June 3, 2019

"Somewhere in between normcore, cyberpunk, goth, and sportswear chic exists the possibly real trend known as 'health goth.'"

According to "Introducing Health Goth, a New Lifestyle Trend" in New York Magazine, which quotes another website that defines the term jocosely (I assume it's jocose):
"Health Goth relies on an anti-nostalgic dystopian present, refracting the Other by means of an exaggerated profile and tribal-aesthetics … Health Goth creates a proto-narrative of returning to paradise lost by embracing mortality as a One-World consciousness and devotion as means to deliver us from late Capitalism … Health Goth speaks to an intrinsic psychic connection with the elements, be they fire, water or fauna and the ability to incorporate ambient nature into the corporeal realm."
NY Mag restates the idea as "wearing black but also working out and eating right." And: "That feeling of sadness, but also sportiness." But is it cool? No, "mainstream narcs have already ruined it."

61 comments:

chuck said...

It's a beautiful morning, a great time to visit the zoo before the crowds.

Nonapod said...

Health Goth creates a proto-narrative of returning to paradise lost by embracing mortality as a One-World consciousness and devotion as means to deliver us from late Capitalism

This is satire, right? Someone at the Onion or Babylon Bee must have crafted this.

Fernandinande said...

I'm more into possibly real Goth Health which relies on a nostalgic anti-dystopian present, diffracting the Other by means of a narrow tribal slit.

rehajm said...

started by cool Portland musicians Mike Grabarek and Jeremy Scott. They told the magazine that they were “attributing a name to describe a feeling that already existed.” That feeling of sadness, but also sportiness.

When I lived in Portland I was sad, too. The people there were assholes.

Yancey Ward said...

Parody is dead.

Jersey Fled said...

I didn't know NY Mag was still in business.

Clark said...

Speaking of Paradise Lost, I am almost done diagramming that sentence from a few weeks (months?) back. Some good stuff in there. The grammar of "which way" is particularly interesting.

Nonapod said...

When I was a youngling back in the 1980s, being "goth" meant you were a teen who listened to The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, you liked the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and you regularly wore dark cloths and eyeliner. I have no idea what it means today.

Wilbur said...

Sadness but sportiness. Of course.

These people need to get a real job.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

deliver us from late Capitalism

But please, come buy our Health Goth products.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Black dye is really bad for the environment.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
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Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Any fashion statement movement where conformity to a certain look is copied over and over, to fit in with the cool people is shot dead by the very conformity. Even Siouxsie hated being called goth. She was merely a trend setter.
Trend followers are boring.

stevew said...

Humans are such joiners. I am especially amused by the anti-conformists demonstrating their independence by conforming.

PM said...

Waiting for some asshole to finish using the 2.5-lb barbell.

J. Farmer said...

"Health goth" is how I would describe Keanu Reeves.

Yancey Ward said...

J. Farmer, I was thinking the same thing just a few minutes ago.

Jay Vogt said...

Where is Maj. T. J. Kong when you need him?

" I been to one world's fair, a picnic, and a rodeo and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard!"

Ann Althouse said...

Clark is talking about a sentence to be found in this old post.

Seeing Red said...

Delivering us from “late capitalism” one overpriced work out clothing piece and overpriced organic food from pretentious grocers at a time.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If you want to deliver yourself from late stage capitalism, you must first rid yourself of all capitalist goods and services. No more phone, no more computer, no more wifi, no more movies and entertainment, no more coffee shop, no more lattes, no more vehicle, no more house, condo, apartment, no more grocery shopping, no more anything. Just you + earth.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

No more Maddow, no more Colbert, no more. You must burn it all, and commit yourself to mother earth. Nekkid.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

No more tattoos.

Rockeye said...

Or as I would say here at Orange Door Manor: my daughter.

Rockeye said...
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Kay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

"Black is slimming, but it can’t work miracles!” - After Life

gerry said...

Health Goth relies on an anti-nostalgic dystopian present, refracting the Other by means of an exaggerated profile and tribal-aesthetics … Health Goth creates a proto-narrative of returning to paradise lost by embracing mortality as a One-World consciousness and devotion as means to deliver us from late Capitalism...

God, what senseless drivel.

tim in vermont said...

Paradise Lost is next for me, I am reading Faust right now, and I had no idea how gaping a hole in my education not having read that was. In fact I think that in the future I will think of this as the “summer that I read Faust.” But you have to read it like an episode of Star Trek, or an old sci fi novel, I think. Which is how I will approach PL as well.

However; I now know that Nietzsche = Goethe + Emerson. In fact “Übermensch” is how Goethe describes Mephistopheles in the original German. That would have come in handy in a web discussion a couple of years back!

Kay said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
If you want to deliver yourself from late stage capitalism, you must first rid yourself of all capitalist goods and services. No more phone, no more computer, no more wifi, no more movies and entertainment, no more coffee shop, no more lattes, no more vehicle, no more house, condo, apartment, no more grocery shopping, no more anything. Just you + earth.
6/3/19, 12:18 PM


Yes, and good luck trying to find some land to live on that isn’t already owned by capitalists. Basically it’d be impossible to exist anywhere on planet Earth.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Kay,

BLM or government owned open space. Plenty of that for the nekkid goths. But no tents or cardboard boxes. Those are late stage capitalist.

Mr. Penfold said...

Didn’t Portlandia do a bit similar to this with Glen Danzig and the Goths at the beach?

TrespassersW said...

