Saturday, November 22, 2008

Emo Lit

















By Alec Horowitz

So, I have been called "emo" by a friend of mine. Another friend called me "Post-emo". My writing has been established by friends of mine as definitely influnced by the emo culture. I suppose the way I look at the world has been influenced by the emo culture. I guess my fansiciation with high way kids and rainy days is a bit emo.
Maybe the fact I used to stay up late and watch infomericials and think about what is says about America or that I listened to the song "Working" by Jimmy Eat World an found it insiripiring enough to write a play is bit emo. So, maybe I am a bit emo. Time to make peace with it.
My friend has been termed as "post hardcore, my other friend has been defined as "alternative" and me as "post emo". OK, fine, maybe my fascination with Greenday is a bit emo. Maybe getting drunk and singing along to "Understanding in a Crash" by Thursday is a bit emo. Maybe writing things in my notebook about how the highway, gas station and night's sky make me feel is a bit emo. So, maybe I have to make peace with this term emo. Maybe I minus will make something of this new term I have to make peace with. I turn up the band "Thursday" while I write this. OK, there's emo music, emo fashon, so maybe there should be a emo lit catergory.
So, many genres have sub genres. So, I guess this would be a sub genre of the YA books. So, what books would count? I suppose that "The Perks of Being A Walflower" by Stephen Chobosky, which is a book that features a more sensive version of Holden Caufield, would be a classic to this genre I just created. "Catcher In The Rye" would be agrued to be let in but I feel the book is too classic and I feel if Holden Caufield came about in the 80's or 90's, he would be hardcore instead of emo. I could see Holden Caufield listening to screaming music with a black t-shirt on and spikes in his face. He might actually call the emo kids "phonys" but Charlie, the main charater of "Perks" is basically a emo kid (and if you read the book, he kinda has good reason) so lets put "Perks Of Being A Walflower" as our classic book of emo lit.
The book is beuitafully written in the form of letters to the reader. Charlie, as he stuggles with his new found teenagedom, talks about family, rape, parties, relationships and a werid obession with his aunt, leaving the reader asking if he admires her or prehas something werid happened between her and him? "Be More Chill" is another book (and a comedy, unlike "Perks" and basically the plot is a lighter version of the dark science fiction YA novel "Feed") that might be a emo lit classic. It's about the stuggle of being cool verses being yourself, a constant stuggle of emo kids. The main charater Jeremy is a kid who gets stuck with an computer chip in his head dicatating how to be cool.
"Death To All Cheerleaders" by alternative journalist Marty Beckerman is his first book and pure emo. It's actually a collection of essays by a emo kid stuck in Alaska (If I ever met Sarah Palin, I woud give her a copy of the book). So, tell me, is emo lit acutally a good sub genre idea? And please, sublist your list of books you feel should go into this new emo lit genre. As for me, I guess I have to make peace with the fact that yes: I might be emo (or post emo as I am now older).
My friend defines the difference between a emo kid and a hardcore kid as this: a emo kid says "shit" and a hardcore kid says "fuck". A hardcore kid goes for it. A emo kid is sad that he doesn't have it. The hardcore kid listens to a hard version of metal. A emo kid listens to the lighter version. Maybe they are both breeds though of not being able to cope with American life. Hardcore, metal and emo all have this in common: they are ways of coping with no being able to make sense of what surrounders someone. Am I supposed to be happy with this? Or am I being forced to be happy with this? Is this really me or what they tell me is supposed to be me? Prehas that is anwser to alternative genres in American culture. And oh yeah, leave me alone. I'm going to write a poem about a flower.

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