Absolute Beginners: A 1950s London Teenage Life and Youth Culture, Appunti di Cultura Inglese I

Scarica Absolute Beginners: A 1950s London Teenage Life and Youth Culture e più Appunti in PDF di Cultura Inglese I solo su Docsity! ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS Absolute Beginners is a novel, written and set in 1958 in London, England and was published in 1959. The novel is written from the first-person perspective of a teenage (19 yrs) photographer, who lives in part of West London that he calls Napoli. The area is home to large numbers of Caribbean immigrants, as well as Brits on the edges of society, such as homosexuals and drug addicts. The themes of the novel are: - the narrator's views on the newly formed youth culture; - his fixation on clothes and jazz music; - his love for his ex-girlfriend Suzette (nickname Crêpe Suzette); - his father's illness. - the setting racial tensions in the summer of Notting Hill. In the smoky jazz clubs of Soho and the coffee bars of Notting Hill, the young and the restless (THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS) are revolutionizing youth culture and forging a new carefree lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. The protagonists of this world are precisely young people who use music and fashion to write their own identity. Moving in the midst of this world of mods and rockers, Teddy gangs and trads, is MacInnes’s young photographer, whose unique wit and honest views remain the definitive account of London life in the 1950s and what it means to be a teenager. In this twentieth-century cult class, MacInnes captures the spirit of a generation and creates the style bible for anyone interested in mod culture, and the changing face of London on the cusp of a new era. The protagonist of the novel, whose name the author never reveals, is like MacInnes himself an inside-outsider. In fact, in the very first pages of the novel he reveals his occupation, that is to say that of a photographer. It is a very important detail, in fact through the protagonist of his novel, MacInnes actually offers us a snapshot, or a sequence of snapshots of London culture in the late fifties. In this sense, the protagonist is inside-outsider, that is, he is both inside and outside the scene, he lives, moves in that culture, manages to frame details, images, through accurate descriptions. Among the main characters of the novel are: - The Wizard/ Wiz: best friend of the narrator, a baby-faced sociopath who works as a pimp, and after a falling out, joins with the racist thugs during the riots; - Crepe Suzette: the narrator’s ex-girlfriend who behaves promiscuously and who intends to enter into a sexless marriage with her boss, a middle-aged stylist named Henley; she is 17, she dances like an angel, she is crazy for blacks but she dreams of a separate marriage. She is a Jewish-Scottish-Gibraltarian mixed blood, and the protagonist is inevitably in love with her. They never made love, they just got close to it; their relationship is suspended and unspoken. Let alone when she will bond with another: the extreme and adolescent reactions of the photographer will be those predictable, late romantic, grotesque but inevitably tender. Suzette is the allegory of the cultural revolution dreamed by the photographer; it is impossible to possess her, because she is a symbol. He may persuade her, he may despair over her weaknesses, and her belonging to another - to others - but he will never be able to hold her. - The narrator’s parents: his mother runs a boarding house and prefers the company of her second husband, the narrator’s father. She has a stormy relationship with the narrator, who keeps a photographic darkroom at the house as an excuse to visit his father. His father has been writing a book called The History of Pimlico for several years and is severely ill. The protagonist’s mom doesn’t care about neither her son or her husband as we see later in the novel. - Verne – the 25-year-old half-brother of the narrator. He and the narrator do not have a great relationship, since they do not share the same ideals. He’s from another generation where you would become and adult in your late adolescence, so he has different kinds of responsabilities. - Henley – a fashion designer who intends to marry Suzette. STRUCTURE: The novel is divided into four sections. Each describes a particular day in the four months that went through the summer of 1958. It is the summer of a boy and a youth movement that dreamed of being able to change the cultural balance of England, overcoming racial divisions, prejudices, nationalism. This four sections are: in June, in July, in August, in September. IN JUNE: The novel opens with a discussion between the protagonist and Wiz, his friend and future threat. The discussion is about the phenomenon of baby singers, young singers just absolute beginners, launched on the music scene of the recording industry, which in those years, was experiencing a golden season. The two state the problem of the control of the pop music, therefore an essential aspect of youth culture, by adults, or the establishment. In fact, this is still a problem of pop music, namely its relationship