HEDONISM AT NEW YORK LIFESTYLE IN THE EARLY 90’S AS REFLECTED IN FLETCHER’S HEDONISM
Novi Juliyanti1, Galang Kesatria Tama2 English Literatute1
English Education2 juliyantinovi@gmail.com
Abstract
This research mainly focused on hedonism at New York lifestyle in the early 90‟s reflected in Fletcher’s Hedonism. The characteristic of hedonism analyzed in this analysis included normative hedonism and motivational hedonism. Through this analysis the writer attempt to figure out about how New York life style exposed hedonism in the early 90‟s. The writer used psychological approach in analyzing the novel. The design of this analysis is library research used descriptive and qualitative method. The writer got and collected the data from the novel entitled Hedonism by Tony Fletcher and found another theory to support the analysis by reading the book and taken from the internet site. The writer takes the dialogue among characters and narrations of Fletcher‟s Hedonism that belongs to hedonist as data. By doing this analysis, the writer could find the description of hedonism exposed by New York lifestyle in the early 90‟s in which it is described by exposing the event or action which include as hedonism. Those events are normative hedonism which includes as pleasure of sense and pleasure of power. Motivational hedonism includes desire of pleasure, egocentric for pleasure and past enjoyment value. Those events were exposed in the novel of Tony Fletcher Hedonism.
Key words: Hedonism, New York Lifestyle
INTRODUCTION
Lifestyle is a way of living of individuals, families (households), and societies, in which it is manifested in coping with physical, psychological, social, and economic environments on a day-to-day basis (Lusa et al., 2020). Lifestyle is expressed in both work and leisure behavior patterns and (on an individual basis) in activities, attitudes, interests, opinions, values, and allocation of income (Tanenhaus et al., 2000). It also reflects people's self image or self concept; the way they see themselves and believe. They are seen by the others. Lifestyle is a composite of motivations, needs, and wants and is influenced by factors such as culture, family, reference groups, and social class (Fahrizqi et al., 2021), (Abudhahir et al., 2015), (Pranoto & Suprayogi, 2020). Based on statement above the writer can state that lifestyle is how the people (individual or group) get their pleasure based on their own way (Rianto, 2021). The activity or attitude that is done by a group of people becomes main reason why some of people follow that activity to get their pleasure even though it is deviant behavior (Mandasari & Aminatun, 2019), (Muliyah et al., 2020), (Sari, n.d.). How the individual or group maximizing their pleasure is included as hedonist action.
Philosophers and psychologists have long been concerned with the good life and how it can be achieved. Often they propose a sovereign principle to be followed in order to be happy.
So, the doctrine of hedonism maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain – was articulated thousands of years ago who championed immediate sensory gratification. Based on statement above, it is said that everything that the people do in real life is negative or
positive since the people are happy they will ignore a norm of life. The people will do everything in their life to get satisfaction or pleasure in social life. Pleasure is the most important thing in life. It has correlation with the word hedonism (Rido, 2017).
Furthermore, hedonism was become phenomenon of society in New York since 1990‟s when a bad lifestyle such as illegal drug, free sex and body-pierced dancers and heartless villains becoming a part of life in the society. Lifestyle of hedonism was near of glamour which is related to moral of society because this condition is related to social’s view. Since there are so many life styles such as I explain in this analysis who fulfill their desire by having free sex, consuming drug or doing everything that gives pleasure, and tries to find the different condition that will fulfill the enjoyment in their life.
One of literary work which exposes hedonism of western lifestyle is Fletcher’s novel entitled Hedonism. Tony Fletcher’s was born in Yorkshire England at 1964. Fletcher is a music journalist best known for his biographies of drummer Keith Moon and the band R.E.M. and one of the famous literary works by him is Hedonism published on 2003.
Hedonism novel by Fletcher’s told about the lifestyle of the people in New York in early 90’s (Evayani & Rido, 2019). Hedonism is a fast action trip through a hardcore underworld of hip dance music, free sex and mountains of illegal drugs. It's a world at odds with normality, where no-one sleeps and everyone is a suspect. It's a world populated by glamorous models, body-pierced dancers and heartless villains. They are find a satisfaction based on their mind.
