2 formative forces of my youth/young adulthood gone in the span of 2 days.
2 very different men.
2 very different seminal works.
Alongside Charles Bukowski, JD Salinger and Howard Zinn - and, respectively, Catcher in the Rye and A People's History of the United States - helped me see myself and the world around me in a more truthful light.
In Catcher, my 15 year old self rejoiced in finally - FINALLY - finding a voice that could help lead me through those existential vagaries, that obtuse confusion that washes over most teens. Once the last page was read, all that inexplicable angst-y discomfort/anxiety - or at least, a portion of it - was replaced with a feeling of something like contentment. Probably the kind of contentment those kids who joined the Christian youth group at my high school were after."The Jesus Youth" I called them. Pssh. Who needs JC when you have JD?
Oddly enough, of all the extra-curricular groups at school, The Jesus Youth members accounted for a disproportionate percentage of our school's pregnancies. Hmm.
Anyway, while it's true that through Holden Caulfield, Salinger didn't directly answer any of life's burning questions, he did deliver something even more valuable. He told me it's not only fine to be clueless and confused, but that it's actually part of being alive. This feeling wasn't some sort of personal defect, it was a human truth: NOBODY has this shit figured out. NOBODY ever will. Anybody who claims to have it figured out, is, well, a big "phony" to use one of Holden's favorite words.
"History is a protective armor against being misled."
About 10 years after reading Catcher, I randomly came across Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States while wandering around in a Barnes and Noble. At the time, I was coming to terms with the fact that maybe I really didn't take full advantage of my time in college. Trying to assuage this guilt, I had been reading ferociously. Politics. Philosophy. Classic Fiction. Anything and everything. And the backcover copy of A People's History was just intriguing enough for me to drop $25 I didn't have for the book.
Little did I know that those $25 would render $1,000s in university credits completely useless anyway.
I opened the book and didn't put it down for 2 weeks.
Widely-taught, oft-repeated historical "facts" were discredited with each turn of the page.
Iconic, lionized American figures like Teddy Roosevelt became brutish war-mongers.
Once-celebrated, now-tainted names like Christopher Columbus sullied even more so.
Why?
For the first time in my life I was reading history from the viewpoint of "the losers". The people who suffered and were victimized by the likes of Roosevelt and Columbus in the name of imperial expansion and greed.
"Manifest Destiny" proved to be nothing but a marketable term for forceful takeovers, lies and genocide.
But Zinn in A People's History isn't just a one-man historical wrecking crew, bulldozing monuments and calling it a day, leaving the reader to deal with the rubble. He presents what he calls an "alternate set of heroes". People like Helen Keller and Mark Twain. Not unheard of figures by anybody who made it past the 5th grade to be sure. But what we didn't learn about these people might surprise you, such as Helen Keller as labor organizer or Mark Twain as vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League (watch Zinn expound on this in an interview with Amy Goodman). You know, shit that wasn't in Huck Finn or in the made-for-TV version of The Helen Keller Story with that chick from Little House.
Zinn taught me that there is no such thing as THE History of [blank]. This thing we call "history" changes depending on the perspective of the person telling it.
And more than anything, in a broader sense, Zinn taught me to be an active observer - of history, yes, but more importantly of the large, established institutions that set the parameters our society currently functions within: government, corporations, Wall Street, schools and religion.
“I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers."
- Howard Zinn
Posts
3 comments:
As much as I want Dustin Diamond to die (and I do, very much), I'm just not sure I'd group him with those two were that happy event come to pass. It just wouldn't count.
To begin with, Salinger and Zinn were brilliant. Second, they contributed something to the cultural discourse...and not just the POP cultural disGUST. Third, they wrote. Dusty's trashy tell-all about his "Bell" castmates doesn't count. Last, they're going to be horribly missed. If Diamond bought the farm, I'd throw a party.
No...in order to flesh out the trifecta, we'd have to lose a culture-enhancing, genius author who'd be legitimately mourned. Someone like Christopher Hitchens, Tom Wolfe, or maybe Philip Roth.
Screech just doesn't make the cut, I fear.
I think Zinn will be pleased with the enlightenment coming soon. With 6 different forms of the same propaganda from 3 multi-national companies (all coming from one shadowy figure body) our generation seems very resistant.
What scares me, however, is that the generation below us seems, at least at this point, hell bent on doing exactly what Zinn feared.
However, most youth lack in wisdom that they make up in zeal.
I have never read Zinn, but you bet your ass I will be, and soon.
2 awesome books. 2 awesome men. 1 awesome post that I agree with word for word. The world is lesser place without them. It's a good thing man figured out how to put thoughts on paper.
Post a Comment