Michel Focault's birth centinnial was a few days ago (b. 15 October 1926) so that got me thinking about Focault and those who wrote about cultural subversion, power structures, and the voices excluded from mainstream narratives, ie. alternative histories. I am always interested in counter narratives vs. the master's voice, revisionist history (although that has a negative connotation these days, but the truth is all history is revisionist history, no? - to revise, improve interpretations of the past when new evidence surface, a constant revision and overturning of accepted norms, not to take things for granted, not to accept status quo [i never like the band], rock the boat a bit but not vessel overturn! not everyone knows how to swim or has the life jacket on. still, it is rock 'n' roll)
ok i got distracted again. But the point is I have been thinking about the writings of Greil Marcus, who I have been reading for a long time. His Mystery Train book is probably what got me to listen to Elvis differently - the promise, the redemption and the eventual, inevitable corruption of Elvis and rock 'n' roll. I am still a bit obsessed with Elvis till today. (the other writer who influenced my thoughts on Elvis is the recently passed on Peter Nazareth)
I have been thinking for some years (I'm slow and old, a slow horse stuck in slough house) how we can appropriate Greil Marcus to frame Singapore history and pop culture, a lens to look at the nonsense we do.
Lipstick Traces? That would be like Curry Stains in Singapore's Punk Scene.
The Dustbin of History - so much of the revisionist things some of us were doing in Singapore history was being garang guni men and women, to rescue the stories, ideas, love, hop and dreams of those being discarded into the dustbin of history - your leftistis, socialists, social realists, woodcut artists, cartoonists, band boys, groupies, hippies, free love, ban the bomb, burn the bra ,,, and so on.
Of course, things have changed now with the (re)turn of history from the late 90s onwards. Detainee narratives, student activism, activities and movements, it was an overload of histories and heritage and learning journeys and journeying into the past as a practice and sure way to get funding.
But what other people do, I don't do. People go forward, I just move sideways.
A contrarian? Maybe. Or just pi si.
Anyway, to note that others have used phrases similar to dustin of history like Augustine Birrell, Leon Trotsky and Ronnie Raygun. So Greil Marcus also appropriated from them.
70s rock music, popular and youth culture were thrown into the dustbin of history in the 80s and 90s and have since been rehabilitated. Pop is embraced by the state these days as a way to engage the youth, the future of the nation. But what future? Singapore dreaming...
One last book, Invisible Republic, which is where most of us freaks on anti-histamine pills and pop culture dope fiends reside in Singapore and across Southeast Asia. You may not see it, but you can feel it. And smell it and taste it and eat it. You mean you don't like to eat? Get up, go down, my uzi weighs a ton.
It is "palavers with a community of ghosts", a lost highway, a north south highway to KL and hell. But you stop by Seremban for prata and a dip in the toxic waters of Port Dickson. Teenage wasteland.
So 3 concepts to frame / think / write about Singapore / SEA pop culture and history - curry stains, the dustbin of history for things forgotten and suddenly remembered, and the invisible republic cutting across island and mainland SEA, the Nusantara and all.
I'm copyrighting all these because we should appropriate and re-appropriate things from the West and beyond. Why should they have all the fun? And also because people will need to pay me royalties because I'm too lazy to write. I'm slow and lazy, but steady and hazy. Hazy Jane I laid.
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