La Vie BohemeLa Mort Boheme

Dear Avid Reader,

Something occurred to me while I was watching a commercial for
Rent: The Movie.

Now, I liked Rent: The Musical. It didn't strike a chord with me like it did for others, but it very much captured the moment of the 90's. So I like that about it.

It had the typical feelings and stories of the decade. Young adults coming together to create a patchwork family because they couldn't relate to their real ones. They aspire to create a "art" instead of money. They glorify an existence that they call "bohemian".

Now I understand what the bohemian is and I even romanticized the idea. I feel like everyone in Gen X does. Who would want to cast off everything and paint in New York? But I considered it and I question why that is my generation's ideal.

Voice Mail

Now the classic bohemian is someone who makes art. But in reality, few bohemians are artists So I remove artistic ability or production from the equation. But I do realize that art plays an important role for the bohemian. So appreciation for art is part of the equation.

The other aspect of the bohemian, is poverty. So bohemian life, then, is primarily about money or lack thereof. But before we get into that, I need introduce some new characters in order to make some comparisons.

And with them my straw man of an argument will be complete.

I'll Cover You

I feel like bohemians fall between two extremes. There is on one end the connoisseur. The connoisseur is someone who has money. He has money becasue he works hard. With the money that he earns, he can afford to surround themselves with fine things. They appreciate quality through glorification of man's works and excesses of wealth

On the other end we have the monk. This person shuns all comforts in order to gain a spiritual purity. Think of him as a recluse. He lives away from society and seeks quality through a minimalism, a nakedness, a tearing down of man's excesses.

In the middle is the bohemian. Someone who does not have wealth and sees that as a purity. But the bohemian is interested in finer things as well. They want to be versed in art, literature, and the like. They see these finer things as a spirituality as well. It is through art that there are creative expressions of the pure soul.

In a sense, they want to have it both ways.

Over The Moon

They want purity, but they want their creativity to be appreciated. They want a Spartan life, but want to be seen as worldly. Having money is selling-out, but not owning or creating art is seen as a shallow life.

Now art costs money. It does. Learning an appreciation for art costs money too. So you have to have money in order to become a connoisseur. But you can't have purity if you have money, so have to get rid of it. Do you just throw it away like the monk? That would be too drastic a move for the bohemian, so they buy cheap art. There, now I have no money, but I have art.

Hoo-ray!

What You Own

See, art is a product. It is, it's a thing that is made/produced and it can be bought. Buying a product makes you one thing...a consumer. The bohemian, therefore, is nothing more than a snobbish consumer. He's a person that is too afraid to have completely nothing, too lazy to earn enough to become a true appreciator of the arts, and doesn't have the talent to make art himself. He flaunts things like independent film, local music, and experimental theatre because that is what he can afford. He lives a life of conspicuous poverty, flashing his badge of bankruptcy in order to gain a moral high ground in arguments. He considers himself as part of the elite. After all, he was buying The Postal Service CDs before they were big.

They talk a good game. They are very smart and very educated. But I am done with the claims of "selling-out". To the bohemian I say, "Whatever dude. You just need to chill." You can elaborate on the downfall of "true art" to someone else.

Because you shouldn't have to prove that you deserve existence. You should just deserve it.

The Next Post Promises To Be Better,

James