with power, with the establishment. It is no coincidence that the two are in the music department of a megastore, symbol of that same establishment, listening to the 'golden disc performance' of fourteen-year-old singer Laurie London. Therefore, in the conversation it emerges that the story of the 'baby singers' represents a moment of crisis, then a phase of decline in the development of youth culture. Colin MacInnes was the first English writer to deal with pop culture, particularly the emergence of teen culture in 1950s London, emphasizing through his novels the value and strength of youth low- cultures. The teenager revolution is closely linked to the post-war economic boom. Increasing the overall wealth, increases in proportion the money available to boys and girls. It is money earned by the teenagers themselves through work of various types, including that of photographer of the protagonist. This is the world of youth culture that affirms itself first in America, and then in England after the Second World War to arrive through various processes of rearrangement and transformation to the present day and thus what now we call pop culture. The absolute protagonists of this world are precisely the young people who use music, fashion, but also the latest trends in eating and motor-scooters to write their identity and mark their membership in a certain subculture. In fact, the protagonist of Absolute Beginners is a TEENAGER, this is a term which highlights a very specific social group whose distinctive features are initially indicated in terms of clothing. In this period, the protagonist describes her teenage clothing, characterized by: - the pink neon pair of ankle crepe nylon-stretch, - his Cambridge blue glove-fit jeans, - a vertical-striped happy shirt, - the Roman-cut short-arse jacket, - and his Spartan warrior hair-do. The protagonist is the generation of British adolescents of the 1950s: the first aware of the freedom and potential of being a teenager, born like a flower on the ruins of the war, antagonistic and euphoric, eager for independence and autonomy; The first with a little money on her hands, and a lot less responsibility (p. 9). It is an internationalist and pacifist generation (p. 25), extraneous to class conflicts (p. 39), not necessarily anti-American but aware of the need to be other than America (p. 56); In June it takes up half of the book and shows the narrator meeting various teenage friends and some adults in various parts of London and discussing his outlook on life and the new concept of being a teenager. Regarding the NARRATOR: The main character, the narrator: a freelance photographer who has learned to know and practice the art of photography by trying and making mistakes, and who is learning to do a job in his art. He doesn't drink alcohol, unless there is some love disappointment finds Suzette at her husband's cottage in Cookham. Here, the protagonist realizes that they really love each other, especially Suze realizes that marriage to Henley cannot work. IN SEPTEMBER Is set on the narrator's 19th birthday. He sees it, symbolically, as the start of his senior year as a teenager. He witnesses several episodes of racial violence, which disgust him. It is precisely in this section of the novel that tension between white and blacks erupts in Notting Hill, in September 1958, of which MacInnes' novel is the only literary testimony. Here, Cool refers to the protagonist of how during a clash with some gangsters, these turned to the Cool, with expressions like: 'we hate you' and ‘get back to your own country’. Moreover, the narrator’s perspective is in a sense still an outsider who looks at reality with detachment. The protagonist himself initially witnesses episodes of violence against black people. He witnesses three episodes: 1. In the first of these a 'Sikh' is hit in the face by a gang thug. 2. In the second, a black woman with a baby carriage (carrozzina) is forced to give precedence to a white woman, also with pram/baby carriage. The consequence is the outbreak of a fight (RISSA). 3. In the third, the black driver of a car and other companions are attacked by a gang of sixteen white boys. These are episodes that mark the conscience of the protagonist, who suffers not only for the free exercise of violence by teddys, but also for the total indifference of adults before these scenes of violence. In the last pages of the novel the ability to listen by the protagonist seems to have the best over his obsession with photography, in fact he physically puts aside his camera, a sign of his documentary inclination. - He becomes an insider, and he summarizes his position on what is happening in London during the commentary on a racist newspaper article, which is shown to him by his friend Big Jill. His father also dies, leaving him four bags full of money and the History of Pimlico. Suzette has separated from Henley, but she still seems uncertain whether she will resume her relationship with the narrator. However, it is in the last bars of the novel that the protagonist manages to finally conquer his beloved Suzette. The two meet after a long time at the Santa Lucia Club and finally spend an evening of love