Youth Culture in Less Than Zero and Imperial Bedrooms | Village Voice

Link: http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-08/books/bret-easton-ellis-writes-his-less-than-zero-sequel-imperial-bedrooms/full/

"Zero's weakness—a meandering plot where we wait for the characters to motivate themselves into caring about something—is forgivable. In 2010, its chronicling of rich and fabulous teen life makes Gossip Girl look like an after-school special. It now reads less like a coming-of-age story and more like an existential fairy tale explaining what happens when parents have everything but the capacity to love their children."

Though a lot of this article by Foster Kamer is about Ellis' Less Than Zero sequel, Imperial Bedroom, I found this paragraph particularly interesting. Here, Kamer is addressing a weakness and a change that Less Than Zero has shown in modern days. In the 80's, the story was shocking to the reader, particularly ones of an older generation as they struggled to believe that the youth of L.A. were actually living like this: Teenagers drinking, snorting, smoking, having sex and some even participating in prostitution. What Kamer also implies here in the extract above is that once upon a time, this kind of story would have been seen as a coming of age story which ties in with the notion of Less Than Zero being an example of Blank Literature.
         However, going back to what I was saying - I find it hard to believe that people were shocked by this kind of behaviour. As a teenager, you go through changes and change your views and you request freedom to do so. This would be quite typical of teenagers as a form of rebellion. As they are the future leading generation, teenagers tend to believe that they are more "aware" of the flaws of society and refuse to obey the rules as they don't want to live their life that way in the future. Putting it in this perspective, perhaps the manner and style in which Ellis wrote about things such as sex and so on may have been the shock, not the act themselves.

                                                    'Less Than Zero' Trailer (1987)

Cyndi Lauper VS Taylor Swift

At 22, All Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Cyndi Lauper is one of the most famous female singer/songwriters from the 1980's with hits such a 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', 'Time After Time' and 'True Colors'. Her debut album 'She's So Unusual' was released in 1983 and became an instant commercial success. Even today I still hear her songs on the radio and her name

is known by so many people, even those who, like me, were not born or alive during the 80's. I chose Cyndi Lauper because I feel like she represents the bouncy, energetic and fun-loving side of music in the 80's as well as the vibe it brought out in youth culture during that decade. Her music is harmless as in, she presents the choice of having fun, without getting drunk or doing drugs or god knows what else, something that is often referred to in music, particularly today. Because of this, she and her music have a positive infliction on the younger generation of which her music seems to be aimed at around this time.

In this respect, I feel that Cyndi Lauper and Taylor Swift have this representation of innocence in common with each other. Taylor Swift, at only 24 is a 7 times Grammy Award winner, last year she was honoured with The Pinnacle Award at the 2013 CMAs (Country Music Awards). In total, she has won an amazing 221 awards for various singles and albums, as well as Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist awards. Going back to what I was saying before, Taylor Swift doesn't sing or write about going out and having sex or

doing drugs and so on. Each song she writes tells a story, a proper, comprehensible story and that is something that is rare in today's music industry. She has been an incredible inspiration for people across the world and will continue to for years to come. She is simple, down to earth and friendly. Swift has become EXCESSIVELY rich from her career so far and she doesn't misuse the money. She is one of the most charitable of celebrities. I think her ability to keep her cool whilst still being so down to earth will be something that will be remembered in years to come.

"Long live the look on your face and bring on all the pretenders, one day,

                                                  We will be remembered..."

                                                                   - 'Long Live' by Taylor Swift, Speak Now

The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C is located in Constitution Garden adjacent to the National Mall. Completed in 1982, the memorial was designed by American architect Maya Lin to honour those U.S service members of the U.S armed forces who fought during the Vietnam War and consists of (approx.) 58,195 names. The wall is to commemorate those who died and those who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the war.

              In addition to the wall, Lin also added a bronze sculpture named 'The Three Soldiers' and is sometimes also known as 'The Three Servicemen' which are purposely identifiable as a white American, African American and a Hispanic American. The positioning of the sculpture caused some controversy as people thought it should be placed with the wall because of their connection. But Lin insisted that by doing so, it would take away the effect and significance of the wall - making it just a backdrop to the sculpture.The statue was unveiled in 1984, two years after the wall was completed. In the final arrangement of the two, the statue and the wall were composed to "interact" with each other, facing the statue towards the wall having the soldiers looking on in "solemn tribute at their fallen comrades". 

