Tom Brokaw a Boomer in Disguise?

Tom Brokaw is an excellent TV journalist who now has ascended to wise old man status having written at least a few well received best selling books--including one on "the greatest generation" and another on their poor relative --the boomers. As the presenter of the recent CNBC documentary of the same name "Boomer$" he seldom fails to draw the marked contrast between the supposed independent and selfless spirit of the babyboom parents and the self indulgent and their consumer crazy children. It all gets tiresome after a while Brokaw when Brokaw stacks the deck so heavily to reinforce his own thesis. He spends large chunks of time with the reformed stoners like P.J O'Rourke who felt the generation he belonged to was too smashed out of their minds to care about anything or anyone that seriously and the "stand-up" Vietnam vets who served their country without question-- men like Senator Webb who refuses to align with any particular generation. The boomers interviewed who fail to align ideologically are perceived as either drowning in debt, unemployed or regretful of their permissive ways. That is an over generalization but not much of one. When he comes to interviewing the person he refers to as the "Boomer in Chief"--Bill Clinton --he gets a bit of a rebuke when Bill comments to one of Brokaw's sardonic questions --I fail to believe that the greatest generation failed so miserably as parents. When one of Brokaw's focus group boomers asks at the end a question about what Tom thinks of us he replies "unrealized"--basically we had big dreams of changing the world and saving the planet and we have not lived up to the hype. The question is so who could?

Brokaw is clearly relishing the role of scourge in chief for the Boomers --many of whom did lose their way in the consumer culture they helped to create as a result of losing their idealism. But Brokaw should have also added (and it is very clear when you read his book which is something of an autobiographical journey through the 60s) that those very ideals that he wants to criticize boomers for not achieving or "realizing"--were the very same ones that were forged in the crucible of the 1960s. So you cannot have it both ways--we changed people's minds about what was important about life--that you cared about equality and people less fortunate, that you moved back a few notches from the militaristic values. and corporate greed that believed that wars solved problems. Some of us are still fighting these battles inspired by the things we learned in the 1960s and it is far too early in the game to call it quits. Brokaw in being so disappointed with the boomers is in fact betraying just how far he has become part of boomer culture and infused with its ideals.

Salinger

In a strange legal twist, J.D. Salinger the author of (arguably) the most read book by babyboom generation The Catcher in the Rye has now successfully challenged an effort to censor a So called sequel to the book. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains
that the new work is entitled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, and "depicts Holden as Mr. C., an irascible 76-year-old still spouting the same vitriol about "godamn phonies" and nursing the same distrust of the world around him. But this is not a sequel penned by Mr. Salinger, now 90, whose last published work appeared in June 1965. And if the author, a Swedish publisher named Fredrik Colting, is to be believed, it is not a sequel to the original. Rather, he maintains that the book is "literary commentary on 'Catcher' and the relationship between Holden and Salinger." To that end, a fictive Salinger makes an appearance as a character in "60 Years Later."

The judge ruled in Salinger's favor --disagreeing with the defense position that the Swedish author was attempting a work of literary criticism and upholding Salinger's attorneys who argued that Holden's character was "copyrightable."

"..literary critique in the form of a novel is not unheard of. Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea" retells "Jane Eyre" from the point of view of Bertha, the madwoman in the attic. Rita Copeland, a comparative literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania, calls it "a deep exploration of the political, social and racial issues that underlie Charlotte Brontë's novel. Of course Rhys' book is a great novel, but it's also an important 'reading' of 'Jane Eyre,' of the Caribbean side of the story in Brontë's novel and of the European relationship to the West Indies."

The ruling seems bizarre and will likely be overturned on appeal--(if of course Mr Colting has the funds to appeal) since there is no question that Salinger owns Caulfied in the way that Shakespeare owns Macbeth and Hamlet--only that author could have created the actual character and only his rendering is authentic. Colting has not disguised the fact that he is writing the story not Salinger. But the counter logic would suggest that since no one but Disney can market Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck in the verbal realm--Salinger's rights are akin to those of Disneys. But we are hitting here the limits of the legal imagination that can make a distinction between marketable Mickey Mouse and not so marketable Holden Caulfield.

But the more important lesson from this is perhaps the way that Salinger sees himself at this point in time. The WSJ characterizes his posture well:

"Mr. Salinger is notorious for his protection of his creations. He has denied movie directors the rights to option "Catcher" and turned down licensing deals that could have turned Holden Caulfield into a mass-marketing bonanza. We should add he bitterly fought British author Ian Hamilton from publishing his biography."

According to the WSJ "60 Years Later" mostly centers on Mr. C. (70% of the book is devoted to him) and includes only a few snippets of the Salinger character; the climax of the interaction is sketched out in one of the final chapters. Without Mr. C., the book could not exist. Without Salinger, it still paints a vivid portrait of how Holden stayed huddled in his cocoon and remained a boy in a man's body."

Is Holden really Salinger? I guess we will have to read the book to find out...

BabyBoom Review News

The kind of discussion we are hoping for here is to reflect on what leading boomers are doing, new trends that are making the boomers either nervous or happy about their situation and anything you find funny or interesting in the world that you think of interest to boomers. Some for examples follow:

Three items caught my attention today:

1. The Woodstock Museum opened--controversial and interesting landmark in our view of this event and this period judging by some of the pre-opening coverage that involved Senator Hillary Clinton's move to find federal money to fund the new building.

2.Dylan and his son in the Barack camp.

3.An unexpected interest in Dylan Thomas life--from Mick Jagger of all people.

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First the Woodstock Museum:



Yesterday--June 20, 2008 the Woodstock museum opened:






Woodstock Museum opens

"This was the museum, after all, that sparked campaign-season digs from Republicans last year after Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to help earmark $1 million for the museum. Visitors can watch videos of conservative critics skewering Woodstock, but fair warning: listening to Reagan administration Attorney General Edwin Meese describe the ’60s as a decade of self-indulgence on the way out the door might be a buzzkill.

People who were there, and remember it, can step up to a microphone to record their own experiences for posterity.

Visitors wishing to see the main stage area and imagine what the grassy hillside looked like loaded with hippies can drive down the hill from the museum and park by a marker that has been the main historical attraction here for years.

On a recent day as workers put finishing touches on the museum, Jens Haulund drove his minivan from Trumbull, Conn., to visit the marker with two young visitors from Europe. Haulund came to the United States from Denmark in 1996, and as his daughter climbed on the monument he talked about how as a young man, the Woodstock message of peace and love resonated across the Atlantic.

“It’s one of the main reasons I came to the U.S.,” he said."
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New interest in Dylan Thomas's life

See the Guardian Film Blog for the article in full but the details sound intriguing

"Why the Dylan Thomas, dead for 55 years, still continues to fascinate. And, moreover, fascinate the famous to an unusual degree. If a rock star, or indeed a film star, has heard of a poet, then that poet is going to be Dylan Thomas.

Mick Jagger, for instance, owns the rights to his 1939 collection, The Map of Love, and made John Maybury, director of The Edge of Love (about Dylan Thomas's relationship with his wife Caitlin and Vera Phillips) remove everything from that book that had been in the film, under pain of legal action. For Jagger intends to make his own film about the poet."
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The Dylan family seems to be backing Obama. It seems young Jakob--was responsible for the Yes We Can video that wowed voters in the primaries and his old man was pleased with the work.