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Bohemian Manifesto: A Field Guide to Living on the Edge
Bohemianism is a way of life, a state of mind, an atmosphere. It is not a trend, its a timeless movement. It is about living beyond convention. BOHEMIAN MANIFESTO explores and joyfully celebrates the creativity, the originality, and the splendor of a lifestyle and spirit shared by free-thinking, free-living artists, poets, writers, sculptors, musicians, and intellectuals. This is the first book to distill and categorize all the ingredients of Bohemian life. In a witty and engaging style, Laren Stover examines the contents of a Bohemians closet, bathroom, and bookshelf. She explains the allure of absinthe, why it isnt wise to leave a Bohemian unattended in your home--you could return to find nude nymphs painted on your lamp shades--and how to identify what type of Bohemian you might be.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2004
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1543 people want to read
About the author
Laren Stover
8 books113 followersA classically trained artist with literary DNA, Laren Stover writes fiction and nonfiction. She is a melancholy connoisseur, loves to visit faerie wishing wells, is editor-at-large of Faerie Magazine and writes for several publications including The New York Observer and The New York Times.
Laren's first style book The Bombshell Manual of Style (Hyperion), illustrated by Ruben Toledo, was pivotal in exploding Bombshell consciousness into a popular genre of its own when it was published in 2001. Laren has deconstructed the incandescence of Bohemians in Bohemian Manifesto, A Field Guide to Living on the Edge (Bulfinch, 2004 and a new edition with Echo Point Books 2019) a book that captured the attention of a wide variety of readers from Joel Grey to Tom Robbins to Richard E. Grant. Her novel, Pluto, Animal Lover (HarperCollins), was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and she was named finalist by Anne Tyler for The Loft Award. It was recently optioned by actor Robin Wright.
Laren has done readings/interviews on NPR with Leonard Lopate, The Early Show with Bryant Gumbal and Lisa Birnbach, CNN with Rachel Wells, The Caroline Rhea Show, WOR-TV, Oxygen and more, and her work widely reviewed. Laren has received fellowships to Yaddo and Hawthornden Castle funded by Drue Heintz. Her awards include the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant for fiction and the Dana Award. She has written for The New York Observer, The New York Times, Bergdorf Goodman Magazine, Bomb, German Vogue and her fiction and poetry have appeared in various literary magazines including mrbellersneighborhood.com and Guernica Magazine and her dramatic works performed at venues including Naked Angels Theatre, EST, The Chateau Marmont and the Algonquin. Laren's libretto for Lowell Liebermann, Appalachian Liebesleider, premiered at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation.
Nick Tosches writes: “Reading Laren Stover is an engagement of the senses…a seduction of the senses—transporting you to the magical and softly illuminating place whence she writes.”
Follow her on INSTAGRAM: Faerie_Style
and
bohemian_manifesto_book
Laren's first style book The Bombshell Manual of Style (Hyperion), illustrated by Ruben Toledo, was pivotal in exploding Bombshell consciousness into a popular genre of its own when it was published in 2001. Laren has deconstructed the incandescence of Bohemians in Bohemian Manifesto, A Field Guide to Living on the Edge (Bulfinch, 2004 and a new edition with Echo Point Books 2019) a book that captured the attention of a wide variety of readers from Joel Grey to Tom Robbins to Richard E. Grant. Her novel, Pluto, Animal Lover (HarperCollins), was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and she was named finalist by Anne Tyler for The Loft Award. It was recently optioned by actor Robin Wright.
Laren has done readings/interviews on NPR with Leonard Lopate, The Early Show with Bryant Gumbal and Lisa Birnbach, CNN with Rachel Wells, The Caroline Rhea Show, WOR-TV, Oxygen and more, and her work widely reviewed. Laren has received fellowships to Yaddo and Hawthornden Castle funded by Drue Heintz. Her awards include the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant for fiction and the Dana Award. She has written for The New York Observer, The New York Times, Bergdorf Goodman Magazine, Bomb, German Vogue and her fiction and poetry have appeared in various literary magazines including mrbellersneighborhood.com and Guernica Magazine and her dramatic works performed at venues including Naked Angels Theatre, EST, The Chateau Marmont and the Algonquin. Laren's libretto for Lowell Liebermann, Appalachian Liebesleider, premiered at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation.
Nick Tosches writes: “Reading Laren Stover is an engagement of the senses…a seduction of the senses—transporting you to the magical and softly illuminating place whence she writes.”
Follow her on INSTAGRAM: Faerie_Style
and
bohemian_manifesto_book
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
March 9, 2010
It had been an average day so far. I had forced myself to stay awake through all of my classes (which, due to my insomnia, is always a plus) but the fact that I had spilled the coffee used to facilitate this marvelous act all over the floor of my car brought the day back down to a zero – not really good, but not terrible either. So I pulled into the parking lot of Big Lots, convinced that I needed paper towel and NOTHING ELSE – and then there they were. Right inside the entrance were stacks of gleaming books, books with three-dollar price tags, begging for love. I told myself I would only buy one book, I would be good. But what to choose, what to choose? And then, as if destined by some fanciful God, my eyes fell upon an adorable water color of a few friends sharing thoughts, drinks and smokes, of exchanging words and raw emotion. The gold lettering proudly proclaimed “Bohemian Manifesto” as if it were the most natural title in the world, as if that sort of book appeared more commonly then a weight-loss manual. However, upon reading, I found the book is a weight-loss manual, though one of a different kind.
