| pirate festival as social meme |
[Jan. 21st, 2010|12:57 am] |
This is more of a pondering based on my own observations than it is any kind of statement of theory. It's more like me solidifying my hunch. I'm wondering what observations you have had about the phenomenon of piracy and particularly pirate festivals in the modern (or should I say post-modern) world. Having grown up in Tampa I was always aware of the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It was a solid fixture in the year, but back in those days it was mostly seen as a family day. We would have the annual invasion of the city by Jose Gaspar and his mystic krewe complete w gunshots fired and gold coins tossed to children along Bayshore Avenue. There were the Rough Riders, the pirates and of course various floats from local organizations and lots of vendors selling hot dogs and Cokes and small plastic or paper cups of beer. Absent was the beadlust, the shirts flying, breasts dangling before the gawking eyes of makeshift pirates or penises held over green Bayshore Avenue lawns or Hyde Park's back alleys. Back then there was just one parade, the parade proper, and not a whole complex of related events supporting a huge concept which aped Guavaween as it aped Mardi Gras at every turn.
As a child I took it for granted that it was as old as Tampa, not knowing that the festival linking to the character of Gaspar began as a May Day celebration in 1904. Later the parade was moved to early February where it overlapped with carnival season and finally it has moved to the last part of January where it tends to usher in carnival season. When I was young I had no idea about what I have come to call festival cycles. I had not internalized the rhythms of the seasons and folk rites which would have been written almost genetically on the mind of a pre-20th century American. So, when I finally learned about the concept of carnival and it's occurence prior to Lent, the thought of Gaspar's invasion about that time seemed like a happy accident. Obviously, the more I studied it the more I realized the arbitrary nature of it's founding and development. Like New Year's Day which at one point had been moved from April 1st to January, here was a holiday that was more of a summer event that was pushed back to carnival season. So, it was not always a natural carnival event. Likewise, I feel it has developed less like a traditional local festival and more like a modern invented holiday as a few popular memes have supported it. But, in order to discuss that transformation I should first ponder what seems to me to be a popular social trend, that is the marketing of the pirate ethos on a large scale.
Back in the glory days of Tampa piracy if you went into a TG&Y or Eckerd Drugs or Woolco in the time between Christmas and Groundhog's Day you would find very little of anything festive. The Christmas had all been taken down and there were no red and pink boxed candies or Valentines until maybe the first week of February. Now if I walk into a local Walgreens or CVS I will usually find a whole aisle of pirate-themed merchandise up just after Christmas (this year it was before Epiphany). It is not the central aisle of the store. That is reserved for Valentine's Day (which is already up). Still, I can go buy jolly roger flags and car flags, fake pirate ships, pirate window decor, shirts and mugs that say Gasparilla and tons and tons of beads. It's funny how people will go and buy tons of beads to wear to an event that mostly revolves on the idea of 'getting bootie' from the pirates themselves. Bead fervor is a strange thing in itself and I'd actually love to find a modern history on that. It seems that Tampa stores know that there is a treasure to be found in this kind of fare. I can walk through the nicer parts of town and find Gasparilla wreaths on most of the doors. So, I'm wondering how much of this is local tradition and how much of this is enabled by marketing, entertainment and other trends.
Enter the memes. I believe that some of the forces loosed in the modern culture that have helped Gasparilla evolve into its present manifestation are, the Mardi Gras wanna-be tone and tendency of Guavaween, universal bead fetishism, the marketing of pirate-themed movies, esp. Pirates Of The Caribbean and spinoffs and finally the promotion of the pirate theme in the general culture primarily through party stores and through internet memes like pirate speak applications. I know, this hunch of mine might seem sketchy or far-fetched, but I definitely feel that the current projections of pirate identity in the culture at large have taken Jose Gaspar hostage and tried to give him a post-modern makeover.
I strongly believe that the form of the Gasparilla festival itself in recent years, having moved from a one-day family event, to a whole marketing concept incorporating several events has developed along the lines of diversification that we found in the years of cable television, moving into the internet age. We went from a dozen or so local channels to hundreds. We went from one Star Trek, to a whole array of Star Treks. Nothing, it seems, could remain itself very long. Everything had to grow, splinter off, become a doppleganger of itself. There was endless spin off, nonstop reproduction incorporating subtle change in each reiteration. Nothing could remain the same. Everything was constantly reboxing itself and adding a new prize, color, shape or flavor. Everything was a video game. Everything had to be breakfast cereal. Everything was manga. It seemed there was less attention given to being in time, deeply savoring a thing for what it was. There had to be a constant whir, strobe lights and loud music, laughter, romance, speed. Diversion became the thing. Enter mega-entertainment. For those who couldn't endure the day parade with the kids, now there was the adult night out. There was the clubbing up of Gasparilla, the ghetto-izing of the grotto.
Now, I'm not saying this is all bad. There are still aspects of Gasparilla that I love. I hope it will remain a Tampa thing. However, I can no longer look at it as simply a local festival when I feel like it has been injected with a more popular kind of social piracy. Also, in researching the history of Gasparilla I've come to understand that it is only one (albeit notable) of several other pirate festivals around the country. Also, I have learned that Renn fests around the country are now having pirate theme days. In one sense there is a feeling of rootedness in Gasparilla as a Tampa tradition, but there is also a sense of inventedness to it. I guess I'm willing to champion it for what it is and also acknowledge the more general trends I see carrying it along. |
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