And God smote the pleasure zone

[imomus]

In a Salon article entitled A New New Orleans David Koen, a non-profit lawyer from the city, says "we need our city back. It will cost billions, and we should pay for it — and here's why". The article, though, far from outlining economic arguments for the reconstruction of the city, turns into a sensual sort of poetry about red beans and rice, kids in go-karts, casinos, zydeco washboard busking, "the plastic cups bars will give you so you can take your beer to go, magnolias and camellias blooming everywhere, and the way no one bothers you if your face is covered with tattoos or you're decked out in a multi-colored rainbow umbrella hat..."



When I visited New Orleans in 2002 (the American Patchwork Tour played in the town), I had much the same impression of the town's liberalism and pleasure-orientation. I described it in my tour diary as "the revelation of the tour":

"You never imagined such a town existed in America. It's a pleasure town, a place where the people really have a credo beyond 'give me convenience or give me death'. Here it's 'Give me jazz and cheap drugs, give me fabulous French colonial architecture, give me horses and carts and antique shops, give me the spirit of carnival like they have it in Venice... It's just a buzz and a delight to be guided round the streets of the French Quarter (you're disappointed to find that they don't actually speak French here) by Phiiliip, who was here with his boyfriend this past new year. It's even a delight to meet the promoter, a svelte handsome Philippino, and to play the faux-ethnic musical instruments in the atelier above the venue. And it's a delight to swim in the hotel pool at 2am and not be told off for diving and splashing."

So how do you make an economic argument for reconstructing something that's about pleasure and poetry, that seems to go beyond the economic? The answer, I think, is that there's no contradiction between pleasure and economic value. The French Quarter of New Orleans survived Hurricane Katrina relatively unscathed, and will no doubt be the first area back to some kind of normality. And that's because its pleasure economy brings in millions of dollars each year, thanks to tourists and visitors, tours and spectacle.

What struck me in 2002, though, was how different New Orleans was from all the other American cities we'd seen on our travels. It was different, really, because it wasn't puritan. It was different because, whereas so many American places are not places at all but circulation systems and highways, with "no there there" (as Gertrude Stein said of Oakland), New Orleans had a real sense that here was a "there", a place, somewhere to stop, get out of your car, and walk. (Not in the wrong areas, though.) It was also a city steeped in French culture and black culture, and a city steeped in sunshine, which is a culture in itself.

One question I often ask myself is, "Why doesn't consumerism make us all into pleasure-lovers? Why doesn't it feminise men, undermine the work ethic, make us all into dandies and slackers?" If it's true that our consumer societies ought to be making us ever more refined, epicene, decadent and sybaritic, it may not be New Orleans that's anomalous, but all the other American cities, the rich cities with grim glass towers rising in joyless CBDs, long working hours, poor textures, crummy cuisine and prohibitionist licensing laws. What's preventing Anytown USA—that grim place where people seem unable to do anything but work, make but not spend money, drive cars and watch TV—from becoming New Orleans?

The answer, I think, is religion and politics. America is too Christian and too right-wing to want to relax, despite its great wealth, into a peaceful and feminised shopping culture like the one we see in Japan. Something of the sort did seem to be taking shape during the Clinton years, when massive budget surpluses, global trade, and louche sexuality were the order of the day. (Hell, Clinton's America got so louche, lax and consumerist that I moved there!) The odd fact is that America, that great capitalist nation, is not really about money and trade. If it were, it would always vote Democrat. America seems more truly American, alas, when it's fighting wars, clamping down on pleasure zones and preparing for the "end days".

And isn't there something strange about the way disasters befall only the un-American "pleasure zones"? New York is attacked by terrorists, Los Angeles and San Francisco are shaken by earthquakes, and New Orleans devastated by hurricanes. Why is it only the most liberal and pleasure-loving American cities that get smitten? It's almost enough to make you believe in the "jealous" Old Testament God, the faggot-hating God who stamped out Sodom and Gomorrah, or pick up Brecht's "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". People say the bottom line in America is money. I say... if only!

Comments

[nickdoro.livejournal.com]

yeah, it is always the fun places that get smitten!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Japan is also smite-prone, although as far as we know the Old Testament God never made it that far. If it isn't earthquakes it's typhoons, like the one that just wrought havoc south of Kyushu.

I wonder if living under the permanent threat of destruction doesn't give people something of a carpe diem approach to life.