It preaches a life lived for oneself, for art and creation, for understanding and confusion, for expression and most of all life just for life. In the bohemian world gone are the pressures of conforming to society, the struggle to maintain the status quo. The weight of the world is lifted off the shoulder of the bohemians, and as such they are free to experience it as they wish.
Stover’s “field guide” reads like a DIY or self help book. It centers around five main bohemian identities, and then delves into depth about each specific breed. She discusses how they look, what their living space looks like, how they view the world, what they eat, what they read, what they wear, how they cut their hair –every aspect you could possible want to know about a classic Dandy or Beat, for example, is within the pages of this book. Stover is a talented writer – there is no question there. Her descriptions transplant you from a dreary bedroom to a New York loft where the walls are covered with art and sketches, where the scent of patchouli is so thick you practically swim through it, where you find yourself listening to a poet express through rhyme how she always thought subways and suicide were so closely related; and as you listen, sipping your wine or, if you are lucky, absinthe, you will share a smile with the rough looking man in a hand knit cap sitting on the floor next to, only to have him approach you after the reading to ask you if you would be so kind as to pose for him, as he finds you “utterly inspiring.” However, what she doesn’t have you thinking about is that your stomach is probably twisting in knots as you haven’t really eaten anything lately, how cold your feet are considering you only own one pair of shoes at the moment and they are black ballet slippers, and how you haven’t had a full-body bath in a few weeks since the tub you share with a few roommates clogged up and no one can be bothered between rehearsals and showings to fix it. In other words, bohemian life isn’t always as unclouded and inspiring as Stover seems to paint it to be – but, then again, I believe that life to a bohemian is viewed MUCH differently then that of someone so used to the bourgeois world, and because of these difference these "sufferings" are little price to pay for inspiration, liberation, creation.
This book captivated me – I have always been a bohemian in spirit, and I feel as if this book gave me the bouncing off point to explore my own creativity and spontaneity. This doesn’t mean I will follow, step by step, every suggestion in this book, for that would be silly. A true bohemian follows his own path and, while he appreciates being shown a certain way he could take, in the end he makes his own decision. This book is not a “how to become a bohemian” book – I think that is where many people find their problems with it. While at first it seems like that, with its intricate descriptions of what clothes to wear and novels to read, I think it is simply for entertainment only, for ideas to try an information on classically known bohemian types. Does this mean that all bohemians will fit into these categories? Of course not – that would be like saying that all the cookies in the world are included in a cookbook titled “Top Twenty Best Known Cookies.” Instead there are endless amounts of hybrids and mixtures, or original prints and mass produced copies. None is better or worse – they just simply are. I appreciate this book for opening my eyes to a world I thought was just a dream, a world that existed, to me, only in coffee shops and New York theaters. This book helped me understand anyone can live life with their own bohemian ideals, regardless of location. Now I see the coffee stain in my car and remember not the rush I was in to get to class, but instead the night that I stayed awake just to see the pink of the sunrise so as to describe it properly for my latest short story.
It preaches a life lived for oneself, for art and creation, for understanding and confusion, for expression and most of all life just for life. In the bohemian world gone are the pressures of conforming to society, the struggle to maintain the status quo. The weight of the world is lifted off the shoulder of the bohemians, and as such they are free to experience it as they wish.
Stover’s “field guide” reads like a DIY or self help book. It centers around five main bohemian identities, and then delves into depth about each specific breed. She discusses how they look, what their living space looks like, how they view the world, what they eat, what they read, what they wear, how they cut their hair –every aspect you could possible want to know about a classic Dandy or Beat, for example, is within the pages of this book. Stover is a talented writer – there is no question there. Her descriptions transplant you from a dreary bedroom to a New York loft where the walls are covered with art and sketches, where the scent of patchouli is so thick you practically swim through it, where you find yourself listening to a poet express through rhyme how she always thought subways and suicide were so closely related; and as you listen, sipping your wine or, if you are lucky, absinthe, you will share a smile with the rough looking man in a hand knit cap sitting on the floor next to, only to have him approach you after the reading to ask you if you would be so kind as to pose for him, as he finds you “utterly inspiring.” However, what she doesn’t have you thinking about is that your stomach is probably twisting in knots as you haven’t really eaten anything lately, how cold your feet are considering you only own one pair of shoes at the moment and they are black ballet slippers, and how you haven’t had a full-body bath in a few weeks since the tub you share with a few roommates clogged up and no one can be bothered between rehearsals and showings to fix it. In other words, bohemian life isn’t always as unclouded and inspiring as Stover seems to paint it to be – but, then again, I believe that life to a bohemian is viewed MUCH differently then that of someone so used to the bourgeois world, and because of these difference these "sufferings" are little price to pay for inspiration, liberation, creation.
