The Pursuit Of Joy (OR, Why Andrew W.K. is a brony we should all aspire to be more like, OR, Pinkie Pie: The Analysis) · 12:14am Sep 27th, 2012
I want you to remember all the things that I said
I want you to remember – you’re not better off dead
You only have a minute to go back in the line
To bring it on home – and make up your mind
I want you to remember what you came here to do
I want you to remember that I’m talking ‘bout YOU…
~Andrew W.K., “I Love Music”
In the 10th anniversary edition booklet of his debut album I Get Wet, there’s a rather detailed interview reflecting on the album a decade down the road. At one point in the interview, the journalist makes the mistake of implying that the things Andrew sings about – having a good time, having self-confidence, ‘partying hard’ – provide a sense of frivolous escapism in the wake of hard economic times. He means it in the best possible way, but Andrew W.K. shifts gears so hard it’s scary: Pinkamena happens for just a minute. The man takes off both pairs of sunglasses he was wearing on top of one another, the smile fades, and he calmly, eloquently tears the journalist apart for insinuating that joy is anything less than an essential part of the human experience. The journalist apologizes, it is accepted, and the interview resumes as normal.
Later, Andrew would tweet, “There’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure – only pleasure”. True words, friends.
But it was that interview – that moment where Andrew grinds the gears to a halt to make sure everyone knows just how important the concept of Joy is – that I really began to understand what he’s been saying ever since coming out as a full-blown brony. You know, all that stuff about being the physical embodiment of Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie Pie’s Smile song actually changed my opinion of the character. Before, I viewed her as a free spirit, an extreme extrovert, and a very positive entity (albeit with the occasional psychotic break), but bordering on “adult child” tendencies.
I’m a product of my society, but I’m self-reflexive enough to turn and say, “Why do I automatically come to the phrase “adult child” when it comes to Pinkie Pie?” Is the concept of ever-present joy childish? Immature, and therefore to be avoided? I think there’s something wrong with the notion that because something provides an explosion of positivity instead of cynicism and negativity, that it is automatically childish and to be avoided. Let’s take it a step further: if we just let be the notion that something exuberant and positive is automatically “childish”, then I suppose the most mature role model we can imagine becomes Heath Ledger’s Joker, an absolute of chaos and negativity, working himself to the bone to try and tear down any notion of idealism. The human race is hardly a sliding scale from Pinkie Pie to the Joker: individually, we’re too nuanced to be slotted into a hole like that. But when did it become too much to ask for us to take a cue from the former instead? I don’t find unending cynicism “cool”. Do you? But then, I say much the same for anything more interested in putting negativity out into the world than positivity.
But back to Pinks.
When I heard the Smile song, it gave me greater insight through the windows of the character’s psyche. Pinkie Pie just wants you to be happy. Isn’t that something? It seems so simple, but then why is it so exceptional? Pinkie is often played off as the court jester, but if you think about it, her ideals are about as Kingly as they come. If the Joker (or, hell, Discord) represents chaos, Pinkie represents the spreading of happiness, and more to the point, the message that unlike sadness, there doesn’t need to be a reason for joy. Happiness is, by default, a more preferable state than sadness, and you don’t need to try and justify it.
And I’m not just talking about telling your friends a new joke you heard and seeing them grin for a few seconds before you move on to other things. I’m talking about living your life with the goal of making the world around you just that much brighter.
I’m talking about things like Bronies For Good, who summon up our very own community’s National Treasury levels of goodwill to help those in need. I’m talking about the Make A Wish foundation, who go to extreme, dare-I-say Pinkie Pie-ish levels to animate the dreams of people who got dealt a bad hand.
I’m talking about every one of you who has a chance to batter down others for the way they dress, the way they talk, or what they believe – and doesn’t take the chance. But that comes down to not being an asshole, really; not being poisoned by our ‘normative’ culture’s mean-spirited and exclusionary practices. What I’m really talking about here is taking the next step beyond that.
According to Andrew W.K., he does what he does (Going around the world and playing high-energy music for people) because it gives people joy. Because, according to him, “there is no part of the human experience, if it connects you to joy, that is anything other than godly.” Joy is, it seems, literally his religion. And it takes all colours, creeds, orientations and aspirations. The world needs someone like Andrew W.K., able to be an absolute, some kind of positive spirit. One of his concerts is the closest you’ll get to a Pinkie Party.
But he doesn’t have to be the only one.
I’ve said before that as bronies, by definition we’ve already transgressed what’s considered “acceptable” and “normative” in a society that’s obsessed with tearing people down for frivolous reasons and just generally being mean without conscience or legitimate reason. Yeah, we’ve got a few bad apples, but I guarantee you that the orchards are fresher in here than out there, so to speak.
So, like I’ve been saying, let’s be the example. Right now, we’re the backup chorus to Pinkie’s Smile song crescendo, but why can’t we take a nod from Pinkie and Andrew themselves?
I believe that hate corrupts in a very real way, like a toxic cloud surrounding the person spewing vitriol. But if that has merit, doesn’t the opposite also have to be true? Spreading joy is a healer.