in the apartment of the protagonist. At the end of his last summer he decide to leave London: looking for an impossible refuge and a consolation to the wounds of existence, proud of having matured an identity by now irrevocable. At a certain point, the protagonist thinks of leaving, of setting aside his homeland to go to Brazil or Norway. At this stage of the novel, he is described as a mature boy, a boy who accepts his responsibility through: - His love of MUSIC; - For the youth cultures; - And especially for intercultural dialogue, and therefore he stands as a new, perhaps guardian of the metropolis. The narrator decides to leave the country and find a place where racism does not exist, then at the airport he sees twenty African boys arriving and gives them a warm welcome. Here MacInnes portrays the 'newcomers' with their HAND LUGGAGE, which is a metaphor of travel and migration, as the only shelter from the rain, a sign that is connected to the more recent past namely the London racial storm, is to the future understood as a possibility of purification of that past acts of violence. So:  Once again, water is seen as a fluid element, which purifies.  The protagonist is the translator of these new voices and, in fact, invites the newcomers to Naples so that this area of London is no longer the scene of violence. It must be a space to be rewritten chorally, through the voices of immigrants and teenagers.  His final laughter is perhaps the sign or the acoustic image, of coming to terms with the pain that inhabits in his conscience and a look with confidence and hope to the future. Documentary of Julien Temple’s novel Absolute Beginners: So, this is a very faithful cinematic reconstruction of the scene, and therefore of the different types of looks, to which MacInnes refers, which is found in this filmic version of the novel entitled: SOUTH BANK SHOW. ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS. 1986. This film version, directed by director Julien Temple, is already the author of several music videos as well as a feature film about the Sex Pistols. In the documentary, Julien Temple talk about that he had made a film that was based in music and sociology. He was very convinced to the power of the musical, and his reference is the summer. In the film, the role of Suzette is entrusted to the then famous singer Patsy Kensit, while that of the advertising Vendice Partners, a character linked to the corrupt world of entertainment, is assigned to David Bowie, who in addition to being the performer of some of the tracks of the soundtrack is the author of the splendid song that has the same title as the novel, and that accompanies the opening and closing titles of the film. The film, although very faithful to the images and fashions of the 1950s, tries to some extent to relate the 1950s to the 1980s in fact: temple’s film implied a comparison between Soho in the late 50s and the new club circuit emerging there in the 80s. The film could claim to be one of the most hyped and talked about releases of the years. ROMANZO COMPLETO IN JUNE The novel starts with a conversation between the protagonist and one of his friend, Wiz, about a baby singer. They are in a music store and Laurie London is playing on the radio. They talk about how the adults are trying to make money using very young people and how youth generation are taking the lead. Wiz is a small juvenile looking guy who hates everyone who’s not a teenager. Sometimes, just for fun, he likes to act like he’s very poor although he’s “loaded”. He also likes to argue with adults, just like he does here for the bill. The protagonist pays for the both of them and they argue a bit about it, but then they call “the cold war off”. Wiz takes a taxi (he doesn’t take public transports) and the photographer meets Suzette, his girlfriend who’s a model and who really likes the company of black people. She is seventeen, a free woman, she does what she likes and enjoys life and, naturally, she’s popular among boys. Here the protagonist reveals his profession: he's a photographer (“street, holiday park, studio, artistic poses and, from time to time, when I can find a client, pornographic). They meet at a bar because usually Suze helps him found some clients. After talking about men, she says that she has received a marriage proposal from Hanley (fashion designer suzette works for, old enough to be her aunt) but he starts screaming because of his jealousy. Then they talk about the new client, Mr. Ponderoso, and then she ran away kissing him on his lips. The photographer starts looking for his client, Mr. Ponderoso, while doing this he stumbles across a Vespa and starts snapping photo of the person next to it not knowing yet that he was actually his client. After talking a bit and Mr. ponderoso trying to offer him a drink (the protagonist does not drink alcohol), they went into his house and start the photoshoot. Mr. P. then says that he’s there to understand British folks and the photographer replies telling him that he couldn’t help him as he’s not interested in politics nor in the queen, etc. The protagonist played a record of Billie H. and Mr. Ponderoso says that he wished he had that vinyl; so