The Book of Cool: What is It? Who Decides It? and Why Do We Care So Much?, book.
(Cool cover by the way. Very deliberately so, clearly.)
I think those are very good questions.
I haven't even found a definition which satisfies me, which fits the way I think the word is meant when we speak about people. It's used about somebody which we really approve of and maybe admire, but exactly how?
I've learned to live with the fact that to many people, especially young ones, I must surely be regarded as hopelessly un-cool. I don't dress fashionably, I don't hang out the right places, I don't have a great car (or even a car at all), I don't have a glamorous job or a glamorous girlfriend.
I can live with it because I respect myself, and the people I respect generally respect me, and maybe some of them even consider me cool, if that matters.
Is there even an innate quality called "cool"? Or is it only a matter of judgment from a group?
3 comments:
You can't define it, but you know it when you see it. It also doesn't last. A guy like The Fonze would have been super cool in the 50s but a total geek today.
Years ago I worked out what 'cool' was. It is effortless confidence. It comes from having been in a situation before and knowing what to do in that situation. As a result you remain calm (cool). If you are unfamiliar with a situation you become worried about what you should do as a correct response. As a result you become hot and bothered (uncool).
This has obviously become distilled over time but the concept is the same; the coolest people in fashion, for example, are the ones who have the knowledge and experience to wear the right thing (even though fashion is a purely subjective thing).
Coolness can be measured scientifically. There was a Happy Days where a mad scientist tried to steal Fonzie's cool.
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