job of
evaluation
as well as desig–
nation. These evaluations were ab–
solute; the hipster banished all
comparatives, qualifiers, and other
syntactical uncertainties. Every–
thing was dichotomously
solid, gone,
out of this world,
or
nowhere, sad,
beat,
a
drag.
J,n there
was, of course, some–
whereness.
Nowhere,
the hipster's
favorite pejorative, was an
abraca–
dabra
to make things disappear.
Solid
connoted the stuff, the real–
ity, of existence; it meant concrete–
ness in a bewilderingly abstract
world. A
drag
was something which
"dragged" implications along with
it, something which was embedded
in an inseparable, complex, am–
biguous-and thus, possibly threat–
ening--context.
Because of its polemical charac–
ter, the language of jive was rich
in aggressiveness, much of it
couched in sexual metaphors. Since
the hipster never did anything as
an end in itself, and since he only
gave of himself in aggression of one
kind or another, sex was subsumed
under aggression, and it supplied
LAURELS
The first prints published by the
widely known artist
MILTON AVERY
Five signed original drypoints
Format 14 by 17 inches,
boxed in handsome portfolio
Price
$25.00
LAURELS numbers one, two, and
three available. Write for descriptive
folder.
LAUREL GALLERY
48 E. 57th St., New York 22, N. Y.
722
a vocabulary for the mechanics of
aggression. The use of the sexual
metaphor was also a form of irony,
like certain primitive peoples' habit
of parodying civilized modes of in–
tercourse. The person on the tail
end of a sexual metaphor was con–
ceived of as lugubriously victim–
ized;
i.e~,
expecting but not re–
ceiving.
One of the basic ingredients of
jive language was a priorism. The
a priori assumption was a short
cut to somewhereness.
It
arose out
of a desperate, unquenchable need
to know the score; it was a great
projection, a primary, self-preserv–
ing postulate.
It
meant "it is given
to us to understand." The inde–
finable authority it provided was
like a powerful primordial or in–
stinctual orientation in a threaten–
ing chaos of complex interrelations.
The hipster's frequent use of me–
tonymy and metonymous gestures
(e.g., brushing palms for hand–
shaking, extending an index finger,
without raising the arm, as a form
of greeting, etc.) also connoted
prior understanding, there is no
need to elaborate, I dig you, man,
etc.
Carrying his language and his
new philosophy like concealed
weapons, the hipster set out to con–
quer the world. He took his stand
on the corner and began to direct
human traffic. His significance was
unmistakable. His face-"the cross–
section of a motion"-was frozen
in the "physiognomy of astuteness."