the photographer tells him to take and and then jokes about the facts that he would like to receive the Vespa. Mr. ponderoso said that he would give him the Vespa only after he fixed his car. The photographer was so grateful and offered his job for free, but Mr. Ponderoso insisted and gave him a cheque. Then he went to take the money from the bank and went to his old house (his family’s house which is in Pimlico), where he has a darkroom to develop the photos. Here he talks about the bad relation he has with his family. With him mum and half-brother, he doesn’t get on well at all. The only one who he is really worried about is his poor dad, who always tries to persuade him to move back home. Here he finds his half- brother, Vern, who’s from another generation where they became adult much earlier. He describes his clothing, that would enrage Vern, and argues with him because they have two different ways of looking at life’s responsibilities. While he was leaving the house, his mum stopped him and told that his father was dying, making him feel responsible for it. After going down the river, he meets his friend Eddy the Ted with who he talks a little bit. Here he describes teds’ style. Then he starts describing the city and the part where he lives, Napoli, and why he likes it. (Everyone can be free there because no one ask about his personal life and it’s cheap). Living in the household there are 3 buddies of the photographer. The first one is the fabulous Hoplite (Queer/Gay), ex male maid who now works for gossip journalists. The second one is a black man, called Cool who loves jazz, and the third one is a lesbian, called Big Jill. During a conversation with Hoplite, he discovers that Hoplite is finally in love with someone. When going downstairs to Big Jill, the photographer finds Mr. Cool talking with his white half-brother, who went there to warn Mr. cool: there’s troubles arriving for black people, concerning the racist people. His brother is never on his side, he hates Mr. Cool and all his friends. The photographer goes down to Big Jill and they start talking about his sex life (Big Jill is his only real confidant, the one we feels safe to talk to). He says that he does likes sex but not completely because he has never felt the feeling of doing it with someone he loves and who loves him back. Not even with Suzette. And for this reason they broke up, she couldn’t give him what she wanted. But we understand that he lied, they had never had sex, even thought they had arrived really close to doing it sometime. He doesn’t know why. He then talks about three of the things that characterize him: books, boy-scout and then jazz. The protagonist loves jazz music, he often goes to jazz clubs, pubs, etc. He loves the people there because when you enter these clubs you are equal to everyone else, no distinction or discrimination. One evening he had to call to one of the teenage clubs in order to find two of his models, Dean Swift and Misery Kid. He went there and taken with both of them (they used to sit apart one from each other because they liked two different type of jazz). When left with Dean (who’s a “junkie”), the police came and Dean (who hates the cops) ran away taking the photographer with him. They went to a drinking club (Dubious) in Soho where Dean found two of his friends: Mr-Call-Me-Cobber (tv personality) and the ex-Deb-of-last-year (a model). He talked with them a bit and then he saw Wiz entering the club and they talked a bit. Wiz said that he is into a nasty business with a girl. The photographer doesn’t approve this and he starts yelling, saying that the next step would be becoming a thief. They argued for a bit but ended again laughing together as best friends do. Then he went out to catch the summer breeze and called a taxi. He then went to Mannie (a writer who has just won a prize) and Miriam’s house. They are Jewish, he loves Jewish people and they appear to have a very strong cockney accent. They talk about the idea of Englishness and he tells them about the argument with Suze and her marriage and they suggest him to go and try talk to her. He then took the metro to go to Suze’s house. When he arrives, Hanley (her future husband) was there standing. He argues with him, even about what class Suze was in (“Suzette is working class, like me”) and then Suze melts up the situation letting them both in. They keep arguing about the fact that Hanley is too old for her, etc. They were about to throw hands but they stopped and he went away. He arrived by the river and found a boat to hire. He started relaxing looking at the starts but his mind was still thinking of Suzette. When arrived on the other bank he saw a strange man looking at him, so he ran away in the opposite direction and climbed a fence. An officer saw him and asked him what was doing and he started running again to avoid talking to him. He went to Lament’s house, where there was a party) Her ex-lover is Vendice, a producer (Bowie, in the film). At a certain point, Suze and Hanley arrived. The photographer grabbed Suze and they started dancing together but she said that she was going to marry him for sure. He started shouting and went away to go back to Napoli.