CHAT: Camp (was: Re: Shelta, Polari...)

Roger Mills wrote:

> >"camp" is pretty universal here on the East Coast (due, no doubt, to
> >Baltimore's favorite son John Waters),>
> Actually I think "camp" entered (at least) the academic lexicon with Susan
> Sontag's "Notes on Camp", sometime in the 60s.  Have to confess I've not
> read it; but I recall it was pooh-poohed when it appeared.  There were a
> host of "underground" films in the early 60s, some them quite interesting,
> while others were pure camp and occasionally hilarious.  "Flaming Creatures"
> for one (I wonder if a print still survives; it got seized by Lily Law a
> lot), and almost anything by Warhol.  SNL did a wicked sketch (early 80s?),
> a send up of "Deliverance", with Burt Reynolds guesting as an undercover cop
> sent to investigate "camping" in the Georgia woods.
> That may have introduced the word to a wider audience more than Ms. Sontag.
> The problem with camp is, it's hard to define, but you know it when you see
> it.
Paul Roen (author of "High Camp") defines camp as "any brazen triumph of
theatrical artifice over dramatic substance"--whether intentional and ironic, or
unintentional and just plain bad/funny.  The association of camp with gays
derives no doubt from its reliance on 'deviant' sexuality (aggressive women,
aestheticised and eroticised men, kinkiness, etc.), as well as on a thorough
knowledge of melodramatic conventions, a strong sense of taste (good, bad, or
otherwise), and a lively appreciation for in-jokes--elements which form an
integral part of many (though not all) gay subcultures.

Matt.