A Self-Indulgent Pipe Dream
While, I’ve always been a fan of fantasy and other escapist art, I’ve slowly begun to realize that my favorite entertainment is that which reveals the dark/hidden side of the status quo and hegemonic cultural systems. I’d put the following into the above category (not a complete list): Weeds, Crash, The Cider House Rules, Final Fantasy 6 & 7 (sic), American Beauty, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Lost in Translation, Garden State (sort of), Choke, The Great Gatsby, King Lear, Metal Gear Solid 3, Magnolia, Family Guy (and related cartoons), Cowboy Bebop, Outlaws of the Marsh, Half-Baked, Foucault’s Pendulum, The House of Flying Daggers, 25th Hour, The Sopranos, the Grand Theft Auto series (I own none of which), One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and of course, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. While each employs different means (humor, tragedy, melodrama, interactivity, Realism (with a capital “R”), sex, or violence) each manages to problematize dominant discourses concerning societies, politics, groups, behaviors, or customs. In each case, the rose-colored glasses of conventional wisdom are removed or complicated to the point of dysfunction. While, only engaging exclusively in this form of entertain is inevitably tedious, it’s quite enlightening in moderation. More importantly (to me), if I ever write history, this is the sort of history I want to write.
Maybe I should be more specific about my preferred topic. I want to write about the groups and individuals who managed to find new ways of living without relying on dominant political, economic, or cultural institutions/practices (and often, despite their opposition) and who didn’t reproduce (or produce new) systems of oppression through their resistance. Similar histories have been written before. For general histories, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and Bandits by Eric Hobsbawm (which I’m about to start reading) come to mind. Still, I think there are a lot of topics that haven’t been adequately covered and related to each other. These include (but are not limited to): nuns handcuffing themselves to missile silos, workers agitating for a shorter work day despite a culture that fetishizes timelessness, hackers shutting down mainstream media outlets, Early Modern heliocentric astronomers, Zapatistas in Chiapas, 19th century American Utopians, pro-democracy Chinese teenagers singing the Internationale, anti-Statist Caribbean Pirates, Giacomo Casanova, early Kibbutzim, Liberation Theologians, Developing World peasant cooperatives, Temporary Autonomous Zones, 1930’s Spanish Anarchists, rebel musicians, progressive/radical NGOs, Seminole rebels harboring escaped slaves, Spartacus and his followers, bootleggers, Phoolan Devi, underground intellectuals, traditionally-proscribed scientists, and gypsies. Of course, that’s only half a history, because the heroic stories of resistance by (a)sexual minorities remains untold. Some topics include (but once again aren’t limited to): Abortionists in America, ancient Romans escaping arranged marriages by taking Christian chastity vows (because they were gay, bi, trans, asexual, etc.), Joan of Arc, poly families, Stonewall patrons, harem escapees, Act Up!, Queer Theologians, Queers Without Borders, early 20th century transgendered authors, Deborah Sampson, lesbian singer-songwriters, vestal virgins, temple whores, sex professionals, Guanyin acolytes, Fang Ronghuang, and Beltane-like festivals. Basically, I’m all about actions, groups, and individuals that are creative with their lifestyles. Of course, I’m also interested in inventors of new (and ethical!) social sins.