Ellis on authenticity, in music and beyond

[arbre_rieur]

Six pages from Doktor Sleepless 5. According to Ellis, the series is meant to be a sort of spiritual successor to Transmetropolitan.

Comments

[thandrak]

When Les Paul broke his arm in a car accident, he had it set at an angle so he could keep playing his music. That's what real is. It's what you do, not who you say you are.

Jeez, just because Robert Zimmerman changed his name and assumed a persona doesn't make him a fictional person. It makes him a bard. It's the music that's real or not.

Ask Alan Moore if his god is authentic. Then ask him if his god is real.

[thandrak]

I should never post immediately after waking.
Ahem. There are three things here, and they are three separate things. Being real, being authentic, and being hardcore.
Being hardcore, I brought up, and it covers doing something most would find beyond belief in pursuit of a goal. Mr. Les Paul's arm being set so he could continue to play guitar, would come under it.
Being authentic is an objective statement. It is either true, or it is not. It is about the facts of the matter. A city-raised blues player being set up to be a farmer on the acoustic is not being authentic.
Being real. Being real is a subjective statement, and further, it is a statement about the communication between the audience and the actor or writer or musician. Hunter S. Thompson was certainly in part, acting when he went gonzo. But the communication, the truth in the middle of what he was writing, even when he was telling blatant lies, kept him blatantly real. Being real while telling untruths is the gift and challenge of the bard, to put the audience in the shoes of another, to try to capture a meaning and essence and communicate it utterly to someone who has no conception of it.
Robert Zimmerman's construct of Bob Dylan is no less real for being inauthentic.

Of course, as Dr. Thompson proved, keeping things real has costs.

[thandrak]

Also, I admit, if I'm missing something here that's not shown, I am waiting to pick this up in trade because my local comic store has been having issues getting issues in. Or keeping them in.

[glprime]

Let's just say you're stating things here much better than in this character's rant.

Also, I've never really given any musician this much credit as an artist. Hype is a backlash of any talent or entertainment.

But then, I do take writing *way* too seriously, so it's interesting to see it from another angle.

[thandrak]

It's not credit as an artist, it's about vibe. It's an intangible that shows up in how much something hooks you. The most 'real' artists that come to my mind right now are the Beastie Boys. They are who they are. White boys. Who rap, punk style. Gangsta rappers, even, if you look at their actual lyrics.
And yet, there's no question about them being anything less than accepted, no question about them being anything less than real.
Immature as hell, but real.

[glprime]

Yeah, I'm just so damn straight-laced with my linguistics, I tend to reject "real" meaning anything except "the opposite of fantasy/imagined."

"Real" being an adjective for evocative aura, attitude, personality, tone, etc. just strikes me as cheap buzz words. I first heard it in the context of salesmen, then industry reviewers. I don't view it as an authentic qualifier.

[thandrak]

In this case, it's shortened from 'keeping it real'. The important thing in keeping things real is _not to be fake_.

This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Willy the S, representin.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Keeping it real" reminds me of the Law & Order episode "3 Dawg Night," where McCoy and Co. prosecute a popular rapper for a nightclub shooting.

Jack McCoy: It's one thing to play a thug on the cover of a CD, it's quite another to do it in Sing Sing.

[lamashtar]

Can't get the comedy skit "WHEN KEEPING IT REAL GOES WRONG" out of my head.