"Ms. America": A Supplement on Lana Del Rey by The New Inquiry

[Sitar 22,210]

From their website, "The New Inquiry is a space for discussion that aspires to enrich cultural and public life by putting all available resources—both digital and material—toward the promotion and exploration of ideas." They dedicated a whole, 24-page issue to Lana, and it's actually very interesting! Different essays discuss the appropriateness of Lana's inclusion on the Maleficent soundtrack, her glamorization of Americana as a lie, femininity, whiteness, and especially Ultraviolence. On the whole, it's pretty positive, though--my favorite is "The Fake as More," which focuses on her image. It's free!

 

 

Source: http://thenewinquiry.com/features/ms-america/

[tiffanydale 193]

That was enjoyable! The artwork was really cool, too. Thanks!

[BLOODSHOT 3,029]

Ew @ the overuse of filters on the photos 

[Adrift 4,813]

Ew @ the overuse of filters on the photos 

Especially fuckin' TOPAZ.

[James Dean 950]

i just dont get it....
edit: oh its a magazine... but wtf this filter

[FROGGO 2,806]

I guess its a cool concept, but I don't think I can handle any more thinkpieces on Lana. 

[FIREANDWATER 81]

this is amazing. don't have time to read at the moment but this is much appreciated!

[Platinum Greenwich 13,845]

I really loved this. <3 Thanks for posting!

 

All that Topaz, though.

[uzzunov 36]

f*ck ... amazing! Thanks  

[Macintosh Manhattan 6,511]

That was really well written and fascinating article. Loads of interesting comments and ponts too. I love Lana thoughts/thinking articles and this IMO is one of the best. Its also change the way I look at Lana slightly as well tbh. With they could've cut down on the filters tho....

[longtimeman 8,918]

This all reminds me of why I needed to get out of academia. It must be hard to write about a rock record when you've obviously never heard one before in your life, and you compare the increasing intensity of 'Cruel World' to EDM, when Ultraviolence has as much in common with dance music as it does to polka (a better comparison would be to the Velvet Underground's 'Heroin', which is actually similar to it stylistically)

[PrettyBaby 2,219]

[larina 682]

Thanks for the share! But "Ms."? Lana is just a Miss still, right?

[Dazed 95]

Is this worth reading guys?

[HEARTCORE 18,971]

Thanks for the share! But "Ms."? Lana is just a Miss still, right?

Ms just means a woman who doesn't like to reveal her relationship status. With men, Mr doesn't mean that they're single or married, whereas woman are forced to distinguish their status through the use of Miss (unmarried) and Mrs (married). Lots of feminists have started to use Ms as a way of removing this sexism.

[larina 682]

Ms just means a woman who doesn't like to reveal her relationship status. With men, Mr doesn't mean that they're single or married, whereas woman are forced to distinguish their status through the use of Miss (unmarried) and Mrs (married). Lots of feminists have started to use Ms as a way of removing this sexism.

 

Oh, I thought Miss was a female who is unmarried, Mrs. is a female who is married and Ms. is a female who is divorced or widowed. 

[veniceglitch 379]

Oh boy. 'She has never been spotted near a gym. Nor has she ever “opened up” about her weight, 

in regard to which she’s one of the less bothered pop stars alive. As seen 

in Tropico, Lana’s body is ripe, trembling, and defiantly unmaintained, a  body as far out of time as her voice. '

[VegasBaby 895]

 

Oh boy. 'She has never been spotted near a gym. Nor has she ever “opened up” about her weight, 

in regard to which she’s one of the less bothered pop stars alive. As seen 

in Tropico, Lana’s body is ripe, trembling, and defiantly unmaintained, a  body as far out of time as her voice. '

 

what a cunty thing to say 

[veniceglitch 379]

This whole thing reads like "Critical Theory Trends Report 2014, Special Focus: What Lana Del Rey Means To Our Profession."

I have spent many an hour in literature and philosophy classes myself, and these types of thinkers and writers are easy to find. They are always insufferable, always self-important, and always unable to create anything themselves. Their only means is destruction; they examine everything like a cadaver. I find it ironic that Lana herself spent time in those classes, only to go on to create something that her would-be peers are now deconstructing to death. She creates, they can only hyper-analyze. Who's having the last laugh?

[longtimeman 8,918]

Just so I don't look negative all the time about analytical writing, I think there's one really interesting paragraph in the text that doesn't go far enough.

(this is a little long, so I'm spoilering it)

 

 

From 'The Fake as More'

 

“I wish I was dead already,” she says, but “I wish I was dead” was already sung on “Dark Paradise,” and we (the media) didn’t freak out two years ago. We either did not hear or did not take seriously the lyric. Failed to believe she had written it, assumed she herself did not believe it, we are trained to think of the pop star’s persona as safely removed from the person, the same way we recast as “fantasy” what we’re afraid to say we really, really want. I too think this of most personas, but not of Lana’s. I think, What if Lana did fuck her way to the top? What if she was hit? What if she liked it? What if her pussy tastes exactly like cola? And if all she wants is dope and diamonds, so what? What if the most radical—fuck it, feminist—thing you can do is believe everything a girl says about her life, whether or not you like it?

 

Aside from bringing feminism into it - which is fine, but not really the point - this is almost asking the question that most interests me about Lana, which is another 'What if": "What if we take our emotions seriously, and deal with them on their own terms?" Nobody in the media bothers to consider Lana Del Rey as a serious writer, for a whole range of reasons, but what I find stunning about her songs and clips is how far she takes her investment in her emotions at highly charged times. Our own culture - the culture of Youtube and avclub comments, and snarky blogs - has tried to tell us that the only way to approach an emotional event is either to be stupid and caught up in it, and without self-reflection (which is often associated with 'teen girls' or 'tumblr culture' or whatever), or to look at the event from a distance, ironically, to stand above it (which to me always sounds as though it's written by a twenty year old male who's just finished his first year of critical studies). 

 

Lana does something which is a weird subversion of both - she absolutely lives in the moment of the event, but doesn't let us off the hook by letting us laugh at how silly she was. 'Video Games' (the song) isn't about how boring life is when you settle into the routine of a relationship, it's about how comforting things that can look ridiculous to outsiders really can make you happy, for that time. What gives the song the power it has is that it's written in a time when that relationship (and the context of drinking and partying) is finished, but from an emotional place of, as Lana put it, honouring that relationship. It's not coincidental that she's covered Leonard Cohen's 'Chelsea Hotel #2' - a song that also tries to honour something that's gone, but I actually believe 'Video Games' does the job better, because the reflection on the loss of love is totally implied. It's possible to hear Video Games as a completely positive song about a happy relationship, and that would not actually be misunderstanding the song. The video of 'VG' revolves around the footage of public, drunken humiliation, which I think is Lana's joke with herself about what the 'idyllic state' of drunken love can end up looking like to outsiders, in the cold stare of the video camera. But that's the wrong type of irony for our times.

 

But you're not supposed to write a song about what every person on the planet hopes for - contentment - because there's no drama or tension in it, and you're also not meant to admit that losing love can feel like the end of the world (Without You), or that even though you might change your mind later, you're not lying when you say you'll love someone forever with the same passion as you do when they leave (Blue Jeans), or that sometimes you will act in a way that makes other people think worse of you so that you can be happy (Sad Girl, ironically enough). What you're meant to write about, if you're a woman, is about how awesome being a woman is, and how young girls can do anything they want, and that principles matter more than happiness. And definitely only compare your pussy to realistic flavours.

 

The best and worst thing about Lana is that she seems to inspire everybody (including myself) to want to write about her, and hopefully one day something worthwhile actually is written.