What is Camp?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 4/29/13 at 6:50pm

Bruce LaBruce explains it all for us.

Posted: 4/30/13 at 7:48pm

Including "gross out movies" like the Hangover in any sort of camp seems to betray a misunderstanding of it. Camp is probably only identified by seeing it. I can recommend viewing The Boys in the Band- watch it, love it and commit certain parts of it to memory.

But you can't do it alone- camp does require a partner or a group that knows your inferences and "gets" your jokes. To outsiders, hissing that S in Lessssssssssslie's name is not obviously hysterical.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:12pm

I love that piece so much. So happy to see somebody engaging with the Sontag essay in this century. I was really impressed by his analysis of what he calls "conservative camp" because it gave me a new way to look at O'Reilly, Palin, et al ad nauseum.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 9:56pm

I just ate that essay up...it was THAT GOOD!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 10:09pm

Not since "Spring Breakers" (good straight camp) have I come to the end of something and wanted to start over at the beginning immediately. Thanks, BlaB.

Posted: 4/30/13 at 10:44pm

Salon did a 19 part series on camp last month.
Postcards From Camp.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 10:54pm

Good old Bruce! I think it's a good point that camp--for good and bad, has infiltrated the mainstream. I'm not quite sure I'd include The Hangover as a sort of camp--but, it does make some sense.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 10:56pm

I think where people really have different opinions is as to if they find camp to be something that originally was not intended to be camp--or if things intended as camp (like Waters' movies) count. (I say yes.)

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 10:57pm

"Salon did a 19 part series on camp last month."

That statement is pure camp.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 11:30pm

I'm interested in how The Shining was intentional camp (I always thought intentional camp was therefore **bad** camp). Get Mr. LaBruce to do a Room 237 breakdown of that. No way he could be more ludicrous or ridiculous than those people in that movie.

And let me just note that Sextette moment was a duet with Timothy 'The 007 Nobody Talks About' Dalton and Mae West. That age difference and Dalton going from Rex Harrison talk-sing to full-on Captain and Tennille is what makes that camp.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 12:01am

That Bruce LaBruce piece is life-enhancing, darling!

Here is Susan Sontag's original "Notes on Camp." It should be re-read biennially.
Notes On "Camp" by Susan Sontag Published in 1964.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 12:02am

The Shining threw me too. I suppose it could be argued that Kubrick couldn't have staged moments like the "Here's Johnny" without some sense of camp... Or the whole deliberate nature of the film, but... Out of King movies, I woulda put DePalma's Carrie there instead, though (well, a lot of DePalma movies.)

[strummergirl]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 12:30am

In the case of The Shining i guess in the fact Kubrick stripped context of the paranormal events at the Overlook that are bizarre. And just the way the characters talk to each other in such an off cadence in scenes could be where you can point to the 'intention'

[John Adams]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 12:41am

"Camp" is a movie where Stephen Sondheim gets shrieked at and swooned over by groupies.

"Camp" is camp.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:06am

I don't know why it took me so long to open this thread but I love that essay.

And I especially love that he mentioned Suede and Brett Anderson in "Subversive Camp".

Thanks for sharing BB!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 8:48am

Camp, as with so many things, is in the eye of the beholder.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:56am

Sir Noel Coward's rebdition of "Senorita Nina" delivers a lesson in camp.


Noel Coward embraces an almost-unrecognizable Judy Garland
Noel Coward sings 'Nina' - October 22, 1955: From the live color broadcast of 'Together With Music' - Noel Coward gives us an incredibly racy number for 1955 television - using 'sex,' 'sluts'

[newintown]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 11:30am

Camp, like comedy, dies quickly and horribly when exposed to the harsh light of academic analysis.

[AnthVoice2010]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 11:32am

1972, Non-Tony Nominee Bette Midler, was asked what camp was and she replied:

" Camp? What's Camp? Camp's a place you go in the summer...ohhhh"...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 11:37am

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 11:46am

[trentsketch]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 12:03pm

I've heard The Shining called intentional camp before. The argument is that Kubrick pushed the actors, especially Shelly Duvall, to such an exaggerated representation of human emotion that it's not meant to be taken seriously. Combined with the over the top visual effects--the blood rushing down the hallway being the most overt--it can be argued as campy.

Now, for me, I don't view it as camp, but I'm one of the people who thinks Shelly Duvall gives a stunning performance in the film.

I trust the camp analysis of a man who made a softcore zombie porn film and convinced the world it was a simultaneously a slow burn horror film and a dark romance. Otto; Or, Up With Dead People is intentional camp that actually works.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 5:25pm

As Susan Sontag points out at length, one aspect of camp is that it is based on a shared understanding between performer and audience. It's a minority "language" of sorts, which is why it matters.

I don't see how that can be said of Kubrick's SHINING. It may have a few camp moments, but it is basically a mainstream horror film.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 6:12pm

Is that still true of camp, though? I think the definition (and I guess this is always argued) have changed. Sontag of course created the initial mainstream discourse about the term, but LaBruce and many others seem to disagree with much of what she has said.

JoeKVs' link from Slate magazine actually raises a lot of good points, though I'm not sure I completely see his distinction between "campy" and "camp."

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 7:51pm

I think his point is to challenge Sontag's assertions from almost 50 years ago in a campy academic way. I think his point about camp replacing irony in typical discourse is an intriguing one.