20
Popular Culture Review
dreams that he’s dead, he says, “Cool”), Like Gitlin’s, my (working) dichotomy
is an abstraction ladder.
From top to bottom:
Cool
Lexically positive
Lexically multkiimensional
Construction of a self
Motivated by choice
Masculine
“Love” (one-on-one)
Entertained by music
Dancing as an innocent parable
of sexual relations
Chill
Lexically negative
Lexically two-dimensional
Deconstruction of a self
Paralyzed by choice
Masculine/feminine
“Friendship” (group-defined)
Anesthetized by music
Dancing as an obscene parody
of sexual relations
As a part of speech—as the linchpin of Baby Boomer American
youthspeak—“cool” was far suppler than “chill” would become in the
postmodern era. Cool could apply to a haircut, a person’s clothes, the length of
his or her eyelashes, a quick classroom retort, a new color of ink—not to mention
a multitude of behaviors, feelings and beliefs.
The many-layered dictionary definitions of “cool” are generally positive:
adj.: Giving or suggesting relief from heat: a cool breeze, a
cool blouse .. . Marked by calm self-control: a cool negotiator.
. . Slang: Excellent, first-rate; has a cool sports car had a cool
time at the party. . . Slang: Entire; full; worth a cool million . . .
v. (tr.): To become calmer: needed time for tempers to cool n.
A cool place, part, or time: the cool o f early morning. The state
or quality of being cool. Slang: Composure; poise; “Owr
release marked a victory. The nation had kept its co o l” —
Idioms: cool it. Slang: To calm down; relax.
“Chill,” on the other hand, generally denotes the negative:
n. A sensation of coldness, often accompanied by shivering or
pallor of the skin . . . A checking or dampening of enthusiasm,
spirit, or joy; bad news that put a chill on the celebration.. . . A
sudden numbing fear or dread, adj. Moderately cold; chilly: a
chill w ind. . . Not warm and friendly; distant: a chill greeting..
. Discouraging; dispiriting: “Chillpenury repressed their noble
rage” (Thomas Gray), v. (tr): to make discouraged; dispirit.
(intr.): to be seized with cold.