This week's episode of
My So-Called Life, "Guns and Gossip," begins with Angela Chase, in history class, expressing envy toward people who can tell her exactly where they were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The adults around her have painted the 1960's, a decade she missed by a good nine or ten years, as "a better time, [when] people knew what they were supposed to do and how to make the world better." She is disappointed in her own existence and that of her classmates, who, "instead of changing the world [...], sit in class and write notes about other people."
It's one of a handful of MSCL moments that, for me, makes perfectly obvious the fact that there are adult writers behind every line of adolescent dialogue, because (in addition to shoehorning in a measure of Baby Boomer, "Weren't the sixties a magical time?" smugness) it undermines the central conceit of the show: that the notes people write about other people, the awkward first kisses, the fall-outs with best friends- those things
are important. They
are world changing. They
are potentially devastating in the immediate world of the protagonist- much more so than the thought of guns or assassinations or... suitcase bombs. The episode regains its footing as it progresses, and as the "Gossip" half of the episode's title all but takes over, but that opening monologue
almost shatters the illusion of a teenage narrator for me.
My fifth period class delayed watching the episode until today, because we had the opportunity on Monday to listen to
Dr. Robert Fuller speak in the theatre, and while I think the experience was, overall, a valuable one, I've also got to say that there were moments when, despite the best of intentions, the good doctor pushed a few of my buttons.
Well, one button, mainly: I get wary of adults- and I've particularly seen it among those of the so-called "Woodstock Generation," though I'm sure my own peers are equally guilty- speaking to young people about the "task(s) of this generation," as if
their age group, having fought the good fight for half a century, has earned the right to assign its "important issues" to the underage interns. As I recall, no revolution has ever been fought by interns, at the behest of the white-haired gentlemen in the corner- it's hard to really call it a revolution when you're holding up someone else's banner. If a generation
is going to take up a cause (and I for one think it's slightly silly to speak of billions of people as if they'll all move with one mind), it must come to that decision independent of its predecessors. In fact, I'd put good money on the idea that a glowing endorsement from an elder statesman like Dr. Fuller may just be the kiss of death for a worthy cause. Social change, after all, implies that we are moving
against what came before.
Which is not to say that I don't agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Fuller's theories or his admonition against holding ourselves above others- I
do. It's just that I'd like to hear that- and
more- from someone in the movement- in
this movement, in
this present- rather than someone on his way out, looking to pass a torch. I understand that, as they say, past is prologue, and vital to our understanding of the present, but I'm eager for the 00's to be presented as more than just the long-awaited sequel to the 60's. And yes, some incredible things happened in the sixties. Yes, significant attention was brought to societal ills which had been previously overlooked by much of the population. But I'd wager that
most people had little to do with it.
Most people weren't sure what they were supposed to do or how to make the world better.
I'm still not sure what I'm
supposed do- if there is such a thing- but I have a handful of ideas for how to make my little corner of the world better.
I'm sure you do too, and I'd like to hear them.
Oh, and by the by: here is the quote from "Guns and Gossip" I
said I was going to write about:
“Don’t you remember? There’d be like this one person who had, like, perfect hair or perfect breasts, or they were just so funny... and you just wanted to eat them up- just live in their bed and just be them. It was like everybody else was in black and white and that person was in color.” (Amber Vallon, “Guns and Gossip”)
Here is the quote I
actually wrote about:
"Grownups like to tell you where they were when President Kennedy was shot, which they all know to the exact second- which makes me almost jealous, like I should have something important enough to know where I was when it happened- but I don’t yet. And the fact that it was a better time then, and people knew what they were supposed to do and how to make the world better... now nobody knows anything. We know who’s popular, or that social studies is boring, or that Bryan always has stomach trouble, but nobody knows anything important. Instead of changing the world, people sit in class and write notes about other people." (Angela Chase, "Guns and Gossip")
And here, if you're interested, is the bibliographical information:
“Guns and Gossip.” My So-Called Life: The Complete Series. Writ. Justin Tanner. Dir. Marshall Herskovitz. ABC. 8 Sept. 1995. DVD. Shout! Factory. 2007.
