off-topic griping.
helena kim (helenak@geocities.com)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 15:06:29 +0000
> #2-Helena...Join the club! I feel your little birthday pains...I myself
> entered the world only two weeks before you (18 December 1979).
This reminds me of a thread that surfaced a while ago, about Billy
Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' (or something to that effect). When
you think about it, we've really gotten a terrible deal in terms of
'eras' to be born in. The only thing that I can see as being vaguely
important historically (i mean that people in the future will see as
revolutionary) is the whole net phenomeneon, and even now, it's is so
late in its evolution that we can't even see ourselves as innovators
anymore.
Seriously, I've been a teenager since 1993. All the interesting exciting
stuff (Berlin Wall, collapse of Russia, Gulf War) happened when I was
really too young to see the significance. I can't remember the Thatcher
years as being any different from any other years. I was too late for
the e-taking in fields thing, I arrived just in time for the e-taking in
clubs thing, and even that whole scene (at least in this country) has
collapsed completely since 1996. As far as I can see (don't quote me),
people my age are just so eager to be part of a revolution, to achieve
something memorable in the way our parents did, that there's just a
little mini-movement every five minutes, that life is just becoming more
and more fragmented, and less and less cohesive. When you consider that
the original 'Generation-X' (not my words), the over-educated,
under-employed generation, are now in at least their late twenties (no
offense) and experiencing a major economic boom, it becomes obvious that
being a slacker is not a lifestyle choice in quite the same way being a
hippie was. Like everyone else, we're looking for something, but unlike
those who went before, mods, beats, hippies, flappers even, there is no
direction. Bloated old rock journalists and 'social critics' are
steering the ship. It's just recycle, recycle, recycle. Who remembers
goth the first time it was around? Brit-pop? (oasis, come on!) Disco?
(Spice Girls anyone...) Is there a parallel between Kate moss and
Twiggy? There's a nasty truth to the statement that eveything touted as
the coolest new thing has been bloody well done before.
My point is that there are no hugely important moral causes like women's
lib or civil rights, or us withdrawal from vietnam, or even fucking poll
tax, to complain about. Yeah, lets's cost the taxpayer a few dozen
million pounds and save a few badgers. I don't think anyone cares
anymore... There's no exciting rebellious revolution to join in...
And to bring this all back to a close, I would like to say that apart
from all the many reasons there are to like Salinger's writing, some of
it I like because of the setting and the syntax of the dialogue, in that
i have a romanticised view of what holden's or franny's time was like. I
enjoy being able to sink into a book and be transported far away from
Clinton's flaccid sex life and the top 40... from Oprah's book club and
the new cK camapaign...
to a time when people dressed well, cared about the theatre, drank
martinis and highballs and... oh, you know what i mean.
:helena
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