Class VS. Swag 12/20/24
I did another blog/book review the other day and did my best to make it wildly fancy with strange words and all types of commas and hyphens and such. I gave my most heartfelt takes regarding tough topics and big-brain talking points about reading books. But listen, folks, that ain't me. I tell you what, after I posted that and read it, I felt gay as hell. Normally, when I am writing, I think it basically sounds like my internal monologue, which is basically what I sound like when I am talking, or so I would like to believe. And so, when I delivered my blog the other day into the ether to potentially be read by even tens of you, I felt like I had become a farce after only a few days back in the blogosphere.
It is difficult to articulate the position I am in because it is true I would love to become a better writer. But then, when I did what I had previously thought was better writing, it seemed worse to me. I guess I sort of neutered it, so to speak. And so now, I will begin to pursue a new balance in my writing—a balance between forces that have been at odds since time immemorial: Class and Swag. These two forces have been at odds in most movies and TV shows since as long as I can remember. Jocks vs. the outcasts. Preps vs. skaters. Jocks vs. theater kids. Jocks vs. rich kids. Skiers vs. snowboarders. We have a number of instances of class versus swag.
But we begin to see that there is a silver lining where class and swag meet in perfect harmony, or perhaps that one side begins to see the merit in the other. For example, in one of my all-time favorite movies, “The Faculty,” we see a prime example of class versus swag. Stan, played by Shawn Hastoy, is the star QB of the high school football team.
But listen to this: he is sick and tired of just being some dumb jock. The conflict goes on within him. He has attained envious levels of swag from playing football, but what he truly desires is to have some level of class. He thinks he can find this from bettering his academic abilities.
Then we have Zeke, played by the era’s heartthrob Josh Hartnett.
Zeke is the epitome of swag. He is blasting cigs, cutting class, and it is implied that he was boning one of the babe teachers. This is basically the peak of attainable swag in HS. But then, later, we see in the movie he is a scientific wizkid. Only through his smarts on chemicals and his sweet capabilities in the lab do they defeat the bad guys. And so, it turns out he was in denial of his class because he was addicted to swag. Or perhaps he mostly was disenfranchised with what he felt class represented to him.
I personally thought Stan the jock had hella swag being the QB, but to Zeke, he represented the very idea of class. Stan the jock realized he might have even more swag dating the girl you think is a lesbian and quitting football. He realized football was lowkey gay with all the tight ends, wide receivers, and general jostling of men on one another. This just goes to show class versus swag is a battle that rages within all of us, and that the way to find peace in the war is subjective.
I chose these two as examples because both characters sort of resent each other over misunderstanding what swag and class is to the other. Both have swag to me, but both sort of find distaste in what the other is getting up to at first. They only become friends when each finds their own balance in their individual internal conflict. I believe when you find the equilibrium between the two opposing forces, you become the ultimate cool guy. At the end of the day, this is basic yin and yang stuff here. When we find a balance between two good forces pushing and pulling on us, we become better.
(I am adding this as an addendum. I think athletes are one of the best examples of the class versus swag battle. Some athletes are the pinnacle of swag, and some are so lame. Golf is an all-class, almost entirely swagless sport. I could go on forever about this, but at the end of the day, that would be beside my point right now, so maybe I will revisit this.)
I guess I have just really been thinking about the class versus swag dichotomy because therein lies the answer, I believe, to my writing issue I mentioned earlier. Writing is perceived, I believe, as mostly a pursuit of the class. I think also those who have no balance and structure, who are entirely in class, seem to try to make us believe this narrative that writing is no place for swag. They almost tricked me with such a story the other day. Most of my life, I have seen myself as a swag guy. Only as I have gotten older have I embraced class within myself. So now, I think as I pursue writing, I need to discover how to maintain swag while preserving the necessary class elements that go into writing without it becoming pretentious or insincere. Or vice versa, because it is easy to get lost in the attempt to maintain swag and to lose a sense of honesty.
Also, I have just been reading some Kurt Vonnegut lately, and that guy, to me, is the king of zen as far as this all goes. He writes in a way that makes you feel like you are in on some secret with him. He makes you feel smarter for having read what he had to say and, at the same time, makes it easy for anyone to follow along. He also has the ability to say something super profound about something really serious in a very funny way. Really cool. I think that is a style I would like to emulate to a certain extent, but then again, who wouldn’t?
Anyways, all this to say, I am going to try to figure out that balance because I really want to. So, for right now, I am just going to write how I do and then put it into AI to fix, put all the commas and stuff where they should go, and see where that gets me.