Back To The Future Part II

More Eighties Than The Eighties

The Back to the Future trilogy is one of the most iconic film series of the last quarter of the 20th century. It's first instalment grossed $383,874,862 worldwide, making it the 13th-highest-grossing trilogy of all time, worldwide. Though the film was made and originally based in the 1980s, the films were obviously set in completely different times, the first movie being set in 1955, the second in 2015 and the third in 1885. Though it is hard to say from someone who wasn't born until 1994, but I assume that the future 2015 that was depicted in BTTF Part 2 was relatively realistic for the future. Ironically, there are actually a few predictions this film made that were right. Such as video conferencing, plastic surgery and wireless video games. However, we are still anxiously waiting for the arrival of hover cars and the very famous hover board. Note to scientists: you have one year left to make this happen. However, what I find quite humorous about this film in particular is how it looks like a culture collision with the 'future' and the 80's. In terms of fashion, the film makers of Back to the Future seem to have combined together the most popular items of fashion over the last two or three decades and declared them the fashion of the future. And even just the ideas of the future and how technology will have advanced is very eighties. Granted, it isn't set far enough in the future that there are robots on every corner, but there are still signs of a 'stereotypical future'. Flying transportation has always been either man's biggest expectation or dream of the future.  

These two clips show examples of the future in Back to the Future Part II. The first clip, on the left, is the opening future scene of the famous Hill Valley square, highlighting some examples of how things will change. The second clips, below, is the hover board chase scene which again, highlights the brilliance and awe of future technology, using the hover board. Though the producers couldn't get too carried away with their new technology; although 2015 will have hover cars and hover boards and god knows what else, the one thing they won't have invented by then is waterproof technology.

11 Predictions that Back to the Future Part II Got Right: http://www.11points.com/Movies/11_Predictions_That_Back_to_the_Future_Part_II_Got_Right

The Mother and Father of The 1980s

Role Swapping

Throughout the early 1900's and before that, the roles of men and women in the household was pretty set in stone - the men would go to work and the women stay at home to clean, cook and raise the children. Though in today's society, we see a very different picture. And it was in the 1980's that we saw this shift in authority and status quo take place. Here, some women began to be defined as 'Supermoms', these were generally the women who were now single mothers and were forced to take up a job as well as being a mother. However, there were many occasions where even married women with children would take up careers too. And for the men, some where starting to become stay at home dads and often would take up the role of the wife as a whole whilst the woman went to work. On the less family side of things, some women would even become CEO's of companies that they had either joined or built on their own. This kind of shift in authority in both the household and the workplace is a major step in equality, though the women would be paid considerably less in comparison to

the men. And although the numbers wouldn't be too different in today's world, a female CEO of a company would still be paid less than if she were a man. I suppose it runs along with the idea of women still being just for procreation. Many women today choose a career over a family, but they are still stuck with this stereotype that they will eventually get pregnant and that will put a large crack in their career prospects. 

The 1980's 'Yuppie' and The 2010's 'Hipster'

'The Hipster is the Reincarnation of the Yuppie - Gone Wrong'

In today's society, the idea of 'social groups' has been narrowed down to a very small few. Once upon a time, there was a vast range of groups - we have the stereotypical high school cliques such as jock/popular, nerd, skater, really just watch fifteen minutes of Disney's 'High School Musical' and you have your main groups there. Interestingly, high school movies still hold this same basic status quo, though in reality young adult/teenage social groups have been narrowed down into one giant class of stupidity - hipsters. It is very easy to spot a hipster nowadays; a hipster will wear skinny jeans that roll up a bit at the bottom, platform trainers, if they're a girl, they will very likely have long hair with a bright dip dye at the ends and a large swooping fringe that covers half their face, not to mention the ridiculous 'nerd' glasses, commonly worn without lenses. These are just a few factors of 'hipsterism' along with the idea of being forever young, an infinity tattoo and a nebula iPhone case. The key slogan for being a hipster is also the perfect summary of what it means to be one and that is "I liked something before it was cool." and they are greatly known for liking whatever no one else has ever heard of. Though, there are many different 'sub-genres' of hipsterism, some of the most popular are the gangster/chavy types and the hippy kind and everything in between.
                        Hipsters are mocked for their desperate need to be cool by being vintage and unique. Similarly, if we were to take a step back a few years to the 80s and the age of the yuppie, something similar could be said for the youth of then. Yuppies, just as hipsters, had a bad reputation in society that was mostly based off of annoyance and potentially envy, though hipsters face little envy. Personally, I would prefer to have yuppies around today rather than hipsters. In contrast to the hipsters, yuppies were mocked for their overtly 'self-absorbed' manners and hunger for social status among peers. They are an example of socially acceptable snobbery. According to author and political commentator Victor David Hanson:

"Yuppism... is not definable entirely by income or class. Rather, it is a late-20th-century cultural phenomenon of self-absorbed young professionals, earning good pay, enjoying the cultural attractions of sophisticated urban life and thought, and generally out of touch with, indeed antithetical to, most of the challenges and concerns of a far less well-off and more parochial Middle America. For the yuppie male a well-paying job in law, finance, academia, or consulting in a cultural hub, hip fashion, cool appearance, studied poise, elite education, proper recreation and fitness, and general proximity to liberal-thinking elites, especially of the more rarefied sort in the arts, are the mark of a real man."

