Eulogy to Classic Camp

Dearest beloveds, we are gathered here today, in the memory of Classic Camp. I am here in the spirit of Susan Sontag, to pay respect to the death of this most sophisticated, secret, and yet powerful of sensibilities... Camp, an aesthetic, of the ephemeral and superfluous.

The question must be raised. What was, and who was Classic Camp? And why are we here today, to give our respects. Who has died?Classic Camp is not the version that Camp of today had become, as we know it. She is not the commodity-controlled spectacle of contemporary popular culture, not the institution of hyper exaggerated sexuality, not the global consumeristic white noise version of camp, where now, the whole goddamn world is Camp. The Camp of today has become intellectually and politically respectable, rather than a secret code for a chosen few. This version of camp is so everywhere that one may no longer notice it as exceptional. It has lost its irrepressible, virtually uncontrolled sensibility.

So, we wish our dear friend, Classic Camp adieu, send her on with a sadness in our hearts. Please, shed a tear for the loss of such a rebel. Fare thee well, Camp, may your Exuberant, exaggerated love for life, never be forgotten....