The year I turned 30 was 1974.This was a year when I was starting Graduate school. My political activities were winding down. Vietnam was clearly lost by then in any case. So in fact it was sort of a victory, right? But my political cohorts and I were also wandering around (and lost) what do we do next? I chose graduate school. For my birthday one of my close friends, Bob, an English lecturer on the verge of getting his phD gave me a copy of the Iliad translated by Richard Lattimore. Bob wrote on the cover page. "Because it all didn't begin in the 20th century. Happy Birthday, Bob."
What did he mean by that? What he was reminding me was that with my penchant for Hemingway and Fitzgerald as well other early 20th century writers that there was far more to understanding the human race than a few American writers who defined the Lost Generation. Even if their political stances, I'll say Dos Passos and Steinbeck and some others who fit my own political thoughts. When I thought about it he was right. Most of what I had taken in College, outside of a Shakespeare course and 17&18th Century English drama was focused on the 20th century, including philosophy classes which only examined Existentialism.
What a barbarian I must have seemed? Or was I? At least I was looking at historic matters which affected the current situation. I was spanning at a minimum fifty years.
But what about today? We have a generation growing up before our eyes who will be taking over the world pretty soon but whose attention span is ruled by video games, streaming services and their handheld devices. So many strike me as not stupid or dumb or even all that ignorant just not cognizant of that which may have happened before last week. So kids pay attention and just remember and repeat this as a mantra to yourself-- "Because it all didn't begin last week."