The researcher chose Hedonism by Fletcher’s as my data source in this research because from this novel the writer get the interesting topic about Hedonism and this topic can be analyze in my thesis, and this novel tells about the real condition of western lifestyle in New York city, also this story is the true experience of the author itself. The issue of hedonism that find in Tony Fletcher’s novel encourage me analyze it in theses because the writer want to find out how does hedonism exposed by western lifestyle in early1990‟s.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The researcher needs theories to apply analysis question. In this analysis, theory is used to formulate the problem, arrange design of analysis, collect and analyze the data.
Hedonism
Hedonism is a set of theories of motivation, all of which hold basically that both action and desire are determined in some important way by pleasure (Eva Tuckyta et al., 2021), (Pratiwi et al., 2020). The historically most important form of the theory holds that people want something or do something only because they think it will be pleasant. This kind of theory is usually employed to support ethical hedonism (Lennon, 2008). Contemporary psychology tends to ignore such theories because contemporary psychology is largely concerned with subhuman behavior, in which it would be extravagant to employ the concept of thinking that something is pleasant (Rido et al., 2014).
From the statement above the writer can explain about hedonism can happen when action and desire meet into one activity (Suprayogi & Pranoto, 2020). The hedonist only wants to do an activity if he/she thinks that the activity can give the pleasure (Ayu, 2019), (Apriyanti & Ayu, 2020). According to Monoche, he stated that hedonism influence by the historically and its means that the event that happen in the past giving influence in doing
something in the future, even though the event suposedly negative but he/she still doing because the always finding the pleasant. In the statement also explain about contemporary psychology and its means that how the people doing hedonism action by showing their behavior in the society.
Normative Hedonism
Normative hedonism claims that only pleasure has value and only pain has disvalue. In every human breast self-regarding interest is predominant over social interest, each person’s own individual interest over the interest of all other persons taken together (Rido, 2011).
Motivational Hedonism
Bentham’s and Mill’s the expert of hedonism theory states that motivational hedonism claims that only our personal pleasure or pain motivates us and it is the most significant from of psychological hedonism (Suryono & Subriadi, 2016). There is an example of motivational hedonism that an individual is being motivated to do something by own motivation. Someone motivates by his one own pleasure to do something in his life, it means that he really motivated by his one own pleasure intention (Pamungkas & Mahfud, 2020).
Overview of Lifestyle in New York in Early 90’s
Some experts, during the 1990s, crime rates in New York City dropped dramatically, even more than in the United States as a whole. Violent crime declined by more than 56 percent in the City, compared to about 28 percent in the nation as whole. Property crimes tumbled by about 65 percent, but fell only 26 percent nationally. One of the reason about this case is night life activity that increasing in early 90’s. Over the 1990s, misdemeanor arrests increased 70 percent in New York City and there are some causes why it happen in New York City such as City streets were awash in drug, dancing club opened everyday that giving a bad impact to the society.
METHOD
In analyzing Fletcher’s Hedonism the writer needs a method in gaining and discovering the answer of the problem. Method is the main procedure to do the research in answering the problem by using some techniques in process to the next stage making analysis (Wahyudin, 2015). Method is a system of unity which is using the factual data achieving the concrete result (Isnain et al., 2020).
By examining the statement above, the writer assumes that method is one of the important parts in all activities of the analysis (Maskar, 2020); method also is the way which is used to collect and analyze the data (Febriantini et al., 2021). There are four step will be implied in this analysis, those are research design, data and data source, data collecting technique and data analyzing technique (Ayu & Indrawati, 2019).
In this part, research sample need to be clearly explained in this section. It is also necessary to write down techniques for obtaining subjects (qualitative research) and/or sampling techniques (quantitative research). Procedure should be described according to the type of research. How research is carried out and data obtained, needs to be described in this section. For experimental research, the type of design (experimental design) used should be written in this section. Types of data, how data is collected, with instruments where data is collected, and how technical the collection is, should be explained clearly in this section.
