The Big Green House

Nietzsche was a pussy

Ya gotta love academia. Who else would over-think black metal to this extent? If you’re too lazy to read the article, here’s the money quote:

“The black metal event is a confession without need of absolution, without need of redemption,” (Niall Scott of the University of Central Lancashire) said. It is, he added, “a cleaning up of the mess of others.” He invoked the old English tradition of sin eating by means of burial cakes, in which a loaf of bread was put on a funeral bier or a corpse, and a paid member of the community would eat the bread, representing sin, to absolve and comfort the deceased.

“Black metal has become the sin eater,” he intoned. “It is engaged in transgressive behavior to be rid of it.”

As a former adolescent boy, I’d like to point out to Mr. Scott that, while there may be some for whom his theory holds correct, for many the appeal of transgression is… (wait for it)… transgression itself. “I’m not supposed to do X? Watch me!” It’s all about pissing off the squares.

As an adult who still enjoys metal (in a completely unironic way, at that), I can understand the urge to dress it up in something a little more, uh, mature. In poking around the web in search of new tunes, I’ve come across some otherwise really intelligent, critically-minded writers who can’t seem to find a better put-down for someone who disagrees with them than “faggot”.

It’s depressing, really, but it seems to come with the territory. It stems from the same “rock & roll = rebellion” thing as the over-the-top “Satanic” thing. I suspect that most of the time they’re both just blatantly anti-PC middle fingers being raised by people who don’t feel like they have much control over a large portion of their lives, rather than something meant in earnest. Which is not to say that there aren’t truly homophobic devil-worshippers in the metal world, of course; I just think that most of that sort of thing is knee-jerk reaction rather than any sort of philosophical statement.

Phoenix-like, I rise: crispy and covered in ashes

Uh, hi.

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Almost exactly a year, I see. Well, it goes like that sometimes.

I have the funny idea (peculiar, not ha-ha) that I should start writing here again. I’m not sure why; reading back over some of the stuff I’ve put up here in the past was an exercise in wincing, to say the very least. I’ve found that I absolutely can’t stand the voice I tend to use, to the point of wanting to punch that guy in the head, repeatedly.

On the other hand, it would probably be good to shake off some of the mental dust. Brain gets sloppy if you don’t use it, or so I’ve read. I don’t know how often I’ll have the time to do so, but I may as well take it out of the barn and ride it around a bit.

Look for some redecorating/redesign soon, and possibly even some content. In the meantime, please enjoy some Red Fang.