This book captivated me – I have always been a bohemian in spirit, and I feel as if this book gave me the bouncing off point to explore my own creativity and spontaneity. This doesn’t mean I will follow, step by step, every suggestion in this book, for that would be silly. A true bohemian follows his own path and, while he appreciates being shown a certain way he could take, in the end he makes his own decision. This book is not a “how to become a bohemian” book – I think that is where many people find their problems with it. While at first it seems like that, with its intricate descriptions of what clothes to wear and novels to read, I think it is simply for entertainment only, for ideas to try an information on classically known bohemian types. Does this mean that all bohemians will fit into these categories? Of course not – that would be like saying that all the cookies in the world are included in a cookbook titled “Top Twenty Best Known Cookies.” Instead there are endless amounts of hybrids and mixtures, or original prints and mass produced copies. None is better or worse – they just simply are. I appreciate this book for opening my eyes to a world I thought was just a dream, a world that existed, to me, only in coffee shops and New York theaters. This book helped me understand anyone can live life with their own bohemian ideals, regardless of location. Now I see the coffee stain in my car and remember not the rush I was in to get to class, but instead the night that I stayed awake just to see the pink of the sunrise so as to describe it properly for my latest short story.
August 15, 2009
Let’s face it: not every “bohemian” is an iconoclastic maverick. Not everyone can be Baudelaire, or Picasso, or Omar Khayyam, or David Bowie. Not everyone has the courage, audacity, intellect, and creativity to challenge their time’s mores and present new ways of looking at life and living it. But there are some people (actually, there a lot of them) who deep down want to be that maverick, who just don’t want to be put in the same scale as the rest of society. They find “mainstream” to be too canonical, stifling, and just plain boring. They’re consumed by the need to differentiate themselves from others. They’re round and they don’t want to get mixed up with the squares. They’re certain that they’re above the masses and have a better taste in just about everything, and they’re eager to prove it. And yet, they can’t quite pull it off. The poor souls just don’t have much to show to separate themselves from the herds. Oh no, what should they do?
They need not despair. There is this book: a bohemian manifesto and a field guide to living on the edge. Never mind the contradiction of writing down the rules of how to be cultural/social/intellectual outlaws and radicals and deviants and subversives. It’s not about any of that. It’s much simpler than that, and it’s really doable. You just need to look the look. Really. This book tells you exactly what to wear, how to decorate your home, what to eat and drink, what to read and watch, what pets to own, and how to love and fuck. Everything is laid out for you. It’s very, very detailed, and it has some cool illustrations as well. You’ll feel so chic and hip and rugged if you follow its instructions.
This book is highbrow and well researched. It’s not for the crude and vulgar Venice Beach variety of bohemians. It’s for those who want to show that, when it comes to expressing their individuality, they have more imagination than dreadlocks or a tattoo right above the crack of their ass. I haven’t lived in New York and Paris, but in London this book would be a great read for the hipsters who hang out in Shoreditch. They’re easy to spot: boys who spend an hour in front of mirror trying to make their hair look like they haven’t spent any time on it, and girls who go to pain deciding on wearing something that shows that they don’t care about what they wear. They’re artists and poets and intellectuals; they’re creative; they’re “interesting people” by definition – who can deny any of that? – but still, they could use some of the advice here.
I could not believe how unabashedly shallow and superficial this book was. Stover has no intention of disguising her advice and presenting it in way to make the reader think that she wants to say something more than it’s-all-about-the-image. This book is an instruction manual for pretention. Those who want to prove that they’re “different” by looking different and then putting it on display can read and follow this book. I’ve seen plenty of them. I wish them good luck. It’s not an easy task. Hard as they try, in the end they end up looking the same. They constitute another mainstream – only smaller in size.
They need not despair. There is this book: a bohemian manifesto and a field guide to living on the edge. Never mind the contradiction of writing down the rules of how to be cultural/social/intellectual outlaws and radicals and deviants and subversives. It’s not about any of that. It’s much simpler than that, and it’s really doable. You just need to look the look. Really. This book tells you exactly what to wear, how to decorate your home, what to eat and drink, what to read and watch, what pets to own, and how to love and fuck. Everything is laid out for you. It’s very, very detailed, and it has some cool illustrations as well. You’ll feel so chic and hip and rugged if you follow its instructions.
This book is highbrow and well researched. It’s not for the crude and vulgar Venice Beach variety of bohemians. It’s for those who want to show that, when it comes to expressing their individuality, they have more imagination than dreadlocks or a tattoo right above the crack of their ass. I haven’t lived in New York and Paris, but in London this book would be a great read for the hipsters who hang out in Shoreditch. They’re easy to spot: boys who spend an hour in front of mirror trying to make their hair look like they haven’t spent any time on it, and girls who go to pain deciding on wearing something that shows that they don’t care about what they wear. They’re artists and poets and intellectuals; they’re creative; they’re “interesting people” by definition – who can deny any of that? – but still, they could use some of the advice here.
I could not believe how unabashedly shallow and superficial this book was. Stover has no intention of disguising her advice and presenting it in way to make the reader think that she wants to say something more than it’s-all-about-the-image. This book is an instruction manual for pretention. Those who want to prove that they’re “different” by looking different and then putting it on display can read and follow this book. I’ve seen plenty of them. I wish them good luck. It’s not an easy task. Hard as they try, in the end they end up looking the same. They constitute another mainstream – only smaller in size.
November 28, 2010
While American feminists were attempting to nail down equal pay and maternity leave, French feminists were advancing theory into the realms of psychoanalysis, linguistics, and the politics of language. For Julia Kristeva, all of signification can be located on a continuum, with the semiotic occupying one pole and the symbolic the other.
The semiotic is closely associated with the infant's babbling state, with our pre-Oedipal union with the maternal body, with our bodily drives, urges, rhythms, tones, and movements as these interact or merge with those of the maternal form and her movements, rhythms, tones, urges and drives.
