Print this article
The trouble with being cool is that you have to make it look natural, effortless, almost accidental, and maybe inevitable. It isn’t a simple matter of the interests you’ve cultivated, the freewheeling eccentrics you’ve assembled as a tribe, the life you’ve lived, and the stories you can tell about it. Just as the Renaissance courtier had his sprezzatura, the modern badass must maintain an air of grace and nonchalance, never letting show the glue and cardboard and twine holding together the sturdy leatherbound edifice. And so, writing about being cool is often the riskiest enterprise of all. Reading the result can be like stumbling upon James Gatz’s self-improvement action plan (“Practice elocution, poise, and how to obtain it 5.00-6.00”) and realizing how much awfully self-conscious effort goes into the process of self-invention.