?????????‚?µ?€: hipster, more or less
You know them. They are the cool-looking young people in skinny jeans and long scarves at the bookshop ? ?µ???????±?»?????°, buying the latest novel translated from Japanese. Or the guys in oversized spectacles watching art-house films at the ?????????µ?€ movie theater. Or your young neighbors at the dacha community, collecting dead batteries to take to IKEA for recycling and carrying their kids in brightly colored, natural dyed, all-cotton papooses. Are they ?…???????? (hippies)? Not quite, but there is a bit of the Summer of Love about them. Are they ?????????????? (fashion-forward)? Well, yes, sort of. But there is a slight counter-culture element to their style. So who are they?
I finally found out. They're ?…???????‚?µ?€?‹ (hipsters). But what exactly is a ?…???????‚?µ?€, and does a Russian ?…???????‚?µ?€ differ from an American hipster?
To get the answer, you have to go back about 60 or 70 years in America, when the first incarnation of hipsters appeared. A hipster was hip, a hepcat — someone who eschewed mainstream culture, typically a white person hitting the black jazz clubs. In the 1950s and 1960s, hipsters were also called beatniks. Think: smoky cafe, bearded men, women with long hair, everyone snapping their fingers and talking about the French New Wave.
Today English-speaking hipsters are defined variously. Some definitions stress their trendy appearance, love of high-tech gadgets, and apolitical views. Other definitions insist that their politics — progressive, liberal — are important. One definition describes them as "young, usually urban Bohemians who cultivate an ironic sensibility" — which is so cool I want to be a hipster right this instant, or as soon as I figure out what an ironic sensibility is.
Russian ?…???????‚?µ?€?‹ appeared on the scene on Oct. 8, 2008 — or rather, they were defined on that day in article by Yury Saprykin, editor of ???„?????° (Afisha magazine). He wrote about the young people at the annual ???„?????° picnic, whom he described as part of an urban subculture without a name. He decided to call them ?…???????‚?µ?€?‹, and used a definition of American hipsters from one particularly mean-spirited article. They were, in Saprykin's received view: ???µ?€???°?? ?? ?????‚???€???? ?—?°???°???° ?????»?????‘?¶???°?? ?????±?????»???‚???€?°, ?????‚???€?°?? ???? ?? ?‡?µ???? ???µ ???‚?€?µ?????‚????, ???? ?? ?‡?‘?? ???µ ???µ?‡?‚?°?µ?‚, ???µ ???€???‚?µ???‚???µ?‚, ???µ ?±?????‚???µ?‚, ???µ ???·???±?€?µ?‚?°?µ?‚, ???µ ???µ?????µ?‚ ?¶???·????; ?…???????‚?µ?€?‹ — ???°???????»???±?»?‘?????‹?µ ?‚???°?€?? (the first youth subculture in the West that strives for nothing, dreams of nothing, doesn't protest, doesn't rebel, doesn't invent, doesn't change life; hipsters are creatures in love with themselves).
He defined their Russian cousins exclusively in terms of their style: ?????????‚ ???·?????µ ???¶???????‹ ???»?? ?†???µ?‚???‹?µ ?»?????????‹, ???‚?€?°?‰?????°???‚ ?‡?‘?»????, ???°???µ???°???‚ ?±???»???????µ ???‡???? ?±?µ?· ?????????‚?€???? … ?? ???°?€???°???µ ?? ?????… ?????»?µ????????, ?? ?€?????µ ???»?‘?????‡???°?? ???‹?»???????†?° (they wear skinny jeans or brightly colored leggings, grow out their bangs, wear big glasses with non-corrective lenses … they've got a Moleskine notebook in their pocket and a film point-and-shoot camera in their hand).
He ends his piece: ???????‚?? ???µ ???€?µ?·???€?°?µ?‚ ?…???????‚?µ?€???? ?±???»?????µ, ?‡?µ?? ???°???? ?…???????‚?µ?€?‹. (No one disdains hipsters more than hipsters themselves.) Well, judging by his description of something like middle-class, pretentious ?????????????? (hicks) — who'd want to be one? In fact, another commentator writes: ?•???»?? ?…???‡?µ???? ????????-?‚?? ?????????€?±???‚??, ???°?·?????? ?µ???? ?…???????‚?µ?€????. (If you want to insult someone, call them a hipster.)
So is it good or bad to be a ?…???????‚?µ?€? I don't know. But I do suspect that the people writing most caustically about them are probably wearing skinny jeans and big glasses.
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of "The Russian Word's Worth" (Glas), a collection of her columns.
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