[spoombung.livejournal.com]

Not long ago, I remember you saying (when discussing Palestine/Israel politics and 'religious fascism') that your atheism meant it was ALL politics and 'religious fascism' as definition made no sense. The main thrust of your argument was it was unhelpful or somehow irrelevant to put religious influence in the picture. Now you appear to be making an exception by accepting that there is such a thing as a religious influence - as you’ve put Christianity in the picture in relation to America. It seems you’ve made a contradictory distinction between the two situations. If religion is influencial in America, why not in the middle East. Have I misunderstood you? Could you clarify a little?

[(Anonymous)]

Just because some perhaps over-zealous individuals attract scorn for their uncharitable blaming, that does not mean that there is no message to be found - or indeed "intended" - in an event such as this. Nature is so infinitely well structured that it would be rash to assume that the hurrican had no purpose.

[(Anonymous)]

There's weavy links to somehow be made with this article and a book called "NON PLACES: introduction to the anthropology of supermodernity" by Marc Auge. Just don't ask me what they are, as I have a cold and it's all too complicated to think about, if I'm truthful.

Rob

[sparkligbeatnic.livejournal.com]

There's something very protestant about your sermons on pleasure!

New Orleans people's names

[porandojin.livejournal.com]

i really enjoy their names /as often they show them during tv interviews or in papers/ , very creole, somehow they sound like some exquisite desserts, yummy
...

[plastickitty.livejournal.com]

Sinners in the hands of an angry God indeed.

[poekitty.livejournal.com]

i had been saying the same thing, basically the funnest places in the country, the places you can actually go to and get lost in a dream-like way... always seem to be destroyed by natural disaster.

[trickybrkn.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't consumerism make us all into pleasure-lovers?

because the bedrock of consumerism, is work, at least in the U.S. To me the main problem with America is it works to hard. The average American gets two weeks vacation. have a look at some other nations averages - Italy 42 days, France 37 days, Germany 35 days, Brazil 34 days, United Kingdom 28 days, Canada 26 days, Korea 25 days, Japan 25 days, U.S. 13 days... America has half the median amount of family, living time. Americans stress themselves to a level of fear and exhaustion, that GOD and piety, become a substitute for real living. Their families are dysfunctional because they are always working, so why not legislate family values. America at its core is also anti- existential. When shit happens we love to blame. Because of course we are pious and not deserving of such a hardship. The duality there is that we feel if we work more we will be valued more and have more purchasing power, and thus be able to afford all those SUVs and vacation homes. Thus, being more valued by our peers.


As for New Orleans, it is a city that stood still. But was itself under the surface a city dying long before Katrina. Poverty corruption cursed this post industrial town that came to define the absolute disparity of class in America. Many of the faces on TVs across the world worked for 5 dollars an hour, 50 plus hours a week, with no health insurance. No paid time off. They worked in service jobs serving the tourists, doing odd jobs in labor. It is also a city that has a literacy rate amount 50%. That was the shame of the city. A broken local government, and education system, long before any ill maintained levee broke.

[mcgazz.livejournal.com]

> United Kingdom 28 days
If only.

I'd agree that the bedrock of consumerism is work, but I'm sure I'd be shot down as a Commie if I point out that includes the unpaid labour of women producing children - which is where the right-wing Christian patriarchy comes in.

But I'm not convinced that Japan is "a peaceful and feminised shopping culture".

[the-bee-box.livejournal.com]

I think your points about religion and politics being the answer are dead on, and I was reading the question you posed, that, as a Midwestern American, was my answer.

The one thing about natural disasters in America that you overlooked are the tornadoes...and these happen pretty much exclusively in the so-called bible belt. Granted, they are no hurricane or Tsunami, but they do wipe out complete neighborhoods, a year's worth or crops and anything in between. The main demographic affected by these is the Americans that sustain the America that is more comfortable with war and preparing for the Left Behind series is STILL a best seller in this area.

[goldenmelodies.livejournal.com]

This is a great entry, thanks!

[henryperri.livejournal.com]

"that grim place where people seem unable to do anything but work, make but not spend money, drive cars and watch TV"

I'm almost positive the Japanese work more hours (after all, they came up with the capsule hotel) and watch more TV than Americans (and probably anyone else in the world).

So what really is the difference between the two countries?

I think Japan's comfort and playfulness comes from the fact that, as a relatively isolated race, they all feel closer to each other. America could never let its guard down like the Japanese because there are too many different races living side-by-side here. Some who may have wronged others in the past and are a little uneasy about it.

That said, people do a better job of letting the past go here than they do in say, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or portions of Africa.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm almost positive the Japanese work more hours (after all, they came up with the capsule hotel) and watch more TV than Americans (and probably anyone else in the world).

