Back to Our Future - Introduction
To get us going slowly with our discussion of David Sirota's Back to Our Future, I thought I'd post today on his brief but insightful introduction. We'll have plenty of time to chat about the provocative thesis that Sirota lays out neatly here. Instead, I was particularly struck by his notion of 80s culture as shared language. On p. xiii, he writes: "As typical kids growing up in the suburbs, my siblings and I were pretty different from one another. We had different tastes, jobs, interests, attitudes, and politics....But through it all, we patched together a common dialect of eighties references that served as a diplomatic Morse code-bridging conflict, forging compromise, and uncomfortable silence."
Having just returned from a weekend at the Nocito household in Glenville, NY, shared linguistic codes are fresh in my mind. Footie is an obvious bond, lines from This is Spinal Tap are fairly frequent, but Monty Python references are really the lingua franca during that kind of weekend. Within minutes, we're 16 again, talking in squeaky voices about Spam, lumberjacks and budgies being "flushed down the loo!" Unfamiliar names produce Mrs Scum's immmortal "Never even 'eard of 'im." Any argument is ended with "Did, did, did, did, did and did!" And of course there's plenty of eye-rolling and shaking of heads among the rest of the family.
So, what of this? Do you have any other examples of cultural artifacts that serve as unspoken shared bonds between you and your loved ones? If you haven't received the book yet or haven't had a chance to start it yet - no worries. Chip right in. Feel free to comment on this issue and anything else that interested you about Sirota's introduction and we'll move on to Chapter 1 next Monday (June 6).
posted by The Blue Devil @ 9:12 AM
6 Comments:
We do a lot of quoting from Bugs Bunny. "Kill the wabbit" when we're setting out the squirrel traps, "I tawt I taw a puddytat" when we spy the feral kitty who's been catching mice by the woodpile and "that's dethpicable" just about any time. But tops in the quote department in this house is definitely Monty Python. It's so bad that two friends of ours gave us a Holy Grail for Christmas, which has pride of place in the dining room...
It's interesting that you've mentioned a cultural language that unifies your entire family unit. I think that Sirota's assumption is that 80s culture was/is a way for adolescents to demarcate their identities vis a vis their parents. Perhaps the situation will change once your kids enter adolescence? I don't know. Kids these days are certainly closer to their parents than our generation of kids was. A recent Ohio State study that I read found that the average college freshman today calls his/her parents three times a day! My parents were lucky to hear from me once a week back in my BU days.
I'm through chapter three and am richly enjoying -- which is somewhat of a surprise as the Introduction left me wondering whether this book was for me. Having moved back to the US in 1980, a large part of my identity from 1980 through 1986 involved rejecting anything accepted as American pop culture. Thus, Sirota's references to Indiana Jones, The Empire Strikes Back, and the Rocky movie franchise were lost on me. As were the references to Knight Rider and Dukes of Hazard. But, Sirota piqued my interest in his premise near the conclusion of the introduction with the popular culture references from the 2000s with their links to the 1980s -- American Idol is Star Search, Curb is Seinfeld, etc.).
I'm shocked by the three times per day . . . yes, once a week calls for the parents . . .
I had a similar anti-American perspective when I first moved to Boston for college. It's not so much that I was unaware of American television, movies and music - rather, it's that I actively rejected it. I certainly watched all of those 70s Lucas and Spielberg movies as well as 70s TV shows like Starsky and Hutch and even the Dukes of Hazard. But by high school I had developed an identity around being snobbishly anti-American. Part of that was a defense mechanism and part of it was wanting to separate myself from the military kids who jetted in for a couple of years with their families, never left the base and buggered off back to the U.S.
I can remember, for example, having several arguments with the metal-heads at LHS about how only British metal was authentic and American hard rock was crap. And I seem to remember wearing a badge with the Clash slogan "I'm so bored with the USA" on my anorak for a while. And of course playing and watching footie was a conscious choice - and still is, to some extent.
So I went back to college armed with a truckload of British new wave music and Monty Python references hoping that it would make me seem somewhat exotic and cool to the other students. It didn't. So fairly quickly I dropped the Gwyneth Paltrow routine and watched as many John Hughes movies as anyone else did. I still have my blind spots when it comes to American references when I play trivia games but enough of Sirota's references resonate to allow me to see where he's going with the book.
Hi All, This is Steve Caldwell. An Alex P. Keaton wannbe. OK, without the tie.
I left the UK in the late 70's and was able to experience all of the Reagan Era first hand. Will I be a token or are there others who are sympathetic to the Tea Party?
Can't wait to discuss how the Love Boat and Fantasy Island impacted the world. Hopefully SNL will be a prominent feature of this book.
I download the book to my wife’s Ipad yesterday. Let the games begin.
Great to hear from you, AZ!
I do think that you're likely to be the conservative/libertarian on board for this discussion but no matter - I promise that you'll get a fair hearing and I think your perspective will add a lot to the chat. The only other LOBer that has similar political views to yours is Blubber Boy (Greg Dosedel) and I haven't heard a peep out of Minnetonka for yonks now.
You've probably already twigged to Sirota's left of center vantage point on these issues, so I'll look forward to hearing your take on the book. Great to have you on board.
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