The Shakers live again

[imomus]

I'm interested in the Shakers today, because the last parallel Scotland I wrote for my Book of Scotlands unfolds a scenario in which an evangelical Scottish entrepreneur called Brent Shouter decides to use his influence and wealth to make Scotland go Shaker. He arranges exhibitions and launches a heavily-subsidized lifestyle chain called Shakestation which sells stark, simple furniture in the Shaker style. Shouter is so successful that Scots retreat from cities to self-sustaining, celibate rural communities, disconnecting from TV, radio and the internet. When the Shouter character dies, the government sends an androgynous "Government Christ" to beguile the Shouter-Shakers back to living in cities and reproducing. It's urgent, because celibacy is making the Scots die out.



Researching this story, I found a wonderful 30 minute documentary about The Shakers on the Folkstreams website. Made in 1974 on 16mm, the film (I'd recommend the Real Surestream version) mostly consists of interviews with Shaker women born in the 1870s. They've outlived all the Shaker males, and linger on, the last generation of a beautiful cult erased from history by their own fear of sex. As one of them sings: "Come light Shaker light come life eternal, come shake out of me all that is carnal". It's precisely this "shaking out of all that is carnal" that has erased the Shakers from history.

I'm interested in connections some observers have made between Shaker design and Modernism, and Shaker design and Japanese crafts. There does seem to be a connection to both (a big draw at the American pavilion in the Osaka Expo 70 was Shaker furniture, for instance), and it's something to do with modesty and simplicity, functionalism and avoidance of ostentation -- the kind of qualities we'd call "Protestant", basically, and which connect extreme practicality with a kind of micro-spirituality; which say, in other words, that functional things are also spiritual things, because God loves people who work.

Unfortunately, God also loves people who reproduce, and the Shakers... didn't.

Comments

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

Just get the wife to look after the kids. If thats too "traditional" then there's always nannies.

just joking
(sitting here listening to Woman's Hour)

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed. Your wife is Japanese, isn't she Momus? In which case, she will no doubt happily take on the lion's share of the childcare without complaint. And I'm sure Berlin is stuffed to the gills with subsidised crèches for its boho babies as well.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I'm not married, but I live with a Japanese woman, yes.

There's no way I could live the life I do with kids, just no way. This week I finished a new book, in two weeks I have a new album coming out, I have three articles due for ID magazine and one each week for the New York Times, I blog every day -- this would just not be possible for a father who was even halfway taking his domestic responsibilities seriously enough.

Now, you may say I do too much, that doing less might make me more effective, whatever. But life is short, and I want to achieve things before I die. I want to make more books and more records. I don't want to be forced to do work which just makes money to provide for a family and otherwise wastes my time. It's a choice, just like it was for those Shakers. A choice of intensities, if you prefer.

[(Anonymous)]

Nobody's under any obligation to have children, but I think it's simply wrong to think you can't do a lot and have a child as well. That's a very Anglo-Saxon attitude I think, this negativity towards children. I don't see it so much here in France where children are better integrated into societal structures (and where, admittedly, childcare facilities are so much better). I speak as someone a little like you, in that I work freelance in a cultural sphere and I don't earn much money. I've experienced how that's like without a child, and, for the past three years, with a child. And to be honest, it hasn't made that much amount of difference to the amount of work I do or can do. I've certainly had to be a bit more disciplined about my time, and I also have less free time on weekends. But that's about it.

[(Anonymous)]

Has your girlfriend decided she doesn't want children either? Or is it something you don't talk about?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

She still has a good ten years of fertility, and she hasn't ruled it out. But she certainly doesn't have the energy levels right now -- or the desire -- to have kids.

We're actually going to have a little test run this week, though -- we have my nephew Robbie staying with us for a few days! Let's see how it goes.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Lady Hagi said it best:「人は病。」 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overpopulation)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not married, but I live with a Japanese woman, yes.

Didn't you announce your engagement on this very blog like two or three years ago? Long time to keep a girl waiting. Poor show, Momus!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not married, but I live with a Japanese woman, yes.

Didn't you announce your engagement on this very blog like two or three years ago? Way to keep a girl waiting. Poor show, Momus!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

We're not engaged, but we've talked about getting married before and no doubt will again.

You'll have to reveal your identity (currently hidden behind two different proxy servers) if you want to be invited to the wedding, though, Anon!

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

eeek!
I should have said "One can just get the wife to look after the kids"
I feel all Russell Brand now. Jokes gone wrong and all that.

[bikerbar.livejournal.com]

even with the wifey looking after the kids, you need a separate chamber behind a few locked doors to get much accomplished. Children require sacrifice, as relationships do .. thats why most successful artists and writers are intensely self-absorbed bastards.

[robinsonner.livejournal.com]

I suppose its all down to time management. Plus there is a creative friction in resolving caring and relationships which seems to yield its own insights.
I used to be amused by the idea of craft gestation and its parallels with parenthood. A friend seemed to produce a novel for every child he fathered. His wife would get rather nervous when he started working on any new book and perhaps it explains his later move into poetry.