Wabi-Sabi~ Is the Japanese belief that there is beauty in imperfection. "This idea accepts the natural cycle of growth, decay and death." So essentially, it is all around us-all the time!
(Source: What is Wabi-Sabi? ; http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm)
So....If the Beat generation was cultivating this idea of the eternal present, and the acceptance of flaws instead of virtues, isn't that the ultimate way to live?
Life is imperfect! Sometimes we are addicts, or dead-beats, consumers, sinners, liars, cheats, guilty of not living to our full potentials...I could keep going...
What was the question?
Maybe, the aesthetic of the beats' just grew from the conformity of the Industrial Revolution? They felt repressed and controlled by time - like their lives were a punch card?
Maybe, the beats' were just representing the legacy of poets and artists that had sacrificed before them - like Whitman or Pollock?
John Leland says, hip has a ..."fetish for failure and self-destruction"(155).
Maybe this is why we lost so many poets and artists at such a young age?
There seems to be a sense of romance attached to being immortalized through the myth of destruction!
Who are the modern 'beats'?
This is a tough question because just like hip is constantly re-defining itself, so is imperfection!
In recent pop culture, it feels like we have moved past the beauty of flaws and back to the traditional idea of a perfect product, in my opinion. When you download 50 songs in 60 seconds for 99 cents, do you really care how they got there? In their remastered condition with zero static?
I like my broken needle because the flaws of the album live there~
So...Here is a top 5 list of current hip makers
(whether they know it or not):
Jack White
Lady GaGa
Clint Eastwood
Zooey Deschanel
Chuck Palahniuk
~ Explanations for the Top 5 will be posted at a later date, Thank You.
Great connection! I love the idea of Wasi-Sabi as it relates to Hip. This might be an idea to explore further in the final essay of the semester.
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