September 5, 2024

Some Notes on The White Negro: the “Apocalyptic Orgasm” and Jouissance

In the style of Norman Mailer (and my apologies to him):

In the subterranean layers of our modern metropolis, where the hum of neon lights meets the restless shuffle of discontented souls, there emerges the figure of the hipster—a rebel in search of a cause, an existential drifter navigating the concrete wilderness. In an age suffocated by the sterile embrace of conformity, the hipster seeks not just pleasure but jouissance—that elusive, piercing experience which transcends the banal boundaries of everyday existence.

jouissance is not mere enjoyment; it is the ecstatic rupture of the self, a headlong dive into the abyss where reason surrenders to raw sensation. For the hipster, trapped in the mechanized grid of societal expectations, jouissance becomes the holy grail of authenticity—a way to shatter the mirrors of illusion and glimpse the unvarnished face of reality. It’s the electric thrill coursing through jazz notes at midnight, the silent scream of a graffiti stroke on an untouched wall, the whispered secrets shared in smoke-filled rooms where the world outside fades into oblivion.

In the pursuit of jouissance, the hipster rejects the anaesthetized life prescribed by the suburban dream—2.5 children, a white picket fence, and a nine-to-five slow march toward oblivion. Instead, they embrace the chaotic symphony of existence, where pain and pleasure intertwine in a dance as old as time. It’s not enough to feel; one must overfeel, to push the senses to their breaking point and discover what lies beyond. This is the apocalyptic moment, the crucible in which true identity is forged.

But jouissance is a double-edged sword, a flame that can illuminate or consume. In seeking it, the hipster walks a perilous path between enlightenment and destruction. The highs are celestial, but the lows plunge into the subterranean depths of the soul. Yet, perhaps it is only in these extremes that one can tear away the veils woven by a society obsessed with moderation and mediocrity.

The hipster’s quest is not a selfish hedonism but a defiant stand against the erasure of individuality. In a world that values the mass-produced over the handcrafted, the algorithm over the human touch, jouissance is a rebellion—a reclamation of the primal forces that make us undeniably alive. It’s the heartbeat that refuses to sync with the ticking clock of industrial time, the wild howl in the night that cannot be silenced by walls or laws.

So, in dimly lit cafes and underground galleries, in the hushed moments before dawn when the city sleeps but the soul awakens.

                    

In The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster (1957), Mailer posits the “apocalyptic orgasm” as a crucial element of his larger discussion on the existential plight of modern individuals and the rise of the “white negro” or hipster figure. The apocalyptic orgasm represents a moment of ultimate, transcendent release—an experience that breaks free from the constraints of conventional morality, societal repression, and, ultimately, the fear of death. It is an erotic and psychic state where a person touches the most primal and ecstatic aspect of human existence, one that challenges the bourgeois sense of propriety, security, and rationality.

Mailer’s argument hinges on his belief that in a world shaped by the threat of nuclear annihilation, industrial conformity, and psychological repression, the only way to live authentically is to embrace a radical form of existential rebellion. This rebellion, embodied in the figure of the Hipster, is achieved by adopting the spontaneous, risk-taking, and emotionally intense ethos that Mailer attributes to Black American culture, particularly in the realms of jazz, sexuality, and violence.

The apocalyptic orgasm symbolizes this break from societal norms by offering a profound experience that is both destructive and creative. It obliterates the ego, the structures of modern life, and the individual’s fear of death in one overwhelming moment, forcing a confrontation with the most elemental aspects of existence. In this way, Mailer aligns orgasm with existential transcendence, a rejection of the “square” life that prioritizes stability and survival over intensity and authentic living.

For Mailer, the hipster is a cultural figure who, disillusioned with the sterile conformity of post-war American life, seeks to achieve this kind of primal liberation by identifying with the perceived freedom and vitality of Black culture. The white negro attempts to experience life on the edge of society, embracing danger, violence, and eroticism as avenues to authenticity and away from “bad orgasm [that] imprisons him.” The apocalyptic orgasm, then, becomes both a metaphor for and an actual physical and emotional event in which the hipster can transcend the dehumanizing forces of modern society and momentarily connect with what Mailer views as the deepest, most authentic human impulses.

The apocalyptic orgasm is crucial to Mailer’s construction of the hipster because it encapsulates the the desire to live outside conventional moral frameworks, to embrace extremes of sensation as a form of resistance against the dehumanizing effects of modernity. However, Mailer’s appropriation of Black culture for this figure has been critiqued perhaps most famously by James Baldwin (1961) for its romanticization and oversimplification, as well as for its racial essentialism, which reduces Black identity to a set of stereotypical traits to be adopted by disaffected white youth.

Works Cited

• Mailer, Norman (1959). Advertisements for Myself. New York: Putnam.

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