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

[koganbot]

but isn't being oppositional and outsider intrinsically immature? refusing to conform similar to refusing to grow up?

Not intrinsically. My refusing to let various magazines change my prose without clearing the changes with me wasn't immature. My then making jokes about breaking someone's kneecap when they changed the prose anyway was immature (though the jokes were actually funny). My not changing my style to snarkwod when an anti-intellectual boob bought out the Village Voice wasn't immature. My then - after the Voice cut me loose* - spending seven months in fear and piling up more debt rather than looking for more outlets for my work was immature.

It really depends on what one is trying to oppose or remove oneself from, and how one does it. My friend Nathan - the one who dislikes "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and whose attitude towards what he calls the "establishment" is oppositional - hosts open mics, promotes shows, is setting up his own label to record local bands with the intention of giving them a fairer shake financially than they'd likely get from the biz.

*Don't mean to imply that I was asked to change my style, which I wasn't. And I don't know for sure why I was cut loose except I'm positive the music editor would have liked to keep me.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i'm kind of just teasing frank, certainly wasn't having a pop.

i guess i was thinking of yr rock & roll cliche "opposition". people "sticking it to The Man" by signing 8 alBUM deals, rage against the machine, and their ilk...

[koganbot]

Oh, I didn't think you were taking a pop (since I've been known myself to heap scorn on posturing oppositional fellows) but I did wonder if you were serious so I gave a serious response. And to take that response further (and this is along the lines of what I said to Jack below), being oppositional - or "oppositional" - if you pull it off, does confer status in the eyes of the culture as a whole, including jocks and burnouts, since the culture values Oppositional Behavior if the behavior can be put into a Hero Story. In fact the culture is quick to market Oppositional Behavior. Which doesn't mean that the oppositional behavior can't be genuinely challenging.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

taking a position for sake of discussion perhaps. semi-serious at least though. i wonder if it's the quickness to market oppositional behaviour that you point out, that makes me wary of it. that perhaps i've been stung too many times by what appear to be oppositional turning out to be another ad campaign or whatevs that perhaps quiet, non-confrontational (is this even possible?), getting-on-and-doing-it "oppositional" behaviour is the only interesting route left (but then we're back to the DIY Lonely Hearts Club, aren't we!!!)