The two questions I get asked most regularly about the sites that I run are, “What does barbelith mean?” and, “What is barbelith.com about?” [I’ve left out the “Where do you get off being so self-indulgent?” one, because the answer to that should be obvious to everyone.]
The answer to both of the first questions is in my mind answered by a few choice passages in Douglas Coupland‘s Girlfriend in a Coma, which is an interesting book that spirals off the rails in a couple of places:
“Didn’t you feel as if all of the symbols and ideas fed to you since birth had become worn out like old shoes? Didn’t you ache for change but you didn’t know how to achieve it? And even if you knew how to do it, would you have had the guts to go forth? Didn’t you want your cards shuffled in a different way?”
This sense of frustration with the world just not being as cool as it should be – as if all the magic popped out for a cigarette and never came back – is something I think I share with everyone on the Barbelith Underground. We’re starting a cult. You want to join?