05.12.06 Rejuveniles back in the Times

A few eons ago (August 2003, actually) I wrote a story for the Sunday New York Times about what I called “a new breed of adult.” It was an outlandish idea, but it grew out of an honest attempt to understand a number of strange, surprising cultural currents I felt swirling around me. I wondered about the cross-generational appeal of Harry Potter and SpongeBob SquarePants, the adult rediscovery of games like kickball and minigolf, the sudden popularity of cupcakes as gourmet treats, the number of twenty- and thirtysomethings who still lived at home and the ascendancy of parents (myself included) who played and bonded with their kids in ways that I was certain would have been considered ridiculous a generation ago.

These were not stunted adolescents, I was sure. They were something else: rejuveniles.

It’s especially gratifying, then, that I’m back in the Times this Sunday writing about many of the same ideas, just a few weeks before the book is published. And doubly gratifying to launch this website and blog to continue the conversation.

The Times story isn’t about rejuveniles per se, but it touches on a few central themes – it’s about the blurring of age norms in big-budget Hollywood movies, and how in contrast to the “family” or “kid” movies of yesteryear, today’s would-be blockbusters define a new cultural space, in which traditional notions about age mean little. In an age when more adults than ever flock to the latest from Pixar, X-Men 3 or Superman Returns, filmmakers are now working hard to probe for the child in the adult and the adult in the child.

I had a chance to talk with filmmakers Bryan Singer, M. Night Shyamalan and Jared Hess, who shared their thoughts on what Singer called “the intense pressure of trying to make a film that plays 8-80 but isn’t so soft it alienates the 8-13’s.” We also talked about their own conception of adulthood and what it means that so many grown-ups are now so entranced by movies that on the surface appear designed for kids. I’ll post more of their thoughts here in the coming week.

In the meantime, welcome. I hope you’ll stop by here often and add your comments (or better yet, fill out a questionnaire and post your picture in the Profiles section!). I can’t tell you how excited and gratified I am to share these stories and start what I hope will be a long and lively conversation.

Congratulations in advance on REJUVENILE. You’ve tapped the Zeitgeist of Baby Boomers who are looking to recapture their youth and Gen-Xers looking to hold onto it. I think you’re really onto something here, and am looking forward to reading your book.

As another old geezer said about 2,000 years ago: “As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.”

You’ve found the contemporary equivalent of the Fountain of Youth with this book. I wish you great success with it.

-- Josh

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