Obviously, not all of us are going to be able to sing on stage for a living, or be able to summon up flash-mobs of ponies just by cantering around Ponyville and singing about smiling. But let’s look at art for a second – art being defined anything that you create, I think. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a musician, a graphic artist, an author, a video game designer, someone involved in the movie business – it’s art. And by putting it out into the world, you’ll find there will inevitably be people who will like it. It will give them joy. You, in doing so, have sent joy out into the world. (Unless it’s hate-literature like Mein Kampf or something, in which case it has a very negative effect on the world around it and you should critically re-examine your life.)
Hell, just look at this site: it’s fan-fiction for a specific series, much smaller-time than an actual published work, and yet it’s brought me enough joy that I feel the need to thank personally too many authors to name. To bring one to mind right now – thank you, device heretic, for writing Eternal and bringing me joy (as well as helping me become a better writer in turn). Thank you, guy who wrote Naked Singularity, for making me laugh my arse off time and time again, and giving me joy. See? That wasn’t so hard. I could go on and on.
I’m not just talking about relatively “tame” fare like Friendship Is Magic. I’m talking about anything from bubblegum-pop to death metal; anything from Super Mario to God Of War. To use an extreme example, Cannibal Corpse might sing (growl?) about subjects too abjectly grotesque to describe here in any manner of detail, but they have many fans, and they routinely give them joy – so they’re good for the world. Same with the gory video games: Mortal Kombat and Dead Space might show dismemberments in gruesome detail, but so long as they have entertained just one player, then they have brought joy into the world, and it was worth it.
I make no bones about the fact that I love art at its most basic level. I venerate it. Be it a painting or a graphic novel, or a video game or a good book, these are works meant to inspire by their very being. Fantasy is an incredibly powerful thing, both a reflection of the world we live in, and the world we would like to see. It doesn’t matter if the story in question is Eternal or Cupcakes. Yes, I went there: Cupcakes might have disgusted a lot of people, but just like death metal, it has also inspired, even if you’re not a fan of what it’s inspired.
I also make no secret of the fact that I have little love for people who will antagonize others simply for transgressing the “normative”. If the positive energy, of charity, art or otherwise, is the gateway to inspiration and happiness, then this attitude is the opposite. It slams the door on all of those things. When you choose to put abject negativity into the world rather than positivity, you slam the door on the things that make life worth living. So it might not be physical violence, but it most certainly brings death.
At the risk of sounding like that one Jim Carrey movie, I choose life; I choose possibilities.
And that kind of joy – that which comes at the expense of someone else’s joy – is a corrupted joy, poisoned by a willfull blindness to how it impacts the world around it. To take it back to Pinks, this is actually why some fans recoiled from Pinkie’s characterization in Luna Eclipsed: because while Pinkie’s whole “it’s fun to be scared” shtick certainly entertained herself, it made Luna feel like Parasprite droppings. In that respect, I do feel it was out-of-character, given all I’ve said about the character so far. However, it’s a decent illustration of something we see all the time, of people who get their kicks from making others feel like crap. Can this really be called ‘pure’ joy if it produces the same results as hate?
At the risk of losing anyone who wasn’t prepared for me to go this deep, I’m actually reminded somewhat of people who have had near-death experiences. The tunnel of white light, long-departed loved ones beckoning them in, the whole kit and caboodle. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious, atheist, or anything in between – this is what they came back with. There are numerous commonalities between peoples’ experiences, one of which is this idea that while in the light, they were love, incarnate. That this concept that we know as love is the fabric that binds the entire universe.
I’m still not entirely sure what I think of all that, and I’m not honestly sure that I’m even meant to, but it got me thinking. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Maybe that rush, that tingling of the spine we get when we see something truly remarkable, some act of kindness or charity, is just a glimpse of what perfection really is. And anything else – the pollution of blind hatred, of binary thinking that keeps us divided, of snap judgments and crimes against our fellow – maybe all that is just a deviation from the path. Not speaking religiously, spiritually, or anything like that. I’m just talking about love. In its purest, most distilled form.
To spread joy is, to I think, express your love for creativity, inspiration and life. And personalities like Pinkie Pie and the human race’s very own Andrew W.K. are acutely aware of this. Follow their example: don’t wait until tomorrow. Do it today. Go to that one friend who can never seem to hold their head above water, and lend them a shoulder. Post a story, online or others, that will get people to engage, think, and enjoy themselves. Call a relative you don't see often enough. Spread joy.
So yeah. You can say I appreciate Pinkie Pie’s character a lot more now than when I first started watching this show.
Party hard, bronies. Torrents out.
Never delete this. Never
My friend, this truly is beautiful.
The truths in this are so numerous, it's insane; but not as insane as the truth of those very truths in this blog.
Please, friend, never loose focus of your advice, stay true on and on, forever more.
Stay true, my friends.
1345789
Thanks! I'm glad it meant something to you. (It's been a while since I checked my notifications, excuse the week-late reply
)
1375136
Phah, I just checked on this now, this is the second time since I had made my account over 10 months ago that I have even checked them for myself....
Your arguement is invalid......