For the hipster and the yuppie, their reputation and status in society share a similar rank. In favour of the yuppie, it could still be said that at least they represented a group of sophisticated, ambitious, successful and well educated young adults - could that really be said for today's young adults? Yuppies are shunned and criticised for their obnoxious and self-absorbed attitudes but by those who have a considerably lower income. So the hatred or dislike for this group was based off of jealously at the end of the day. Hipsters are like a modern day take on the yuppie and a modern day fail. Hipsters try to appear sophisticated with their 19th-20th century prose that half of them probably can't even read. Their Starbucks latte, their type writers, their classical music, their 'philosphical' Tumblr posts quoting songs with space or a young couple with beanie hats and glasses kissing in the background. Hipsters are the reincarnation of yuppies gone wrong.

The LGBTQ Community and Ronald Reagan

The Failure to Act: Discrimination, Death and AIDS

Personally, I know very little in terms of politics and law. However, in terms of politics and presidency, I find it interesting to delve into the views and opinions of certain communities when it comes to something important that strongly effected that community. In this case, I looked up the AIDS epidemic that spread across the US during the 1980s, killing thousands of people in the process and how because of President Reagan's stubborn morals (and likely religious views) the disease was ignored for 5 years. 

                  The AIDS virus was first recognised 1981 by a health centre reporting a strange immune system disorder to five homosexual men in Los Angeles, CA. By the end of that year, 422 cases of the illness had been reported, 159 of those cases had resulted in death. Despite the rising number of deaths due to the disease, Reagen still denied the danger that Americans could face and refused to acknowledge there was any

issue. AIDS had become a deadly disease associated with the gay community and because of this, many strongly religious communities decided to overlook the illness, brush it under the rug and deemed it as a punishment to those who committed sodomy and behaved immorally. 

                   In 1982, it was made known that AIDS could be passed through heterosexual relations as well, though this didn't chance the public's view that connected the disease to the gay community. The US government continued to ignore the growing threat of AIDS. Help for those diagnosed with the disease didn't arrive until 1985 when the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved AIDS testing, but which point 22,996 cases of AIDS had been diagnosed and 12, 592 had ended in death. It's disgusting to think that thousands upon thousands of Americans were happy to let their fellow American die purely because a book told them that his or her sexual orientation was wrong. 

                    AIDS had swept the nation and the Reagan administration recognised that they could no longer go without addressing the epidemic. Reagan finally acknowledged it and for the first time used the word 'AIDS' in a speech given in 1987. And so the journey of picking up the pieces after years of doing nothing began, though the help given was still very limited. By the end of that year, 71,176 people had been diagnosed with AIDS - 41,027 had died.

The 80's - The Best Decade of Cinema

The Decade of Iconic Hollywood

The 80's gave us some of the most timeless Hollywood blockbusters of all time. Above is an image from Robert Zemeckis' iconic 'Back to the Future' (1985), a film about a young Marty Mcfly (Michael.J.Fox) who is sent back to 1955 in a Delorean time machine where he must try everything possible to get back to the future without adjusting the past.Along with 'Back to the Future', there were also many other hit movies that define 80's cinema, for example, 'Ghostbusters' (1984), Die Hard (1988) and 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981).
             Many of the films released in the 80's were turned into series or released it's most popular instalments that led them to become hardcore franchises. The Star Wars Saga, for example, is one of, if not the most famous fandom in the history of film. According to 'Vulture', Star Wars is 2nd in the biggest fandoms of all time, with 'Game of Thrones' taking first place and 'The Twilight Saga' taking third. Here is the list:

1. Game of Thrones
2. Star Wars
3. Twilight
4. Harry Potter
5. Justin Bieber
6. Lord of the Rings
7. The Hunger Games
8. Lady Gaga
9. Doctor Who
10. Arrested Development

To continue the list - http://www.vulture.com/2012/10/25-most-devoted-fans.html#photo=15x00022

Interestingly, all of these 'fandoms' are based around very recent films/books/music. However, Star Wars is the only one from the list which isn't from the 21st Century, although it can be said that neither is Doctor Who as it's first episode was aired in 1963, however, it's increasing popularity and the formation of the 'Whovian' didn't start until it's revival in 2005. The Star Wars franchise has lived to this day from the rise of it's popularity in the 1980's. Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Termintor are all examples of other popular franchises of the time, and although they don't have hardcore fan-bases to their names, they still remain timeless, re-watchable classics.

Perhaps another reason why these films were (are, still) so popular, is because of the originality and creativity of the story and plot. In today's film industry, cinemas are bursting with sequels, remakes and safe plots which gives the modern film a certain lack of excitement and risk. With today's technological advances in film making, with the correct software and equipment, we are now able to create an entire realistic CGI world from a computer desk (e.g. Avatar). Although, to us today, watching
something like Jaws is almost painful when we can clearly see just how 'animatronic' the shark is, when it was released in 1975, it was a realistically scary film. The 80's were a break in special effects in film. Ghosts and ghouls from the 80's are one of my favourites, looking at something like Slimmer from Ghostbusters or the creepy demons from Poltergeist - we can see how unrealistic they are, yet, there is something about them that still makes them brilliant.