Japanese do work longer hours than Americans (http://www.iht.com/articles/1992/02/07/work.php), although they're less productive and less well-paid. They also take fewer holidays. Then again, when you look at Japanese "working", a lot of it seems unnecessary. There's huge overmanning, and a lot of compulsory socialization after work. It only looks like work, in fact it's something else. As for TV, 95 percent of Japanese watch TV daily and nearly 60 percent of daily viewers watch for three hours or more, it says here (http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/japantv.html).

But, just as with what's called "work" in Japan, what's called "TV" is very different from the American version. Japanese TV is very consumerist. I've just watched a show over lunch (I eat often at a Japanese cafe here in Berlin that shows Japanese TV) where a man had 3,500,000 yen and had to spend it. After flying to Hokkaido to look at horses, tasting the world's most expensive meat, etc, he bought a diamond engagement ring to give to a girl he hadn't met yet. And the archetypal Japanese TV show is about food and cooking.

So the "real difference" between the two countries is something qualitative, not quantitative.

I agree with you about the racial homogeneity in Japan making people much more at ease, especially in public. It's one of the elements of Japan's successful and convivial public life which sits most uneasily with a pluralist, left wing perspective.

[(Anonymous)]

there's no contradiction between pleasure and economic value [...] And that's because its pleasure economy brings in millions of dollars each year, thanks to tourists and visitors, tours and spectacle.
momus, don't you think what goes on new orleans has nothing (or little) to do with pleasure, and much to do with representation of pleasure (of european - or europeanish - pleasure, i'd say) for the sake of puritan americans, staring at the sin city just like visitors of a zoo in front of the ape's cage?
(delio)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

momus, don't you think what goes on new orleans has nothing (or little) to do with pleasure, and much to do with representation of pleasure (of european - or europeanish - pleasure, i'd say) for the sake of puritan americans, staring at the sin city just like visitors of a zoo in front of the ape's cage?

I'm quite sympathetic to that view, actually. When I was Google image-searching for a photo of New Orleans's French Quarter to illustrate this article, I had trouble finding one free of what my friend Mr Swenson (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000042O2C?v=glance) calls "Waddlers". I've always found descriptions of Mardi Gras pretty terrifying too — women flashing their breasts, people dressed up as scary clowns, running around in chapters... Then again, we get into dangerous territory if we start saying "Your pleasure looks like pleasure, tastes like pleasure, and pleases you, but it isn't real pleasure..."

[bostonista.livejournal.com]

Every cool American city is "smite-able" except for Chicago, and even Chicago has horrible winter weather.

[red-scharlach.livejournal.com]

And it did have it's great fire.

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

koolhaas!!!!! from pool to pool.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I think it might also be that the "smitability" adds to the pleasure culture: if there is the possibility of a volcanic eruption/huge earthquake/catastrophic flood at any moment, it adds a bit of fatalism to one's day-to-day existence.

And my god, how I hate my Puritan work ethic. What I wouldn't give for a good long rest.

[red-scharlach.livejournal.com]

Over the last week I've heard a few dozen New Orleans eulogies, and this is the best of them all. I think that the cultural value of New Orleans is appreciated here in America, and since the Hurricane the voices of Allen Toussaint and other musicians have risen to about the level of those obsessed with gas prices and the economic impact. Hearing interviews with these people CNN feels strangely anachronistic though. New Orleans' role as pleasure palace is tied to an undying loyalty to musical forms that seem to have stopped evolving.

In small defense of my brothers and sisters on the interior, I have to note that they face a quiter, yet equally deadly kind of disaster. The rise in fundamentalism is tied to increased economic desperation across the interior at the hands of industrialized farming.

[hotbeatz.livejournal.com]

New Orleans music (jazz, brass band, etc.) hasn't stopped evolving at all. People may have stopped (or never started) listening, though.

At the other end of New France...

[pop--kandy.livejournal.com]

It's too bad you didn't spend enough time as a youth here in Montreal - and spent it in the repentably sexless, joyless West Island of the 1970s to boot - but I think the focus on pleasure is very very real, it's just that coming from a Protestant / Anglo-Saxon culture that views pleasure as suspect (or somehow inimical to efficiency and profit, very Taylorist), we can't believe what we are seeing is quite real - but it is the expression of a Catholic / Latin culture that is quite at odds with the rest of the mainstream.

Montreal is at the other end of what used to be New France. And I can't help but draw some conclusions about see the difference between an authentic culture strengthened by legal protections, and a degraded culture that is the end result of assimilation and slavery.

Montreal in the 1950s very much resembled New Orleans of just a few weeks ago. In the poorest areas, people were still living in wooden shacks. It was basically through the idea of being "maîtres chez nous" - masters of our own house - that the French Canadians took political power, eventually enshrining the French language in law and putting in place a wide range of funding for culture and the arts, both preservation and promotion of the new, while at the same time building up a range of Quebecer-owned corporations through strategic investments.

