Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
by Christopher Noxon
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher NoxonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-04-24
ISBN: 1400080894
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
Book Review: A repulsive love-letter to American childishness.
Summary: 1 Stars
At a time when alleged adults dress like overgrown toddlers and take superhero movies seriously, a call for traditional notions of adulthood would be in order. This book, however, proposes that America isn't childish enough. Noxon's thesis, that infantile behavior is somehow more 'authentic' than maturity, is every bit as anti-rational as the Creationist bible-thumpers he no doubt feels superior to.
This book is littered with the stories of theoretically-grown men and women who clutter their lives with the sort of juvenile garbage that should be outgrown with the onset of puberty. Of course, Noxon paints anyone who has reached adulthood without retaining their love of Kickball and video games is a joyless stick-in-the-mud. The fact that in the past, adults COULD have fun, even hedonistic, lives without loosing their status as "grown-ups" seems lost on him.
Of course, the author has nothing put praise for Rousseau, whose defense of emotionalism over the intellect paved the way for atavistic tripe like this book. Noxon conveniently overlooks the fact that Rousseau abandoned his own children to an orphanage. I suggest the author heed the words of Voltaire to Rousseau: "No one has been as witty as you are in trying to turn us into brutes; to read your book makes me want to go on all fours. As, however, it is now some sixty years since I gave up the practice, I feel that it is unfortunately impossible for me to resume it."
Summary of Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up
Once upon a time, boys and girls grew up and set aside childish things. Nowadays, moms and dads skateboard alongside their kids and download the latest pop-song ringtones. Captains of industry pose for the cover of BusinessWeek holding Super Soakers. The average age of video game players is twenty-nine and rising. Top chefs develop recipes for Easy-Bake Ovens. Disney World is the world?s top adult vacation destination (that?s adults without kids). And young people delay marriage and childbirth longer than ever in part to keep family obligations from interfering with their fun fun fun.Christopher Noxon has coined a word for this new breed of grown-up: rejuveniles. And as a self-confessed rejuvenile, he?s a sympathetic yet critical guide to this bright and shiny world of people who see growing up as ?winding down??exchanging a life of playful flexibility for anxious days tending lawns and mutual funds.
In Rejuvenile, Noxon explores the historical roots of today?s rejuveniles (hint: all roads lead to Peter Pan), the ?toyification? of practical devices (car cuteness is at an all-time high), and the new gospel of play. He talks to parents who love cartoons more than their children do, twenty-somethings who live happily with their parents, and grown-ups who evangelize on behalf of all-ages tag and Legos. And he takes on the ?Harrumphing Codgers,? who see the rejuvenile as a threat to the social order.
Noxon tempers stories of his and others? rejuvenile tendencies with cautionary notes about ?lost souls whose taste for childish things is creepy at best.? (Exhibit A: Michael Jackson.) On balance, though, he sees rejuveniles as optimists and capital-R Romantics, people driven by a desire ?to hold on to the part of ourselves that feels the most genuinely human. We believe in play, in make believe, in learning, in naps. And in a time of deep uncertainty, we trust that this deeper, more adaptable part of ourselves is our best tool of survival.?
Fresh and delightfully contrarian, Rejuvenile makes hilarious sense of this seismic culture change. It?s essential reading not only for grown-ups who refuse to ?act their age,? but for those who wish they would just grow up.
From the Hardcover edition.
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