and Burnouts

I'm curious if you think the social map that Eckert provides and the social dynamic that I identify (the basic form being "jocks vs. burnouts" [w/ different category names in different times and places], but there being an unsettled effect when a third group, the "freaks," appears in strength) have anything to do with the situation at the high school you went to. If not, what was the social map? Also what sort of map(s) would you apply to situations you've been in after high school?

Oh yeah, and here's another chance for you to help me figure out what the hell it is I'm trying to say about Elvis.

EDIT: Here are links to all but three of my other Rules Of The Game columns (LVW's search results for "Rules of the Game"). Links for the other three (which for some reason didn't get "Rules Of The Game" in their titles), are here: #4, #5, and #8.

UPDATE: I've got all the links here now:

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/179531.html

Comments

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Do bohemians attach more social stuff to music than, I don't know, the soccer mum who is listening to her children's choices in the car? That might explain a persistence of musical-class-thinking amongst the bohemians while it has evaporated elsewhere. (Although I guess if you went and actually ask someone about what they like, they would probably fall back on the kinds of patterns of explaining themselves in relation to the world which they had needed to develop at high school, so those patterns could be latent much more broadly.)

My friends fall into two categories: those who still listen to the same music they did at university, and don't really follow any new stuff, and don't really feel bad about this; and those who still keep up with trends, or feel they ought to be, if only to disapprove of or disparage them. The latter are closer to what people would call bohemian... I've always felt caught because I like to keep up, and have always been attracted to bohemia, but have always felt too square or straight to be part of bohemia... also I get bored of some aspects of it too easily.