Then, how to interpret the data obtained, in relation to problems and research objectives, needs to be explained clearly.
The researcher takes the dialogues among characters and narrations of Fletcher’s Hedonism that belongs to the hedonist as data. My data are obtained from supporting information that deal with my analysis and critical essay that deal with my analysis, such as; the definition of hedonism, explaining about two type of hedonism, the overview about western lifestyle in early 90’s. The writer puts Austen’s Hedonism as data source.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter responds the question of the problem formulated in the first chapter which telling about hedonism at New York lifestyle exposed in the early 90’s reflected in Tony Fletcher’s novel entitled Hedonism. This research deal with the narrations and dialogues from the novel entitled Hedonism by Tony Fletcher.
Hedonism always appears in society, since everyone need something good to fulfill his desire. To fulfill his desire he try to find the happiness and pleasure by doing some action such as come to dancing place in midnight and following the activity like consuming drug to creating a good condition and pleasure based on their mind. The condition is not only becomes the phenomenon of hedonist’s life but also becomes the phenomenon of society’s life since hedonist is part of society. Every hedonist has the same purpose in their life that is, getting happiness in this world. Thus, they like come to dancing club which give satisfy and they can expose their felling in that place. This condition include as characteristics of normative hedonism and motivational hedonism (Rido & Sari, 2018).
Normative Hedonism
Normative hedonism is the kind of hedonism which claim that only pleasure has value and only pain has disvalue, this condition hold that pleasure to becomes the highest purpose of life. There are two characteristics of normative hedonism which are exposed by Fletcher’s novel entitled Hedonism including the pleasure of sense and the pleasure of power.
The Pleasure of Sense
The pleasure of sense is a kind of pleasure which include the pleasure of taste hear, touch, sexual sense, and health (Aminatun et al., 2019). Every person need the pleasure to expose their desire, the pleasure of sense is the most kind of pleasure which needed by every person because from this condition all people may fulfill his desire. The pleasure of sense was exposed by New York lifestyle in early 90’s. This condition can be seen from the activities that they have been done in Hedonism to expose their felling in that activity.
The first kind of pleasure of sense which show in Fletcher’s novel entitled Hedonism talking about the pleasure sense of taste. It can be know from the narration that had been talked by the Holy who tells about the activities of New York lifestyle.
“I use it to give the work a title in the bottom right hand corner, and then I drag my materials up to the apartment and prop it up at the foot of my mattress, where I stare at it, fully clothed, totally exhausted, swigging furiously from the vodka bottle, willing sleep to overtake me as the title and the image imprint on my increasingly drunken mind. Red. I will dream of blood tonight, if I dare dream at all.” (Fletcher‟s, 2003:13)
Quotation above explains about when Holy consumeses„vodka‟ as alcohol. In hedonism, there are have a goods feeling that is clasiffied and she feel like dream when she do this activity. This condition shows how the hedonist only finds the desire and pleasure in their life and ignores everything the risk that can happen to them in the feature. It was reflect with the condition of the young people to get happiness based on their own mind. Willing sleep to overtake me as the title and the image imprint on my increasingly drunken mind this is explain about when Holy drink a vodka it makes their own felling be batter and can get the enjoy life than before.
“The tips of our fingers explore each other's. And in my sudden MDMA- aided desire to understand the cosmos, I realize what it is that's missing from this scene.” (Fletcher’s,2003:86)
From the narration above, the writer can explain how the hedonist having purpose to fulfill thier desire is only to get happinest and satisfaction in their life by having MDMA and putting the pleasure in every conditionof their life. MDMA is one of the example of drug that have the simmilar fanction like dopping. After the hodonist consumes MDMA they can feel happy and get the desire, so the quotation above represent about the pleasure of sense.
The next of pleasure of sense which show on thiss novel is about the pleasure of sexual sense. It will know on the narration that had been talked by Holy who tells about the mindset of sexual based on her own think.
