Incongruous Entertainment

Cohan, Steven. "Introduction." Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical. Durham: Duke UP, 2005. 1-40. Print.

Cohan introduces his book by discussing what camp is and then by giving brief examples of how it infiltrated MGM’s studio era. Cohan refers to camp in many contexts and cites many sources as to the correct way to interpret camp, but overall he explains camp as a sort of hyperbole that has infiltrated gay culture. Anything over the top, yet hidden in plain view, is camp (10). In many ways, camp was the gay culture hidden in the center of a heterocentric society (14). Judy Garland’s over-the-top performance of “The Man That Got Away” in A Star is Born shows that Garland’s camp appeal springs from how and why she is singing, not what she is singing (26). Conversely, while Garland’s singing makes her camp, Fred Astaire’s dancing makes him camp. In an analysis of “Sunday Jumps,” Astaire is characterized as camp because of his theatrical, yet light and airy dancing (38). Cohan concludes his introduction by explaining that camp encourages reconsiderations of the musicals’ representations of gender and sexuality (40). 

I read the introduction to this book about camp in MGM musicals. To be quite honest, it confused me. Cohan went on way too much about camp and gave so many different definitions that I'm only really guessing at what it means. It reminded me of a terrible math teacher I once had that un-tought me what a function was by explaining it too rigorously. Lay off the camp is all I have to say.

The rest of the book looks promising, but probably boring. I will probably just use one or two chapters to focus on. I'm assuming they'll all be as redundant as the introduction, but I'm hoping they won't be.

Irregardless (which is not a word, but it is used cleverly in Mean Girls and I can't stop saying), I'm looking forward to looking at gay influence and presence in MGM musicals. So this was a good lead for me.