The slim volume The Beginning of the End , written by the anarchist Angelo Quattricchi and the author Tom Nairn, tells of the explosive time that was 1968 through two eyewitness accounts. Honestly, I am more interested in the front cover and inside flap, which are graced with photographs of the demonstrators. They are almost unvaryingly dressed in form-fitting black pants, pointy leather boots, tight jackets, and black sunglasses. The ultimate decision of students of this generation to revolt cannot be separated from the development of their unique subculture, from their style. I recall the narrative of 68 and the development of postmodernism, only to illustrate that the inception of many of the radical ideas that are now commonplace in the academy was not spontaneous.
Style serves to root radicalness in contingency and in performance.
Style is locatable and practiced and yet always somewhat unstable, transforming. Style is not simply fashion trends or patterns of consumerism. Style is innovation of cultural minutia, mundane forms of self-expression and communication. Radicalness, though it is routinely invoked, is largely being ignored within theoretical discourse. The radical that can be made manifest in the everyday is given the shaft.