In the 1960s it was the elders who were on the back foot, mocked by the babyboomers for asking questions such as Who are The Beatles? Ever since then politicians have been getting themselves into trouble over questions about their favourite Spice Girl or whether they have the Arctic Monkeys on their iPod. New Labour were so terrified of being fuddy duddy that they invented the ludicrous business of Cool Britannia, observed with tolerant bemusement by experienced heads of state.
Now the boomers are getting old & the tables are turning; it is the young who are being regarded in disbelief. They have never heard of John Wayne!
David Crystal had the draft manuscript of his new Little Book of Language read by a 12-year-old who asked exactly that question. She had neither seen nor heard of the movie Stagecoach. Crystal describes this as ‘a yawning chasm between our cultural mindsets.’
It is of course not just a question of knowing, or even admiring, John Wayne who never appealed to me very much. That whole culture of westerns on tv as well as at the pictures, morphing into the idea of Reagan’s America.
The name of Wayne was introduced into Crystal’s book as an example of a pseudonym. We English 12 year old sophisticates were used to mocking the choice that some film stars made when they abandoned their real names for one more suitable for the silver screen, but in this case the reason was only too obvious. Imagine being a boy called Marion!
Not just the films but that whole raft of cultural beliefs would seem strange to today’s young, living in a world where the western means Brokeback Mountain & ideas of the masculine ideal veer more towards the metrosexual.
The yawning chasm can open up even between those much closer in age than Crystal & his 12 year old reader. I remember a casual conversation in the office about the arrangements for the approaching Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. What did you do on Coronation day, I asked?
Such pitying looks for an old lady. Answers ranged from I wasn’t even born, to I was only three. Imagine not being able to remember the Coronation, or to be the proud owner of a Coronation Crown (a commemorative 5/- coin), a small blue-leather bound New Testament, & memories of first glimpsing tv & first tasting beer – someone’s idea of a joke when I wandered into the kitchen where my father & all the other men were having a glass was to give me a sip from his glass – ugh!
Now the boomers are getting old & the tables are turning; it is the young who are being regarded in disbelief. They have never heard of John Wayne!
David Crystal had the draft manuscript of his new Little Book of Language read by a 12-year-old who asked exactly that question. She had neither seen nor heard of the movie Stagecoach. Crystal describes this as ‘a yawning chasm between our cultural mindsets.’
It is of course not just a question of knowing, or even admiring, John Wayne who never appealed to me very much. That whole culture of westerns on tv as well as at the pictures, morphing into the idea of Reagan’s America.
The name of Wayne was introduced into Crystal’s book as an example of a pseudonym. We English 12 year old sophisticates were used to mocking the choice that some film stars made when they abandoned their real names for one more suitable for the silver screen, but in this case the reason was only too obvious. Imagine being a boy called Marion!
Not just the films but that whole raft of cultural beliefs would seem strange to today’s young, living in a world where the western means Brokeback Mountain & ideas of the masculine ideal veer more towards the metrosexual.
The yawning chasm can open up even between those much closer in age than Crystal & his 12 year old reader. I remember a casual conversation in the office about the arrangements for the approaching Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. What did you do on Coronation day, I asked?
Such pitying looks for an old lady. Answers ranged from I wasn’t even born, to I was only three. Imagine not being able to remember the Coronation, or to be the proud owner of a Coronation Crown (a commemorative 5/- coin), a small blue-leather bound New Testament, & memories of first glimpsing tv & first tasting beer – someone’s idea of a joke when I wandered into the kitchen where my father & all the other men were having a glass was to give me a sip from his glass – ugh!
And so it will continue. Just recently I had the pleasure of watching the face of a five year old struggle with the very concept of ’11 years ago’ – when there had actually been another film of the same name.
When I first began writing on this blog I often used to pause to think about whether my cultural references would mean anything to readers who might be anywhere in the world. I used to try to put in helpful links for those which might be obscure but you end up with annoying blue underlines all over the place. In the end it seems best just to leave readers to fend for themselves – after all, that is what search engines are for – to check what on earth it is that someone is on about.