Word salad. I'm guessing it was generated by a bot, or someone with a post-graduate degree in [Something] Studies. BIRM.

Kay said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
Kay,

BLM or government owned open space. Plenty of that for the nekkid goths. But no tents or cardboard boxes. Those are late stage capitalist.
6/3/19, 1:10 PM


So it looks like you’d still need to deal with other landowners and capitalists, even when you want to deliver yourself from capitalism. Sounds like outerspace is really the only solution, but the way things stand now you’d still need to deal with capitalists in order to leave the planet.

Narr said...

They call that a business plan?

(Hey Nobody: Toldja about Emerson and Crazy Fred; are you reading Faust in German?)

Narr
Wenig Deutsch

madAsHell said...

"She's so emo that even her pubic hairs cut themselves!!"

I think my son told me that one.

tim in vermont said...

Toldja about Emerson and Crazy Fred; are you reading Faust in German?

Yeah, your comment sort of made it click for me. No, I wish I could read it in German, but I have a version with the German on one page and the translation on the other.

Mary Beth said...

But is it cool? No, "mainstream narcs have already ruined it.

Wait, if a mainstream magazine denies something is cool, does that then make it cool?

Oso Negro said...

Blogger rehajm said...

It's been done.



Yes. Memento mori.

Known Unknown said...

I'm sorry, I'm going to need some dressing for that word salad in the blockquote.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Kay - Outer-space is optimal. For everyone.

Clark said...

@Nobody: Faust Part 2 is so much more interesting than Part 1—and hardly anyone is familiar with it. I like the idea of taking it in as a series of episodes. I needed some good notes to find my way in it. (The Heffner, Rehder and Twaddell edition — University of Wisconsin Press — can't be beat.) Let it settle in; reread it now and then. It gets better and better.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I was driving down 44th street near Wadsworth in suburbia the other day, looking forward to my annual stop at the used modern furniture store. A store where last year I missed out on the opportunity to buy six excellent condition McGuire chairs. F!!!
It's closed.

ugh. I parked the car anyway and wandered in, curious and wanting to perhaps learn if the old owners moved the business? Not friendly in there. Very Goth. Black-outfits and black merchandise, and black signage out front. All to provide you with your voodoo and satan worship supplies. Non-capitalist, I am certain. Cash or credit. The curse was lifted. I paced out the door before I was damned to eternal damnation.

Oso Negro said...

Don't feel bad BleachBit - we have a witchcraft supply store here in Galveston. I would feel better about it if I were certain they are joking.

SGT Ted said...

Pretentious weirdo subcultures playing dress-up are only afforded by the leisure created by capitalist wealth.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Oso - exactly.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Hilarious. As an adolescent, since I was markedly more literate than my peers, I thought I had a gift for smothering the mundane or the improbable with bullshit. I had no idea it was actually a profession.

Narr said...

Need to try Faust again, thanks Nobody and Clark.

TCER@339: my ideal was to master extemporaneous bullshit and impromptu profanity, but the closest I got was memorizing the phrase.

Speaking of Goth. Was there ever a more misleading name for a period and style in architectural history than "Gothic"?

Narr
Why Gothic of all things?

madAsHell said...

Why Gothic of all things?

Relishing all things Germanic, and ostentatious!

Don't tell them the Germans were white people!

Narr said...

Ostentatious Black. (Good band name; Gothy.)

It's just curious to me that a style should get the name of a collection of peoples who scattered, intermixed, conquered, and were conquered to the extent that when the phrase was coined anyone called or calling themselves Goths had been gone for several centuries.

Oh, Vasari.

Narr
Never mind

Fen said...

SGT Ted: Pretentious weirdo subcultures playing dress-up are only afforded by the leisure created by capitalist wealth.

Fen Grunge - when you are so sick of people trying to launch some hybrid rehash into the next viral fad that you can't bother to comment, you just borrow someone else's quote and nod along.

"My thoughts exactly. SGT Ted."

Fen said...

Health Goth creates a proto-narrative of returning to paradise lost by embracing mortality as a One-World consciousness and devotion as means to deliver us from late Capitalism...

Pouty Teen Girl: "Damnit. Do the FUCKING Marxists have to hijack EVERYTHING?!"

walter said...

Makes ya wish there was a contemporary Monty Python crew

Freeman Hunt said...

We have a friend who is goth and in his early forties. He is not health goth, more cyber punk goth without the bright colors. People often ask him what he is dressed up as. "Just me."

I have another friend who often dresses in a 50's style and another who has a rockabilly look They are also asked what their "costumes" are for.

I wonder what that's like.

Freeman Hunt said...

In the 90's I once wore a flannel shirt because those were popular. I was meeting a friend for coffee. It started to rain before she got there, so I ducked under a covered bus stop. The bus came and as the other people got on, one woman turned around and said very kindly, "You should try modeling." Wow, I really look great in this shirt "You know, to help your situation." Oh no! I look homeless!

Still won't wear flannel shirts.

Narr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Freeman Hunt,
The Hot N' Homeless vibe

tim in vermont said...

Let it settle in; reread it now and then. It gets better and better.

It’s taking me so long because I keep going back and rereading earlier parts and and there will be stuff I missed.

James Sarver said...

"But is it cool? No, "mainstream narcs have already ruined it."

Those narcs are posers. Ninjas got there first and ninjas are definitely cool

Sam L. said...

Forget it, Jake; it's New York Magazine.