At the other end of the spectrum of signification looms the symbolic, associated with grammar and, more fundamentally, with denotation. The symbolic makes all reference, denotative meaning, possible. It thus facilitates fixed meanings, reification, even totalitarianism.
If we are opposed to totalitarianism, we may find ourselves on the far semiotic pole of the spectrum, thrusting our hips while chanting "O baby, O baby." At the other end of the spectum we may find non-emotive legislation allowing the extermination of, say, Jews or polar bears or instituting a ten-year prison sentence for spitting on the street. [If there are no small crimes there will be no big crimes wrote Lord Shang (商君书), one of China's first totalitarians.]
All signification involves some degree of both the semiotic and the symbolic. Without the symbolic, all signification would not proceed beyond the babblings of an infant or a psychotic. Without the semiotic, all signification might be mathematically exact but humanly empty.
The realm of signification we enter upon opening Laren Stover's Bohemian Manifesto is an artistic one, a world of painters, sculptors, magicians and musicians at play in an embrace breaking down the fixed significations of culture and of artistic cliché, an embrace where formlessness and form eternally find themselves fornicating with one another, a reversion back to our absolute union with the voluptuous, nude, nuturing, fecund and warm mass of the maternal form, babbling our hours-long songs of ourselves, babbling in the sense that long, bop apocalyptic sax flights and starving, hysterical, naked howls and heavenly connections of mantras dissolving into light-body forms of the Goddess are babblings.
So, Stover, though writing about Bohemian style, is not writing about imitation, but about living out that cool, white-hot moment of soul jizz.
Reading Stover brings to mind another volume about artists: The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz, his brilliant exposé of the Balkanized psyches of state-sponsored poets and novelists. Like Stover's gang of artists, his, when carefree college youth in Vilnius, were Hell bent on defying artistic clichés. However, then came the Russians, the Germans, and then the Russians again, and those of his peers who survived the war often found themselves in the role of artist sponsored by a bureau of the totalitarian state. Suddenly, their souls and art were defined by the oppressive weight of political conformity they must constantly press up against in order to feel free, all the while maintaing a careful balancing act between artistic urges and the propaganda needs of the state. Many of them resorted to suicide.
It would be unimaginable to think of any of Stover's bohemians pulling the plug. They are having too much fun. One might disappear behind a door in a stage set of A Midsummer Night's Dream only to pop up behind a magician's cloak on another stage. Reading the two books together offers the reader insight into Kristeva's understanding of the politics of language and of how the psychology and role of the artist changes in relation to the weight of oppression. One begins to wonder if Stover's American artists, some of whom define themelves by drinking absinthe, are not also held captive, shackled by a sense of freedom their Balkan predecessors, the very ones who did themselves in after having defined themselves by having survived Auschwitz, might find too liberating.
If you like, call me désengagé, but personally, I'll stick with the less politicized, American, particularly the Waikiki-beach-boy breed, of bohemian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvYNW...
The semiotic is closely associated with the infant's babbling state, with our pre-Oedipal union with the maternal body, with our bodily drives, urges, rhythms, tones, and movements as these interact or merge with those of the maternal form and her movements, rhythms, tones, urges and drives.
At the other end of the spectrum of signification looms the symbolic, associated with grammar and, more fundamentally, with denotation. The symbolic makes all reference, denotative meaning, possible. It thus facilitates fixed meanings, reification, even totalitarianism.
If we are opposed to totalitarianism, we may find ourselves on the far semiotic pole of the spectrum, thrusting our hips while chanting "O baby, O baby." At the other end of the spectum we may find non-emotive legislation allowing the extermination of, say, Jews or polar bears or instituting a ten-year prison sentence for spitting on the street. [If there are no small crimes there will be no big crimes wrote Lord Shang (商君书), one of China's first totalitarians.]
All signification involves some degree of both the semiotic and the symbolic. Without the symbolic, all signification would not proceed beyond the babblings of an infant or a psychotic. Without the semiotic, all signification might be mathematically exact but humanly empty.
The realm of signification we enter upon opening Laren Stover's Bohemian Manifesto is an artistic one, a world of painters, sculptors, magicians and musicians at play in an embrace breaking down the fixed significations of culture and of artistic cliché, an embrace where formlessness and form eternally find themselves fornicating with one another, a reversion back to our absolute union with the voluptuous, nude, nuturing, fecund and warm mass of the maternal form, babbling our hours-long songs of ourselves, babbling in the sense that long, bop apocalyptic sax flights and starving, hysterical, naked howls and heavenly connections of mantras dissolving into light-body forms of the Goddess are babblings.
So, Stover, though writing about Bohemian style, is not writing about imitation, but about living out that cool, white-hot moment of soul jizz.
Reading Stover brings to mind another volume about artists: The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz, his brilliant exposé of the Balkanized psyches of state-sponsored poets and novelists. Like Stover's gang of artists, his, when carefree college youth in Vilnius, were Hell bent on defying artistic clichés. However, then came the Russians, the Germans, and then the Russians again, and those of his peers who survived the war often found themselves in the role of artist sponsored by a bureau of the totalitarian state. Suddenly, their souls and art were defined by the oppressive weight of political conformity they must constantly press up against in order to feel free, all the while maintaing a careful balancing act between artistic urges and the propaganda needs of the state. Many of them resorted to suicide.