We're a lot richer and slicker than we used to be: we're still poorer per capita than, say, New Yorkers or Torontonians, but inversely, we take pleasure seriously. (to quote Spud from Trainspotting: "ma pleasure, in other people's leisure...") No-one really "lives to work" here, and that's why people say the quality of life is better. In some respects, the Catholic/Latin culture is the root of the Slow movement as well.

I'm not a participant myself - it's way too hippie for me - but check out my friend Jonathan's pics from the weekly Tam-Tam that happens on Mount Royal, and tell me the spirit of New Orleans and Mardi Gras isn't at least a little present there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanclark/

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

The American deep South has (or had) plenty of outposts for pleasure seekers, much more so than the prim, utilitarian North: Savannah, Memphis, Key West, Miami...even Mobile once had a very Caribbean, pleasure-oriented feel.

The Puritan dryasdusts never settled in the South; they left the Southern seaboard to the early landed gentry and wealthy cavaliers (some of which who fled Cromwell's England) and the lowly Scots-Irish (raises hand), who were given the unenviable task of settling the inland forests and mountains. It is Scots-irish culture that brought the more fiery, experiential strains of protestantism to America we see asserting itself in American politics today (I'd be willing to guess that the challenges posed by the harsher North American climate and the fact that there are very few places in North America that elude nature's wrath in any given year probably helped to intensify the religious temper). The prim, austere strains practiced by the Puritans seem almost meek in comparison, although they had their moments (what's that burning smell?)

It also might do to remember that most Americans derive from one sort of peasant culture or another.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Then again, the Scots-irish were always a coarse bunch, giving us rivers named Shitbritches Creek or Ticklecunt Branch, and coining that ubiquitous term of affection, "little shit"--and 'cute'! They're also less fussy about nudity (as a boy it amazed me when I heard someone had never seen their other family members in the buff).

It may be that the Victorian 'reformers' who, in addition to renaming all the rivers, made their way through the region in the late 19C and probably helped put the religious fire to the cultural kindling...

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Did the government of USA really say that it was God who created the hurricane Katrina to destroy the fun areas of New Orleans? Wether or not the definition of "pleasure" and/or having "fun" are such broad terms that I really dunno if it was, for everybody, the "pleasureable" that was destroyed.

And if now they "blame" this on "Mista Lawd" I will wonder if he did it because he hadn't found enough much pleasure around!

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

This hurricane has dwarfed 9-11 in destruction and death many times over: it's possible that over ten thousand of our citizens are dead, and a major American city has in essence been completely destroyed. Fringe elements notwithstanding, I seriously doubt that any politician who wants a future in American politics would say such a stupid thing. Being the Deep South, right wing politicians were also personally affected by the storm (Tom Delay lost his house), which makes it even more unlikely that any such statements would be made, given the political consequences.

Most everyone I know has donated money, goods or time to help the survivors. Some generous souls--many of which are (gasp) religious--have taken these displaced families into their own homes.

Much has been made of race and class being the reasons why help was delayed, but what possible advantage could be derived from doing so is unclear, since the political, logistical, fiscal and moral liability grows with the delay. In all likelihood, it was a case of an unprecedented natural disaster being met with beaurocratic ineptitude.

[lust4death.livejournal.com]

I dunno... I'd have to say the people in louisiana are quite religous.

[din-din-dote.livejournal.com]

New Orleans hedonism is essentially Catholic and Chestertonian. It's hearty.


Having spent a lot of time in New Orleans, I can simply say that anyone who says it is a weak mimic of a real 'pleasure' town is wrong.

[rodaminian.livejournal.com]

"America is too Christian and too right-wing to want to relax, despite its great wealth..."

Momus, you do know that the middle-class is being stretched thin in my United States--most of the world's wealth may be concentrated in America, but surely you realize that most of American wealth in concentrated in a slight fraction of Americas.

America isn't quite rich enough to relax.

Conversely, I think Americans are more concerned with doing "the right thing" as opposed to what the socially greater good would be. Por ejemple, I note those who impregnate themselves into poverty, abortion being a grand taboo.

[cerulicante.livejournal.com]

Feminisation again?


You might hold the mincing poof in high regard, but feminism isn't just the opposite of masculinity; it's a distinct entity that doesn't need to be defined as "not being" something else. Both can and do exist in Japan. Feminism is not the ideal, nor is it realistic for a culture to center around feminism anymore than it is ideal to center around masculinity.

[vertigoranger.livejournal.com]

Quite right.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't essentialize me, Momus!

--An American