People love rules. We pretend we don’t, but even rebelling has its own parameters of social acceptability, which Elissa Jane Karg illustrates in her guide on How To Be a Nonconfomist. Today we’re unearthing this little gem of satire from 1968 with the help of Maria Popova’s article on Brain Pickings.
Karg’s book uses adorable drawings to sardonically comment on the counterculture of the 1960s, addressing specific moments of cultural rebellion from Warhol’s soup cans to Bob Dylan and the rest of the anti-establishment folk music movement. There’s some pretty great advice in there. One of my favorites: “It’s status to exhibit your paintings in the Village art show. It’s even more status if you do not sell any because no one understands them.” That’s real, man.
Popova mentions that Karg authored the book while in high school, for which I commend her. Meanwhile, thirteen-year-old Fatimah totally bought into her factory-produced t-shirt’s message celebrating individuality with a skull-and-crossbones screen-print.
Thanks to Brain Pickings.
