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This week, we've been reading Inigo Thomas's diary in Slate; he's been writing about "Bohemian New York," and the entries are part travelogue, part history of a different kind of life:
There's no bohemia in today's New York. Nothing resembles Greenwich Village in its various incarnations from the turn of the 20th century to the 1960s, or the art-scene East Village of the late 1970s and 1980s, or Williamsburg in the early 1990s. You can try to find bohemia in far-away Bushwick or Red Hook, both districts of Brooklyn. You can go over the Hudson to the disused warehouses of Jersey City; to Harlem; or even across the harbor to Staten Island, where, in the 1950s, in a house near the ferry terminal, the bohemian critic and Henry James scholar Marius Bewley threw legendary weekendlong parties at which he sometimes dressed as a cardinal, so legendary that I heard about these gatherings across the ocean, in London, 40 years on. But you don't come to find such a place, do you? You come to live the life.This got Gothamist thinking about what we know as bohemian - and this isn't counting all the ex-hippies who got lucky with their Park Slope real estate. There's the Bohemian Beer Hall in Astoria and, um...Thomas is right, we have no idea what we're talking about. Luckily The Morning News sussed out bohemian-ness in NYC last year (there are pretty maps!). And there's also Christine Stansell's book, Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century, which covers turn-of-the-century NY. And Thomas's Slate entries also have some nice links to other books that inform on the matter.
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Thanks for bringing this book to my attention. I had jotted down this title---"Republic of Dreams: Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia" by Ross Wetzsteon---several years ago, based on a Times review. Amazon lists it as a good companion piece.
I'm so goddamn sick of old timers complaining about this. History has repeated itself over and over and over again on this very topic.
In the 50s, old time villagers were complaining about how NYC wasnt the same as their roaring avant-garde jazz days.
In the 60s, beatniks were complaining about how NYC just wasnt the same.
In the late 70s/early 80s, hippies were complaining about how NYC just wasn't the same.
In the early 90s, punks and garage rockers were complaining about how NYC just wasn't the same.
Now, we have people complaining about how the current times arent as good as the early 90s heyday of Williamsburg.
History has shown that it takes about 15 years for people to realize that "their time" was actually not that bad. Get back to me in 2015 and you'll be an old timer saying how great the early 2000s were, and how things just aren't as good in 2015.
Addendum: we're in an age where borders are blurred, art and music can be easily transmitted to the masses, and, ahem, WEBLOGS....
NYC is changing before our eyes. Little things like craigslist, friendster, cell phones, digital cameras, DV filmmakers, computers and mp3s have turned our artistic and interpersonal culture upside-down in new and interesting ways. We have yet to truly understand how much the early 2000s will have an impact, but trust me, it does, weblog readers.
The "Republic of Dreams" book is excellent, and if there is a complaint that I have with it, it's that it is too short. It really captures the spirit of an age when anything seemed possible.
Though he started off cranky, Our Lord and Savior (he he) makes some very good points. The various boho enclaves relied on geography and economics as much as anything... you went where the likeminded spirits were finding cheap rents. A new boho may still spring up, but in fact the current boho is less a place. Other things are linking the bohos. In a way, anything seems possible today, as it did in the 20s or 50s.
Though he started off cranky, Our Lord and Savior (he he) makes some very good points. The various boho enclaves relied on geography and economics as much as anything... you went where the like minded spirits were finding cheap rents. A new boho may still spring up, but in fact the current boho is less of a particular place. Other things are linking us. In a way, anything seems possible today, as it did in the 20s or 50s.
I like the twist the New Bohemians have put on the lifestyle -- trust funds.
Although the lack of heat and hot water or money for food did give people an attractive scruffy pallor in the bad old days, the same can be achieved by the young scions with sufficient amounts of cocaine and heroin.
But vraiment, the true Bohemians are named Rudolfo and Mimi. Right?
I loved the chapter on Bohemians in Luc Sante's Low Life book. The entire book itself is a fun read, and makes you appreciate the city's history of regular folks (hardly any trust funds), as well as your tiny apartment and the wonders of modern plumbing.