Slacker vs. Idler

Moving on from the Generation Jones vs. Generation Obama question, here's another moniker debate for you.

Over at Slate, Marisa Meltzer takes a look at slacker movies from last year (Clerks 2, Mutual Appreciation, The Puffy Chair), and makes a very important point about how, in these and other cinematic tributes to slackerdom, "if male slackers are stuck in a permanent state of adolescence, all deep thoughts and long talks and sleeping in, then women are agents of growing up and getting a grip, two things that could harsh any slacker's mellow." So true, and so unfair!

Even more importantly, Meltzer addresses the philosophical question of what slacking is all about:

Being a slacker isn't actually about underachievement. Slacking is about a different standard of achievement, eschewing corporate work to follow your passion, however obscure or lacking in formation. If what you really want to do is go on tour with your band Hey, That's My Bike!, or spend time in coffee shops making collages for your conceptual zine about Barbie, slacking reminds us that those are valuable pursuits.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I once penned an entire "Idler's Glossary" in order to make the same point. In doing so, however, I decided that -- despite Richard Linklater's noble effort to redeem the term "slacker," I preferred the term "idler." I mean, we do need to distinguish between the underachiever and the alt.achiever, right? So I use "slacker" for the former and "idler" for the latter.

As I put it in the "Glossary," paraphrasing something Oscar Wilde said about Taoism:

Unlike the idler, in whom work and leisure have combined to become something fine, the slacker remains unhappily trapped in that dichotomy.

Meltzer is aware that slackers are prone to being unhappily trapped in this dichotomy, and points out several lame attempts to resolve the tension in these movies. She concludes:

If these movies are meant to celebrate slacking, why must the slackers always give it up at the end? Sure, everyone likes a character arc, but there are many ways to be an adult between the extremes of the wake-and-bake and the morning commute.... After two decades of slackers on film, the genre hasn't grown up -- it's just moved to Brooklyn.

Again, great point. But maybe the problem is that these movies aren't about idlers. They really are about slackers. Has a great movie been made about idlers? Sure, the French New Wave directors made several. Richard Linklater's entire oeuvre (including School of Rock) is about idlers. Perhaps Meltzer is looking for idlers in all the wrong places.

Readers who wish to suggest idler movies, or defend the moniker "slacker," please get in touch.

MORE IDLENESS: The Idler's Glossary (by Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell, published October 08) | Media Diet: Tom Hodgkinson (I interviewed Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson for Utne Reader, 11/1/95) | The Death of a Situationist (I wrote about Guy Debord for Utne Reader, July/August 95) | The Sweetest Hangover (I wrote about hangovers for The Idler in 1996-ish) | Idler Stationery (I wrote a column on idler etiquette for The Idler; these three items on specialized stationery appeared in 1996) | Ludditepalooza (Utne Reader, July/August 96) | Hermenaut of the Month: Oscar Wilde (I wrote about Wilde for Hermenaut in 1997) | Idle Idol: Henry Miller (I wrote about Miller for The Idler in 1997) | Whatever Works, Sucks (I reviewed Meredith Bagby's "Rational Exuberance: The Influence of Generation X on the New Economy" for Hermenaut in 1998) | Hermenaut of the Month: Baudelaire (I wrote about Baudelaire for Hermenaut in 1998) | Lin Yutang (I wrote about Lin Yutang's idler philosophy for Feed in June 1999) | Meet the Hermenauts (Scot McLemee calls Hermenaut the "slacker Salmagundi" in Lingua Franca, July/August 99) | The Idler's Glossary (a preliminary version of the one published in October 2008; this version appeared in The Idler in 1999) | Against Time Clocks (I was a regular contributor to Feed.com; this item appeared in December 1999) | Payload (I reviewed Bruce Tulgan's "Managing Generation X" (Hermenaut.com, 3/28/01) | Our Hives, Ourselves (I wrote about the metaphorization of bee colonies for The Boston Globe, 6/19/05) | Back to Utopia (Boston Globe, 11/20/05) | The Slacktivism of Richard Linklater (Slate, 6/27/07) | Slacker Comedy (Brainiac, 2/21/07) | Slacker vs. Idler (Brainiac, 2/24/07) | Idler Flicks 1 (Brainiac, 2/28/07) | Idler Flicks 2 (Brainiac, 3/1/07) | Idler Lit (Brainiac, 3/2/07) | Salon's Ask the Pilot calls me a slacker Svengali (Salon, 9/28/07) | The Original Generation X: Slackers vs. Idlers (Brainiac, 1/10/08) | Generation PC: Idlers vs. Slackers (Brainiac, 1/22/08) | Drink for Idlers (Brainiac, 6/5/08) | Wordle version of The Idler's Glossary | The Idler's Glossary -- sneak peek at cover by Seth (8/19/08)