Hipsters are constantly trying to evade what is thought of as "mainstream." Christy Wampole's article How to Live Without Irony addresses what she thinks may be the origination and effects of the hipster.
To start off, Wampole describes where we may be able to spot a hipster. She explains that they are lurking predominately in big cities, but are most likely present all around the world, even in small towns. She then goes on to explain common hipster attire and mannerisms such as "outmoded fashions (the mustache, the tiny shorts), mechanisms (fixed-gear bicycles, portable record players) and hobbies (home brewing, playing trombone)." I think Wampole starts off her article with this imagery because it is relatable to her readers, creating connections that people can draw about certain hipster-like individuals in their own lives.
Throughout the article, Wampole uses an elevated sort of language, though not quite as formal as epics may be, but more formal than any type of day-to-day language we use to communicate casually. Wampole uses words like "preemptively," "disseminated," "contemptibly," and "existential malaise" to illustrate her point. This actually may be a use of the idea of irony in her article to use words that are not as popular in the English language. Using a word like "hipster" in her article, a more commonly used term, actually draws more attention to the idea of a hipster because of the contrast to the rest of the article.
Wampole also has many broken sentences in her article. As I am reading it, there are several sentences where it sounds like Wampole is almost interrupting herself with her own ideas, much like how someone would talk. The syntax is a bit strange because as I mentioned before, the language is quite elevated, but perhaps Wampole just talks like this all the time. This makes me think that Wampole may be in fact a hipster herself.
Wampole implements these rhetoric strategies to help make the point that even though the hipster may be frowned upon in our society, there is actually a little bit of hipster in all of us. Everyone strives to be different and to stand out in some way, and Wampole wants people to know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/?ref=opinion
Vivian- I like that you let your voice shine through in this- it really made it personal. Just remember to take evidence from the article for your claims- the syntax section needs a little back up.
ReplyDeleteHey Vivian,
ReplyDeleteThis was pretty amusing to read, and your diction paragraph gave some good points. I do think that your argument on imagery could use more specific examples, though. I was kind of confused about what images you were talking about, and how they obscured her point. You have the makings of an interesting essay on how the images and syntax confused Wampole's point, but you need a little more support here and there.