It would be unimaginable to think of any of Stover's bohemians pulling the plug. They are having too much fun. One might disappear behind a door in a stage set of A Midsummer Night's Dream only to pop up behind a magician's cloak on another stage. Reading the two books together offers the reader insight into Kristeva's understanding of the politics of language and of how the psychology and role of the artist changes in relation to the weight of oppression. One begins to wonder if Stover's American artists, some of whom define themelves by drinking absinthe, are not also held captive, shackled by a sense of freedom their Balkan predecessors, the very ones who did themselves in after having defined themselves by having survived Auschwitz, might find too liberating.
If you like, call me désengagé, but personally, I'll stick with the less politicized, American, particularly the Waikiki-beach-boy breed, of bohemian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvYNW...
June 28, 2012
I can see people being offended by this book for illustrating perceived stereotypes, but to that all I have to say is: OMG STOP TAKING YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY. And also: YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT.
I loved this book, it was a lot of fun, there's great information here, wonderful illustrations by Izak, and it turned out to be a perfect birthday present to top off a pretty perfect birthday weekend.
This is a keeper.
I loved this book, it was a lot of fun, there's great information here, wonderful illustrations by Izak, and it turned out to be a perfect birthday present to top off a pretty perfect birthday weekend.
This is a keeper.
June 26, 2007
if you take it as a parody, then you can snicker accordingly. if she is serious, then it is, so help me, apalling. either way, and against my better judgement, i enjoyed it.
August 5, 2016
This book was not what I expected. Maybe I should have expected so, I'd read that it was defining five types of bohemians (like so many brands): Nouveau, Beat, Zen, Gypsy, and Dandy. The large middle section on lifestyle reads like some sort of campy advertisement for each of these personas.
Nouveaus are the bohemians who have money and want more, corollary: yuppies who think they have style, the rich who think they know art and buy Bankskys for hundreds of thousands of dollars but don't have an idea what revolt or rebellion really means because that would threaten their grip on money. To call this group a bohemian (even though it is heavily mentioned at the start of the book that bohemians are always poor and learn much from being poor and are seen as hip for being poor) is to undermine the whole idea of bohemian lifestyle.
And to clarify the lifestyle section doesn't really touch much but the fashion and material possessions of its hip clientèle.
Beats are just like Jack Kerouac in On the Road to a cliche maximum. It might be said hipsters are failing to live up to this persona because they don't travel outside of the city enough and aren't workingman enough but because of the open-endedness of this new milieu (to sound like a pompous Noveau) perhaps it fits the beat persona somehow.
Zen are new agers who're health obsessed, eastern inspired, and shop at co-ops, talk about astral projection, and meditate. We've all seen this group, a lot of them have money, some of them are detached from the world, they're not very debaucherous unless it comes to ecstatic dance.
Gypsy are the hippies who travel and take drugs and live on organic farm communes.
Dandy it's said are the Nouveaus without money, which I'm not certain how that works, and want the finer things of life with a ruffled edge. They sound metrosexual and inclined to emulate old fashion trends. It sounds sort of classy hipster with a little gypsy eccentric flair. This Dandy supposedly modeled after Oscar Wilde and his other decadent dandies is still a thing that happens. I'm not sure it really does that much, but seeing as I haven't lived in New York City I will give her the benefit of the doubt. I would just assume Dandies are Nouveaus trying to disguise their true persona.
The best part about the book is the reading list, because there were many books I hadn't heard about which might be interesting. The second best thing was the intro because I thought it was going somewhere different than a style manual to each brand of hipness.
I'm likely a mix of beat and gypsy who never wants to be nouveau and doesn't think Dandy fits either. There's a smidgen of zen, more when I feel like I need to be healthier, but I'm too easy going to be that dedicated.
I was going to file this under the counterculture shelf, but then realized it would sort of be a disgrace to countercultures.
And that said there was truth in it of course, but taken to this glamor obsessed, fanboy/girl edge. And there is a certain hypocrisy that it brings to light about all these 'hip' personas but I always find them entertaining enough to be doing something different than your everyday normie (said like a true bohemian snob). Though this book could've been much more entertaining if it explored all the bohemians of history in depth rather than listing them or making a majority of brief mentions.
Nouveaus are the bohemians who have money and want more, corollary: yuppies who think they have style, the rich who think they know art and buy Bankskys for hundreds of thousands of dollars but don't have an idea what revolt or rebellion really means because that would threaten their grip on money. To call this group a bohemian (even though it is heavily mentioned at the start of the book that bohemians are always poor and learn much from being poor and are seen as hip for being poor) is to undermine the whole idea of bohemian lifestyle.
And to clarify the lifestyle section doesn't really touch much but the fashion and material possessions of its hip clientèle.
Beats are just like Jack Kerouac in On the Road to a cliche maximum. It might be said hipsters are failing to live up to this persona because they don't travel outside of the city enough and aren't workingman enough but because of the open-endedness of this new milieu (to sound like a pompous Noveau) perhaps it fits the beat persona somehow.
Zen are new agers who're health obsessed, eastern inspired, and shop at co-ops, talk about astral projection, and meditate. We've all seen this group, a lot of them have money, some of them are detached from the world, they're not very debaucherous unless it comes to ecstatic dance.
Gypsy are the hippies who travel and take drugs and live on organic farm communes.
