At my secondary school, a few years ago, “random” was the thing to be. Overnight, whole swathes of teens became “random” and “kooky“; watched the Mighty Boosh; wore colourful socks, and forced the word “cheese” into ill-fitting contexts. It was a veritable blunderbuss of unconventionalism. (I mock with affection, and not to elevate myself: I was earnestly mimicking Richey Edwards in all ways but one.) There’s a touch of this in Martin Howard’s genial ode to eccentricity. He ends with suggestions for nurturing one’s “eccentric tendencies” – “teaching your dog to talk” – but surely yer true, bonafide oddballs never sought to achieve such a grand distinction? It’s a bit like claiming the mantle of unselfconsciousness! Eccentrics, according to Howard, “tend to be cheerful souls“. We could bicker and argue about the term “tend“, but yer Sellers an’ Milligans, Kubricks and Cooks were hardly alight with good cheer. The glory of mavericks is that they’re so out of place we can’t pen ‘em in. Then again, I’m just bitter ‘cos I’m so pathetically dull-minded. Someone leave a comment, please - I need an act to follow.
April 2, 2010 at 10:28 am
I just skimmed Howard’s article, but it seems to me that any attempt to distinguish Eccentrics from Normal People involves a major misunderstanding of eccentricity. Similarly, to make specific suggestions about which eccentric habits to cultivate is missing the point. It’s just setting up a different convention. Like the teenage delight in being ‘random’ which you describe. (though I am a big fan of colourful socks).
If you get enough people together with the same eccentricities, can they still be called eccentricities? Better yet, when you find yourself somewhere where loads of people are pretty odd but in different ways, you realise that actually there is no ‘normal’. Making generalisations about eccentrics is thoroughly dimwitted in my view. But perhaps Howard is trying to cultivate an eccentricity in the field of pointless generalisations.
December 10, 2011 at 2:14 pm
[...] – but also fashionably whimsical comedians, who evince no natural surrealism but wear randomness like an outfit they’re evidently proud of. I’d hesitate to say I miss the days when [...]