Hipster

It is very difficult to define what a hipster is when the genre is constantly changing. A hipster is a person who always appears to be ahead of the curve in the tastes of society. Once a cultural change has been accepted by everyone it is no longer "hip". According to Hipsterdom professor Christopher Taylor the key to hipsterdom is "Apriorism the instinctive knowledge where you evaluate something before it exists,” Taylor said. “It’s really important for a lot of people to have this uncanny knack to identify what is good before the rest of the world knows.”

Music under the hipster banner is almost impossible to define. The group the Muffs captures a vintage look with a unique style that combines the past with a punk rock sound.  

The hipster enjoys the combination of vintage fashion style and modern sound of the Muffs and hopes that no one else discovers the unique sound they are enjoying since the Hipster believes once the public has discovered a sound it is ruined and no longer interests the hipster. 

Fashion Style for the hipster is difficult to define and the hipster enjoys it that way since their goal is to be ahead of the curve and to set the standards. The hipster enjoys their originality but does not want the general public to popularize the look and lose its originality. The hipster wants to be distinctive unusual and cool.

 

Links:

 Daily Texan Online - Defining and exploring modern day hipster culture

Buzzfeed - Types of Hipsters you encounter in London

StyleCaster - Hipster Fashion

Haruki Murakami's Tsukuru Tazaki

In Haruki Murakami's story Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage he has introduced his audience to a character who lives in a traditional Japanese world with 

traditional Japanese values. However Tsukuru has undergone a traumatic experience when his four high school friends that he was closest to mysteriously cut him out of their lives. To protect himself emotionally and mentally Tsukuru closes himself from

the world and withdraws into himself. He withdraws from his family seldom visiting 

them in his hometown and decides not to pursue with his friends the reason for their shunning him. The world that Murakami creates for Tsukuru floats in and out of 

different timelines and creates a dreamlike effect that leaves the reader at times

unsure what is real or just fantasy. This gives the reader a vivid understanding of the

conflict and emotional pain that Tsukuru is facing. Tsukuru is fortunate enough to meet a woman who he makes an emotional connection with who convinces him he 

must face the friends who shunned him and deal with the emotional pain and baggage he has been avoiding. Tsukuru decides to take a risk and talk to his friends and is

brought back to reality with the discovery that he had done nothing wrong at all. He was shunned in an attempt to protect someone else. Tsukuru realizes that his world is one of reality and one in which he can seek happiness and love and a future. Murakami has taught his readers that often many of us hide behind our pain and put up emotional barriers but only by facing what has happened to us can we move forward into the future.