Response to Scattering Selves. Very Sporadic.

“Projected identities are a group phenomenon. Self-transformation is an artist’s turf, and many who have mastered self-transformation go unrecognized as artists.”

I both agree and disagree with this quote. I think I’m confused by the writers assumption of “self-transformation”. I’m going to risk assuming about her assumption, but that’s basically the only way I can open a conversation about it. What I get from her, and most people who are “culture-critics”, is that many people(in general) are too caught up in “conventional culture”, and therefore don’t really know themselves because their whole lives they have been sticking to some routine that the majority(a seemingly frowned upon word) has imposed upon them. Are these “unrecognized” artists that she’s referring to caught up in that “cultural dilemma”?

Yes? No? Maybe?

I’d like to hypothetically address “yes” because there’s an opinion of mine that I’d like to get out.

Culture Critics make me nervous. From what I’ve seen of most modern cultural critics is that they all try to be “out there” and “different”, so as to separate themselves from certain aspects of “conventional culture”, which they defined. However, I feel as though in the world today, which is so connected, all of these “misplaced” people are no longer that -- they are now their own culture, and a prominent one at that.

Look, I don’t want to profile, but most people that say, “screw the mainstream” wear Chuck Norris, skinny jeans, a punk-rock or Che Guerva or “ironic quote” or cult movie T-shirt. I’m not people-hating here, but they are now their own mainstream.

Basically the world is both so big in population, but so small in spirit, that anything someone tries to break convention and be different, has already been done by somebody else.

Metaphor time!

Culture is a large, unkillable, Superinfection. Culture Critics are anti-biotics.

The Superinfection has been around for a long time and, although large, has a clear homogenous identity. Someone wants to lower the bad symptoms that the Superinfection gives, so they administer antibiotics. The antibiotics are slow to work, but eventually they do start to have a positive effect. However, after a few weeks, different symptoms begin showing up.

Where do “feminists” go from here?

Can alter-egos really impact greater culture, or do they only affect the individual?