Dandy it's said are the Nouveaus without money, which I'm not certain how that works, and want the finer things of life with a ruffled edge. They sound metrosexual and inclined to emulate old fashion trends. It sounds sort of classy hipster with a little gypsy eccentric flair. This Dandy supposedly modeled after Oscar Wilde and his other decadent dandies is still a thing that happens. I'm not sure it really does that much, but seeing as I haven't lived in New York City I will give her the benefit of the doubt. I would just assume Dandies are Nouveaus trying to disguise their true persona.
The best part about the book is the reading list, because there were many books I hadn't heard about which might be interesting. The second best thing was the intro because I thought it was going somewhere different than a style manual to each brand of hipness.
I'm likely a mix of beat and gypsy who never wants to be nouveau and doesn't think Dandy fits either. There's a smidgen of zen, more when I feel like I need to be healthier, but I'm too easy going to be that dedicated.
I was going to file this under the counterculture shelf, but then realized it would sort of be a disgrace to countercultures.
And that said there was truth in it of course, but taken to this glamor obsessed, fanboy/girl edge. And there is a certain hypocrisy that it brings to light about all these 'hip' personas but I always find them entertaining enough to be doing something different than your everyday normie (said like a true bohemian snob). Though this book could've been much more entertaining if it explored all the bohemians of history in depth rather than listing them or making a majority of brief mentions.
September 26, 2009
I'm thrilled that my search for "Bohemian" on Amazon led me to this book! Not only did Laren Stover confirm my recent suspicions that I have "Bohemian" leanings, but I even know exactly what kind of Bohemian I am..."Nouveau" through and through (the only type that doesn't feel a need to wallow in poverty!).
I had more than a few chuckles as I read about the many quirks of Nouveau, Beat, Zen, Gypsy, and Dandy Bohemians. Now there is no doubt in my mind why I have always felt a bit out of place in my ultra-surburban life...I was all over the pages of this "Manifesto" from the music I listen to, to the way I cook and eat out, to the products I buy and the stores I shop in, to the way I relate to people...I do have some further exploration in the fashion and home decor departments to do. Thankfully, my sedate suburban life has kept me from being a totally outrageous Bohemian...I can assure you that I do not drink absinthe or take occasional mini-vacations in mental hospitals.
I know it's very un-Bohemian of me to feel happy about being slapped with a label, but I am quite proud to be in a "club" with the likes of so many incredibly intellectual, creative & unconventional artists and writers. The next time I have an incongruous suburban moment, I will just imagine sharing a meaningful glance with Pablo Picasso, Billie Holiday, or Laren Stover herself.
I had more than a few chuckles as I read about the many quirks of Nouveau, Beat, Zen, Gypsy, and Dandy Bohemians. Now there is no doubt in my mind why I have always felt a bit out of place in my ultra-surburban life...I was all over the pages of this "Manifesto" from the music I listen to, to the way I cook and eat out, to the products I buy and the stores I shop in, to the way I relate to people...I do have some further exploration in the fashion and home decor departments to do. Thankfully, my sedate suburban life has kept me from being a totally outrageous Bohemian...I can assure you that I do not drink absinthe or take occasional mini-vacations in mental hospitals.
I know it's very un-Bohemian of me to feel happy about being slapped with a label, but I am quite proud to be in a "club" with the likes of so many incredibly intellectual, creative & unconventional artists and writers. The next time I have an incongruous suburban moment, I will just imagine sharing a meaningful glance with Pablo Picasso, Billie Holiday, or Laren Stover herself.
December 20, 2009
Wow. What to say about this book; what indeed....This book very possibly saved my life, I would say. I was still wearing clothes from JCPenney and listening to Rihanna, but thinking about Jean-Paul Sartre and wearing my eyeshadow up to my eyebrows and dyeing my hair orchid-purple when I read this book in the latter half of seventh grade. I found it in a groovy discount local bookstore, no less: Half Price Books. I learned about all the rudimentary fundamentals of the original definition of Bohemian life, from tunes (old LPs, self-generated music etc)to how Frida Kahlo's light moustache was a feminist proclamation headlining her bright red lips (red lips were also an addressed subject in "Bohemian Manifesto"). Laren Stover's witty, dark, sarcastic and omnipotent humor doesn't even have to win you over; it's just great writing. Many, many congrats to Ms. Stover for writing another masterpiece.
May 9, 2011
Honestly, if it weren't for the beautiful illustrations, this book would have only gotten 1 1/2 to 2 stars. The guide, while laid out rather well, is bogged down by endless lists disguised as prose. For example, half of a page is dedicated to the different surfaces a bohemian writes their information on. In fact, the entire book feels like a giant list of things bohemians like rather than a comprehensive guide. However, the paintings are absolutely gorgeous and some of the book and art recommendations (William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac references appear every few pages, for example) were worthwhile in themselves. Although I will not be re-reading this book anytime soon, I do have the intention to check out most books and artists recommended by bohemians (and flip through just to glance at the pictures)
August 5, 2008
I bought this book purely on a whim. It was sort of hidden in all the big tall books of the Sociology section at the store. I saw the title, liked the font on the spine. When I picked it up it was HEAVY! Very dense binding and thick, glossy pages. I thought it would be good for a giggle, but it's really one of my favorite books about people on a fringe. I could relate to an awful lot of it either through experience or having wished at one time to have those experiences. I took the quiz in it and it turns out I'm a Nouveau Bohemian which makes me feel pretty fancy. I just wish I had the balls to be a Beat.
