Social Media Users Debate Using the Term ‘Un-Alived’ on Kurt Cobain Placard at Seattle Museum

“this is what george orwell was warning us about with 1984,” one person reacted on X.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana performs in December 1993 at Pier 28 in Seattle.

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc

An exhibition at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture has sparked a heated conversation about the real-life use of the slang term “un-alived,” which was spotted on a MoPOP placard that says Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain “un-alived himself at 27.”

Cobain died by suicide at age 27, on April 8, 1994. The Seattle museum shared this fact on an information card about the “27 Club” (a grouping of artists who all tragically passed away at the young age of 27), various patrons have reported.

But in place of “died by suicide,” MoPOP printed the internet slang “un-alived,” with the exhibition placard reading, “Kurt Cobain un-alived himself at 27.” The museum additionally put up a placard about the social context of the term’s usage in the digital age, also noting that “the Guest Curator has chosen to utilize the term as a gesture of respect towards those who have tragically lost their lives due to mental health struggles.”

On Saturday (Aug. 10), Stereogum pointed out many on social media were likening saying the word “un-alived” in real-life discussions regarding mental health — rather than using it only to circumvent censorship from algorithms on internet platforms like TikTok — to the dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984, despite the museum’s explanation.

Orwell wrote of “Newspeak,” a simplified, government-directed language intended to limit critical thinking, in the novel. One element of the fictional Newspeak grammar included tagging the simple prefix “un” onto words, instead of developing an expanded vocabulary.

“this is what george orwell was warning us about with 1984,” read one comment on X (formerly Twitter) posted Friday about the museum exhibit material using the word “un-alived.”

“That moment when it wasn’t the government but youtube and social media which caused newspeak from 1984 to become a real thing lmfao,” another person on X added. “And people still say that ‘these are private companies, they don’t have to allow speech they don’t want!’ Yes they do, they are the town square now.”

Meanwhile, another user on the platform offered a different perspective: “It’s MOPop who cares. Their exhibits talk in internet lingo all the time because it’s about pop culture. It’s basically a glorified collection showcase. Twitter people saw the word ‘museum’ and lost their s—.”

Meanwhile, someone else quipped, “This will help them [the museum] go viral on tiktok.”

By Sunday evening, the conversation thread had a new reply with an updated photo — one that showed the wording on the placard has apparently been changed, with “un-alived” being edited to “died by suicide.”

There’s a placard next to it that talks about the social context of “unalive” in how people talk about mental health but this is still stupid pic.twitter.com/iKA30ECUW7

— ブランドン (@burandon_sama) August 9, 2024

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