Good Morning!
Well, I don’t know what happened to my nice final draft of this newsletter issue, but it certainly disappeared between the moment I closed my laptop on Wednesday afternoon and the time that the programmed “send” hit.
My sincere apologies for sending out such a half-baked effort. I suppose if I were better at marketing, I would say something like “A Very Special Bonus Issue of On the Common.”
Anyway, as they say in futbol, “we go again.”
The Part Where There’s an Essay: Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties
Compared to other years, I’ve been pretty quiet on social media this year about what I’m reading. There’s been no shortage of books, but I just haven’t been sharing them. This week, I’d like to change that for one book: Chuck Klosterman’s excellent retelling of The Nineties. What follows is a list of things that got my attention and made me think, in no particular order:
Decades, or periods of history, tend to begin with one event, and end with another. In the case of the ’90s, Klosterman makes the case that the decade didn’t start until Nirvana released their album Nevermind on September 24, 1991. For a generation whose number one generational hangup was that of being a “sellout,” Nirvana personified a struggle as they gained popularity. Grunge music was decidedly anti-establishment, but then the establishment decided to embrace it. What to do?
I probably don’t have to tell you what the closing event of the ‘90s was. Here’s the concluding sentence of the book: “The flights were hijacked, the planes crashed into buildings, 2,977 people died, and the nineties collapsed with the skyscrapers.”
Presidents’ legacies are defined not only by their performance but also by the time that they are in power. In Bill Clinton’s case, as time has lengthened since his time in office, his reputation has declined as a politician and president. But the ‘90s were a pretty great time to be in power: the economy was strong, the world was largely peaceful, and most Americans enjoyed being American. So to be a middling (at best) president during an easy time makes for a pretty good legacy. The thing is -- we don’t have this perspective until far, far away from the present. We must keep that in mind when judging current events.
We may never have a “decade” in this sense again. With the advent of the internet, Klosterman argues, information and entertainment options have become so watered down and so numerous, that we don’t all experience things together anymore. We don’t go through things communally anymore, at least not in a way that defines an entire generation and decade. There will never again be a “Who Shot JR?”1 moment on TV, because the myriad options of streaming entertainment, along with literally thousands of channels on live TV, offer too many choices for us all to settle on one thing.
The OJ chase, Reality Bites, the home run race, the Rodney King trial, Pearl Jam, Y2K, Bush v Gore -- they are all here. It was wild fun for me to revisit this time; the 90s were the decade that took me from being a high school freshman to an expecting mother (our firstborn was born in January of 2001). If you’re close to my age, I think you’d love this book.2
For the Anglophiles
OK, gather round, everyone.
The Persuasion movie on Netflix. At this writing, I haven’t watched it yet. But I appreciate each and every one of you who is texting me the hilarious reviews, including the one that suggested that everyone involved ought to be jailed for some time.
Persuasion is my favorite of Jane Austen’s works. It is not a comedy; it’s quite sad, though of course there are funny moments. Austen wrote it as she was dying. The heroine, Anne Elliot, is the protagonist that Austen said she related to the most. Anne spends most of the book in regret over a lost love.
It also contains the greatest love letter — and greatest moment of unveiling the letter — in perhaps all of English literature. From what I understand, the film torpedoes this moment, in addition to committing a hundred other sins.
But again, I haven’t seen it yet. You might hear the yelling when I do finally sit down and (yes) hate-watch it.
In conclusion:
…at least it has supplied us with some truly excellent Twitter content.
Reads & Listens of the Week
This is My Body Given for You: some interesting thoughts here about the role of the body. “Circumcision, incarnation, crucifixion, Pentecost, baptism, marriage, celibacy, martyrdom, and resurrection are all one story: one person gives the body to another person.”
You can now preorder Melissa Zaldivar’s book What Cannot Be Lost. This is the book I’m most looking forward to from The Good Book Company this fall. I’ve already read it, and cried through most of it. It’s about loss, grief, Jesus Christ, and the Alcotts. Melissa works part time at Orchard House and invites you to consider the family’s griefs and sorrows. It’s a lovely book and you should all buy it — if you order at TGBC before 7/24, you can get it for 40% off with free shipping.
If you need to laugh a whole bunch, please enjoy Dave Barnes’ podcast from this past week. I couldn’t stop giggling. Jon and Dave: The Escape Door.
You might already know that I adore the show Somebody Feed Phil. (Story Warren piece here). The Sporkful interviewed Phil this week, in a piece that touches on his menu strategy, his family history (both his parents are Holocaust survivors), and the origins of Somebody Feed Phil.
The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into autumn - the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
Yes, I know this was the ‘80s. If you don’t know what this phrase refers to, it’s a moment in time when seemingly everyone needs to tune in to watch the next episode of a TV show. Remember: there was no streaming. Your best hope, if you missed the original airing, was to catch a rerun over the summer (and even then, networks only showed a fraction of the season in reruns).
And if you’re not, you will gain some perspective on the last time the current fashion trends were a hit. Babydoll dresses with tiny florals? Doc Martens? Yep, I had ‘em.