May 25, 2011
After reading this a thousand times, it never ceases to amaze me that there was a book written on my life. The writing style is incomparable, the quips and humor are easy and complicated at the same time and it's one hundred percent conversational. I was unsure when it was handed to me with the sentiment of, "Hey, I found a book all about you!" but was quickly put in my place by sentiments of the charming Laren Stover.
February 21, 2015
One of the most boring books I have ever read...hence I am not finishing it! It seems to be chapters & chapters of long boring lists of things to have, do, read, listen to etc if you are bohemian. Most of the examples to back up the authors stereotyping are famous people who have an image to uphold...so are they real bohemians? Who knows...anyway...if it's meant to be a joke then it's not really very funny & if it's serious then it's tedious and boring. Lame!
December 5, 2009
Laren Stover is a dazzling writer. At the outset she tells us she is a Bohemian, but this doesn't deter her from seeing the humor in Bohemians and their sometimes wildly unsuccessful experiments in living. In the end though, the allure of the Bohemian world and its alternative perspective is opened for readers, possibly to sample themselves. The illustrations also enrich the book.
May 11, 2010
One of my faves. There's actually a great list in there of "Bohemian" books to read...I plan on tackling that list soon.
February 27, 2011
obnoxious with an underlying classist ideology.
September 12, 2022
3.5 stars
Bohemian Manifesto is clever and entertaining. The book is a quick read, a sort of palate cleanser. Perhaps Laren Stover wrote it with her tongue in her cheek; perhaps not. But I don't know how seriously one should take this book.
Years (and years) ago, I would borrow Stover's The Bombshell Manual of Style from the library a few times a year. Alas, I am not a bombshell. Nor am I a Bohemian -- at least not in this current decade and time of life. Maybe I was a bit of Bohemian in my youth, but all that remains is my horrible housekeeping skills. I do dream of living in a cottage, an Airstream, or like a wacky former aristocrat.
The Bohemien horoscope and quiz were fun. Apparently, I am blended Bohemian -- Zen and Dandy. I'll take it!
Bohemian Manifesto is clever and entertaining. The book is a quick read, a sort of palate cleanser. Perhaps Laren Stover wrote it with her tongue in her cheek; perhaps not. But I don't know how seriously one should take this book.
Years (and years) ago, I would borrow Stover's The Bombshell Manual of Style from the library a few times a year. Alas, I am not a bombshell. Nor am I a Bohemian -- at least not in this current decade and time of life. Maybe I was a bit of Bohemian in my youth, but all that remains is my horrible housekeeping skills. I do dream of living in a cottage, an Airstream, or like a wacky former aristocrat.
The Bohemien horoscope and quiz were fun. Apparently, I am blended Bohemian -- Zen and Dandy. I'll take it!
discarded
July 23, 2023Partly incisive, mostly very pretentious. The following quote (especially if you picture cute illustrations to go with it) will give you an idea what to expect:
Books sold at airports only make it to the Bohemian bookshelf if someone leaves hem behind. These will be the first book chosen to prop up the missing chaise leg or to sell at the secondhand bookstore to buy wine or help pay the electric bill.
Bohemians use the following items for bookmarkers: matchbook covers, matches, cigarettes, utility bills, leaves, postcards, receipts, used condom wrappers and tarot cards.
November 13, 2011
I am literally second-generation Bohemian (my father born in Czechoslovakia) and I happily recognized some of our family values in this book: creativity, humor, humorously creative thrift...
But in general, I think the book simply collects some stereotypes and finetunes them. I found this irritating.
But I will say that the chapter on "dust" is a delightful collection of wildly varied metaphors, and I purely enjoyed it. A wonderfully artful selection of excuses not to DO the dusting!
"To the Bohemian, dust is powder from the wings of moths, ash of Vesuvius, cremains of Joan oaf Arc, atomic fallout, debris of bombed Berlin, soot brushed from the boots of the blue-eyed, black-lunged pubescent chimneysweeps in 19th-century London. Dust is the dander of a Raja's tiger, the erosion of stones, Aztec temples, sphinxes and palaces, the wayward atoms of Pericles, Casanova and Geronimo, the pulverized manuscripts of Debussy, Goethe, Coleridge and Zola, the crumbs of Marie Antoinette's breakfast, powder from her hair, molecules of Cleopatra's black eye kohl... etc."
I recommend "Bohemian Style" by Elizabeth Wilhide as a pictorial accompaniment.
But in general, I think the book simply collects some stereotypes and finetunes them. I found this irritating.
But I will say that the chapter on "dust" is a delightful collection of wildly varied metaphors, and I purely enjoyed it. A wonderfully artful selection of excuses not to DO the dusting!
"To the Bohemian, dust is powder from the wings of moths, ash of Vesuvius, cremains of Joan oaf Arc, atomic fallout, debris of bombed Berlin, soot brushed from the boots of the blue-eyed, black-lunged pubescent chimneysweeps in 19th-century London. Dust is the dander of a Raja's tiger, the erosion of stones, Aztec temples, sphinxes and palaces, the wayward atoms of Pericles, Casanova and Geronimo, the pulverized manuscripts of Debussy, Goethe, Coleridge and Zola, the crumbs of Marie Antoinette's breakfast, powder from her hair, molecules of Cleopatra's black eye kohl... etc."
