{"id":360,"date":"2016-10-31T00:53:24","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T04:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=360"},"modified":"2016-10-31T00:53:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T04:53:24","slug":"significance-of-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2016\/10\/31\/significance-of-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Significance of Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The play Angels in America<\/em> by Tony Kushner details the AIDS crisis in America that dramatically affected the gay community and left it in a vulnerable position. \u00a0In this vulnerability, however, resistance emerged. \u00a0Specifically, resistance against the looming presence of death and homophobia in the form of what can best be defined as \u201cCamp\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn na\u00efve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness that fails.\u00a0 Of course, not all seriousness that fails can be redeemed as Camp.\u00a0 Only that which has the proper mixture of the exaggerated, the fantastic, the passionate, and the na\u00efve.\u201d\u00a0 -Susan Sontag<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The AIDS crisis and how it impacts the characters in Tony Kushner\u2019s play are two incredibly serious concepts that underlie every action and plot development. \u00a0However, the destitution of it all is often balanced out with Kushner\u2019s own style of \u201cexaggerated\u201d and \u201cfantastic\u201d.\u00a0 In essence, Angels\u2019 <\/em>saving grace is not its moral lessons or the characters\u2019 complexities, but rather the authentic Camp style that preserves the same resistance that emerged in the real life version of the crisis that Kushner fictionalizes.<\/p>\n

One of the most absurd, campy scenes that occurs is when Prior encounters Harper.\u00a0 They meet in the diorama room of a Mormon center, Prior\u2019s fantasies and dreams fueled by his decaying physical state, and Harper\u2019s hallucinations and delusions fueled by a pill addiction and mental illness.\u00a0 This combination leaves a wild spectacle where the diorama becomes \u201creal\u201d to them, and they tell each other,<\/p>\n

PRIOR: Dreaming used to be\u2026 so safe.<\/p>\n

HARPER: It isn\u2019t, though, it\u2019s dangerous, imagining to excess. It can blow up in your face. Threshold of revelation. (199)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The irony of Harper warning Prior against dreaming is not lost in this scene, since their imaginations are what primarily fuels the Camp-ness of the play.\u00a0 Deeper than that, the tragedy in their visions is reminded in the fact that neither can control them, and that they\u2019re fueled by illness and heartache.\u00a0 In this duality, Kushner\u2019s utilization of the Camp motif truly shines.\u00a0 Sontag implies that the point of camp is to disrupt and satirize the serious, without actually erasing its significance.\u00a0 In the diorama scene, and the play as a whole, the larger than life characters and plot devices serve as a way to enforce the idea that amongst tragedy, it is important to hold onto lightness in order to preserve humanity, and this greatly reflects the significance Camp held during the AIDS crisis, and continues to have in the Queer community today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The play Angels in America by Tony Kushner details the AIDS crisis in America that dramatically affected the gay community and left it in a vulnerable position. \u00a0In this vulnerability, however, resistance emerged. \u00a0Specifically, resistance against the looming presence of death and homophobia in the form of what can best be defined as \u201cCamp\u201d. \u201cIn … Continue reading Significance of Camp<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3279,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}