"A more complex - but only slightly more original - way to feel out of it is available at the hip and pretentious nightclubs and bars along the Sunset Strip"
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Alienation gets a VIP wristband and a drink minimum on the Sunset Strip. Merrill Markoe’s line skewers a very LA-specific trick: taking an ordinary, vaguely modern malaise - feeling “out of it” - and upgrading it into a curated identity you can purchase, perform, and be seen performing. The dashy aside (“but only slightly more original”) is the knife twist. She’s not denying the feeling; she’s mocking the pathetic ambition to seem uniquely disconnected in a room designed for connection-as-display.
Her target is the “hip and pretentious” ecosystem where subculture becomes a service industry. Nightclubs promise outsider energy with insider access, selling the impression of being too cool, too weary, too knowing to fully participate. You don’t belong, but you paid to be there; you’re above it, but you’re standing in line for it. That contradiction is the joke and the critique: authenticity is treated like a limited-edition aesthetic, not an inner state.
Markoe’s phrasing works because it refuses to romanticize disaffection. “Available” makes ennui sound like a menu option. “More complex” hints at the elaborate rituals of cool - the right bar, the right posture, the right ironic distance - while “only slightly more original” punctures the fantasy that taste equals individuality. In the cultural context of late-20th-century nightlife and media-savvy irony, she’s diagnosing a scene where even boredom has to hustle for attention, and the performance of being unimpressed becomes the main event.
Her target is the “hip and pretentious” ecosystem where subculture becomes a service industry. Nightclubs promise outsider energy with insider access, selling the impression of being too cool, too weary, too knowing to fully participate. You don’t belong, but you paid to be there; you’re above it, but you’re standing in line for it. That contradiction is the joke and the critique: authenticity is treated like a limited-edition aesthetic, not an inner state.
Markoe’s phrasing works because it refuses to romanticize disaffection. “Available” makes ennui sound like a menu option. “More complex” hints at the elaborate rituals of cool - the right bar, the right posture, the right ironic distance - while “only slightly more original” punctures the fantasy that taste equals individuality. In the cultural context of late-20th-century nightlife and media-savvy irony, she’s diagnosing a scene where even boredom has to hustle for attention, and the performance of being unimpressed becomes the main event.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sarcastic |
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