I recommend "Bohemian Style" by Elizabeth Wilhide as a pictorial accompaniment.
August 28, 2016
One of the Best Books on my Mountainous Bookshelf! It was so hard to get! Initially I saw it online when I was 14 or 15 and just never got around to buying it until 5 years later! I love the Bohemian quiz. Guess which one I was categorized as out of: Dandy, Zen, Beat, Nouveau or Gypsy? The spirit of Bohemianism has always been in my heart and soul. The deep passion to create and express oneself no matter what others may think. I probably haven't embraced the artistic, passionate and non-conformist ideal that is Bohemianism since my school days. Reading this book always takes me back to the days when I spent my teen years painting, expressing myself through poetry and clothes alongside my intense passion for the Arts. There's a wonderful reading list of bohemian must-reads on page 180. This book is also stylishly illustrated. A Truly Wonderful Book to dip into when seeking escape from the daily grind of the real world. Find your way to Embrace Individuality with this Excellent Alternative Field Guide.
November 4, 2011
I was cleaning off a few book shelves recently when I found my copy of Bohemian Manifesto. I guess I read it last year... and the year before... and the year before that... and just a little while ago. I dawned on me that every year this book finds it's way into the box of books that is bound to be donated to the library, and. somehow or another, it finds it's way back onto my book shelf. So this year I'm doing something different. It will not be placed in the donation box. In fact, having survived at least four attempts to part with it, I hereby grant it permanent status in the household library.
July 21, 2020
Tone-deaf and pretentious. I picked this up because I love folklore. It's... certainly not that. Maybe it's the influence of the dumpster fire that is 2020, but I found myself wincing at passage after passage.
Particularly egregious: Cultural appropriation, especially in the inane profile of the "Zen Dandy;" a celebration of gentrification (see the term "frontier neighborhoods"); a literal catalog of things to acquire. Oh. I almost forgot. Not one illustration depicts anyone who isn't young, slender, and white. The sections on books and music are the only redeeming parts.
February 20, 2011
Another book filled with inspiring ideas about style but this time focused on Bohemian style -- carefree, whimsical and doing-your-own-thing. It was a bit more toungue-in-cheek than The Bombshell Manual of Style, I still quite enjoyed it for thinking about style and fashion outside of contemporary trends and the whims of newsstand fashion magazines.
April 29, 2015
I was hoping for a sociological history of Bohemianism - maybe George Sand and Balzac hefting a bottle of wine in the Latin Quarter - but got a fast and fun Preppy Handbook in vintage clothing. The Bohemian astrology was spot-on.
February 5, 2008
I had so much fun reading this book. Its a fluffy read filled with all sorts of fantastic trivia about some of my favorite bohemians past and present. Great for an airplane trip.
July 12, 2009
This "manifesto" called to me during a personal transition. Very informative and fun read!
November 12, 2018
This book was very tedious for me after the first chapter. The author starts with compelling suggestions regarding a Bohemian ethos (courage, audacity, revolt), but this thought-provoking prelude gets lost in a deluge of aesthetic minutia: what clothing a Bohemian might wear, what cigarettes they smoke, what books they read, what movies they like. These chapters read like grocery lists, long grocery lists of alternative patterns of consumption with a hint of literary flourish. In fact, the book's overwhelming focus on consumption patterns as a key signifier of the Bohemian lifestyle continually (and agonizingly) conflicts with the Stover's most fundamental definitions of Bohemianism, as in "It doesn't matter what you have or don't have. What matters are ideals and maintaining creative identity." Well, Stover tosses us a few ideals, some stereotypical examples of creative output, then drowns us all in stuff we could have.
April 30, 2024
I credit this book for freeing me from the shackles of western society, shackles that were so comfortable, that I forgot I was wearing them until they were removed.
Not everyone is a Bohemian, and that's ok, but if you are one, or know and love one, there is no better guide to the care and feeding of Bohemians. The only downside is the limit to the number of stars I can give it.
If you want to know how many stars I want to give, go lay on your back in your garden at 2 am and look up; that's a start.
Not everyone is a Bohemian, and that's ok, but if you are one, or know and love one, there is no better guide to the care and feeding of Bohemians. The only downside is the limit to the number of stars I can give it.
If you want to know how many stars I want to give, go lay on your back in your garden at 2 am and look up; that's a start.
July 5, 2019
This book playfully explores the lives of free-spirited Bohemians through history and in current time; it illustrates some of the quirks, propensities and unique characteristics that are found in Bohemian culture. Free-thinking creative Bohemians are spontaneous, lively, and on the fringes or totally outside of what is considered "normal." I enjoyed this book and found the author's portraits of Bohemian life very rhapsodic.
September 21, 2020
Although I found that I fit into some of these portrayals with my habits and preferences, I found the book to be less a manifesto or guide and more of a catalog of stereotypes, some of which were downright insulting. Maybe it’s just a sign of how times have evolved or how my thinking is just more broad or inclusive, but I found this pretty hard to stomach and it only got worse as the book went on. Great theory but lacking in execution.
January 2, 2021
This was a fun, thoughtful, surprisingly in-depth, and rather tongue-in-cheek look into the bohemian identity in its many forms (beat, dandy, etc.). I enjoyed the beautiful art almost as much as the writing. The Bohemian Manifesto really captures the heart of what it means to be a bohemian, and should provide a good dose of inspiration for any rebel soul who picks it up.
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