Maybe you found out about Bohemians through Moulin Rouge or Rent. Maybe you read Vanity Fair or overheard it in conversation. The fact is though, you are looking for more information and hopefully I can provide it for you.
So, the proper thing to do is to introduce myself. My name and profession is unimportant, as is most things in life. By no means do I consider myself an expert of all things Bohemian. In fact, I’m sure this will be about as much of learning experience for me as it is for you, the reader. I am simply an artist who got curious as to what the hell everyone was talking about when they said I “was Bohemian.”
In a trick of the English language, someone who lives a bohemian lifestyle is not really from Bohemia. Simply put a Bohemian is someone who’s rejected conventional society in preference of pursuing artistic or literal interests. Bohemians got their name from the early belief that Gypsies, who share similar lifestyles, came from Bohemia.
The Bohemian lifestyle is, by nature, hard to define. The closest thing you can come to a true definition is to say what it generally is not. As mentioned earlier, Bohemians are more of a counter-culture. Ironically they couldn’t exist without society to contrast it. It is what society is not, but to be so it must have society to define what it is not.
Most Bohemians do agree on a couple points though. One is the rejection of materialism, a view especially significant in our world today. Instead of living and working each day to collect wealth, their “work” is for the sole purpose of fueling their passion. Please note that they do not take a vow of poverty. The rejection is of the pursuit of wealth in place of the pursuit of one’s passions. In fact, many Bohemians authors, like William Thackeray, and painters, like Jean-Francois Millet, have become famous (and with fame, a little wealth) through the pursuit of their passions. As cliché as it sounds, you do not own possessions, possessions own you. If you have a house, or a pet, or a car it ties you down. If you want to go anywhere you have to find someone to care for your things. When something starts controlling your life, it essentially owns you.
The other point, which some may suggest is equally important as the first, is the rejection of societal norms and/or values. This can range from the extremely mild rejection of society’s fashions and manners to the more extreme rejection of sexual mores in favor of rather promiscuous lifestyles. Instead of following the norm they choose for themselves what is best. Sometimes painful consequences come of these decisions, but the choice was the Bohemian’s to make, and the results are also his to bear. Many Bohemians indulge in both alcohol and drug use though mainly in the pursuit of “artistic inspiration.”