“You know how some people think up sexual fantasies to get them through the night? Me, I get a hard-on thinking up new ways for dee jays to meet their pleasure: drowning in hellish pits of molten wax, beaten to a pulp by relentless beats, crushed by the weight of their merciless cool.”(Fletcher‟s, 2003:6)
From the narration above, besides having free sex, the purpose of New York lifestyle in early 90‟s is to fulfill their desire only to get satisfaction in their life by doing a sex and putting the pleasure in every condition of their life. This condition reflected to other situation in Hedonism that can be taken from the DJ Skippy statement in describing the condition in their life Hedonism. Sexual fantasies is describing about how the people have their own imagine about sexual, meanwhile sexual always explain about the pleasure that happen when a man and women life together. But here sexual are an activity that only doing when a man and women have the same sense about pleasure. When they are like doing a sex their will do without thinks about norm and role. Only pleasure becoming a purpose doing a sex.
Pleasure of Power
The pleasure of power is the pleasure that company the persuasion of a man’s being in a condition to dispose people, by means of their hopes and fears, and to show that he/she may dispose the position of others. The second pleasure that was exposed by the New York lifestyle in early 90‟s in getting the pleasure from their lifestyle is exposing is the pleasure of power which show about the position of someone to able to dispose other condition and manage it in better position. Since every person actually has the power to hold and manage other position just because they fell fear of certain condition so they tried to exposed their felling in order to they get a pleasure.
In this analysis, the conditions which is show how people able to dispose someone’s position by arranging someone conditions and activity in doing something or choosing something, it can be seen from the narration that show how Skippy as Dj, he arrange the people who come in the dancing club to enjoy and following the music that play by him.
Every music that play by Dj Skippy and what he said it will influence and followed by them. Actually from this condition Dj Skippy can get his own pleasure when he can arrange the people.
Past Enjoyment Value
Past enjoyment value is about casual condition of person’s wants to get values, it asserts that at least one’s fundamental values can be correlated with past enjoyment. These enjoyments are at least part of casual explanation of the values, and manipulating his enjoyments can control person’s value.
Past enjoyment values is become the final feeling that will be get by all of hedonist in finding the pleasure in their life, because value is the one condition which given a point in their life in exposing hedonism so all of the hedonist expose it in the real position or condition of their life in the place, that is exploring something good and do the activities like others their life that has value.
Every condition and activities that had been done by the people has a value and it becomes the one purpose of people in doing something, because every people wants to get values from their activities and after they did something it they will be given a satisfaction in his/her feeling, it just only to fulfill his/her desire and sometimes he/she do it by expose his/her feeling in order he/she will get enjoyment and the pleasure in his/her life.
This condition can be taken from Dj Skippy who wants to explain about the values from hedonism in New York lifestyle based on his perception.
“Hedonism provides entertainment for every entity, offers freedom for all seekers, it is a controlled entertainment, a contained freedom; for all that it pretends to no rules, it is a precision engine, designed to make money at any cost”.(Fletcher‟s,2003:83)
Actually, Skippy only wants to explain his feeling about hedonism based on his mind.
Based on this quotation the writer can state that based the people in New York at the time hedonism give value such as entertainment and freedom in life. Because this pleasure was became the good values for him and also for the others people who did it.
CONCLUSION
After answering the problem formulation in previous chapter using eligible approach and theories, then the last step of the research is conclusion (Lim, 2018). The conclusion sums up the result of the analysis in chapter four. Related to the analysis of hedonism at New York lifestyle in the early 90’s as reflected in Fletcher’s novel entitled Hedonism, the writer draw a conclusion that there some descriptions of hedonism at New York lifestyle in the early 90’s as exposed by the main character in the novel, such as when the characters get their pleasure and their desire based on their mind like consumes drug, having sex, drunk and dancing. Hedonism is really exposed by the New York people in the early 90’s, It was described by some characters in the novel Hedonism by exploring their feeling. Normative hedonism especially about pleasure of sense and pleasure of power are really exposed in Hedonism (Tiono & Sylvia, 2004). Motivational hedonism includes three of characteristics of motivational hedonism exposed by the characters such as, desire for pleasure, egocentric for pleasure and past enjoyment values expose to fulfill their desire in order that
they will get a satisfaction after doing kind of New York lifestyle that popular in the early 90’s.
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