Page 243 - Flaunt 175 - Diana

COTTAGECORE COME RESCUE ME
The Eco-Optimist’s High Written by Erica Brown
away from a rapidly approaching, digi-dystopian future. The subculture fawns after an idealized Western existence in which humans live effortlessly and amicably amongst nature. Legitimized with a label in 2018, this Tumblr Tran- scendentalism is closer to fantasy than period piece due to the major historical plot holes it suffers from, like how the modern-mullet was popularized centuries before teenagers started making David Bowie tribute blogs. Or how a Trader Joe’s vegan charcuterie platter ended up in the same mood board as the Irish Famine. Granted, it’s plausible that Gunne Sax would have given the local artisans a run for their shillings. Due to these inconsistencies, Cottagecore is a vision of the future in which humans have spiritually and technologically advanced enough to thoughtfully consume our planet’s resources. Think Into the Wild, but his recycled school bus is a cheeky cabin, he has a mildly successful ce- ramics business on Instagram, and there’s no death-by-poi- sonous-berry finale. Cottagecore implies comfort, which also implies air conditioning, WiFi, and survival. It would be lazy to label Cottagecore as nostalgia. Cottagecore is an invention, and, like all inventions, picks up where the past left off.
Cottagecore is the optimist’s version of the future. Other- wise known as Farmcore, the aesthetic has more in common with Eco-modernism than it does the Agricultural Revolution, the beginning of the environmental disaster that is the 21st century. Cottagecore tells the story of how humans found
their way back home after a hedonistic departure from sim- plicity. During this homecoming, we celebrate by having our hand-iced cake and eating it too. When building your perfect Farmcore fantasy, how comfortable are you? How much of your comfort can you attribute to the amenities modern technology have allowed you to take for granted? Don’t be ashamed of your disposition.
Some people may fetishize a Blade Runner future, whereas some of us hope to find chlorophyll somewhere other than a juice bar in 2055. Nihilistic naysayers may claim Cottagecore is uninventive or unrealistic, but one could argue the capitalist greed-inflicted apocalypse trope is played out. Cottagecore
is not romanticized, it’s romantic. It describes a love affair between human development and nature that preserves indi- vidualism and whimsy, in what was previously required to be a collectivist and survivalist universe.
IDERATICOONNSSIDERATI are fantasizing, future tense. turism, and to that he said, “Let’s get another drink”. Maybe
I didn’t order for myself that night. Surrounded by antique paintings cloaked in fake candlelight, I let my date make the decisions, if not for any reason other than the COVID-friendly menu being virtual and my phone being left in my work pants.
My date lets me know that my page “screams Cottagecore” and that he was pleasantly surprised by the contrast in person. As a self-identified “future fanatic”, his chosen internet perso- na could easily conflict with mine, and in the modern world, it’s important to monitor cyberspace compatibility when choos- ing a mate. The interesting part of this conversation, thankfully, has nothing to do with the banal details of dating. Rather, the fascination in this exchange surrounded his interpretation of Cottagecore, its origins, nostalgia, the endearing delusions that propel it, and how much I disagreed with all of the above.
I will agree that Gen Z’s identity fabrication is partially dictated by nostalgia—likely fueled by a loss of time many of
us have felt, true or imagined. The Digital Revolution marks the most accelerated cultural shift in history. Our TV’s went flat, and before we knew it, we were on a Steve Jobs-shaped hamster wheel watching tech giants next to our childhood idols (see Elon Musk and Miley Cyrus on Saturday Night Live). This time marks a point where not only are you registering change, but you’re being forced to keep up. “Upgrade” no longer sparks joy, it sparks the beginning of the end of your phone’s camera quality. Products are no longer outdated; they are obsolete. The past is now more synonymous with “antiquated” than ever. For this reason, the past is collected and commodified. With so much new, we are trading “Never before seen!” with “Will never be seen again!”
Kitschy trinkets and mid-century vintage makes Cot- tagecore’s sentimentality-stock skyrocket. The economic value of Cottagecore is written on the wall, especially in an era where it’s safe to say reverie is a form of currency. The most recent definition of culture and subculture has been watered down
to more of a character select, trading mohawks for mullets on our fleshy Sim characters. Our subconscious desires drive the persona that we choose to form our world around. Cottagecore attracts those who long to return to a simpler time, during which you could afford to waste time. In an era where you can cash in on your personal identity, everyone always seems to be on the clock.
What do you call longing for a time that never happened
to you? Delusion. However, it’s not a completely useless con-
dition—it’s integral to fantasy, which feeds art. While art may
have fed culture, it now feeds “aesthetic”, the most delusional ing, and the prospect of freedom from government-funded manifestation of fantasy of all. We, however, have not been “graffiti”; I grounded myself amongst the irony that my for- reduced to walking time capsules. That would require a com- ward-thinking date took me to a Victorian-themed bar. After pletely authentic recollection of any given time period, which stalling with a few sips of a drink I let him pick out for me, I
is impossible. We are also not rewriting history which, in some found a way to remove the social media-shaped wedge between
ways, is what the word “nostalgia” implies. Instead, I believe we us. I offered up the possibility that Cottagecore is Eco-Fu-
Cottagecore is escapism, a fantasy born to take you Cottagecore and Techno can get along after all.
243
Lost in thoughts of ecological architecture, urban farm-
S