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# 2025-06-06 - The Plastic Age by Percy Marks | |
I read this in my exploration of flapper-related literature. The | |
title refers to the neuroplasticity of youth, as opposed to | |
petrochemical polymers. The protagonist, Hugh Carver, is a young man | |
who goes to college about 300 miles away from where he grew up. | |
There are multiple flappers in this book, and they play support roles | |
without much character development. What is developed is their | |
cultural context. | |
I found this book easy to relate to. The author seemed to write | |
sympathetically toward all of the characters. | |
What follows are interesting excerpts with comments in square brackets. | |
... some of them clad in Kollege Kut Klothes that they would | |
shamefacedly discard within a week. | |
Kollege Kut Klothes | |
* * * | |
[In a full theater for a silent movie:] | |
Immediately the boys began to whistle, and as the comedy was utterly | |
stupid, they relieved their boredom by whistling the various tunes | |
that the pianist played until the miserable film flickered out. | |
Then the "feature" and the fun began. During the stretches of pure | |
narrative, the boys whistled, but when there was any real action they | |
talked. The picture was a melodrama of "love and hate," as the | |
advertisement said. | |
The meretricious melodrama did not fool them, but they delighted in | |
its absurdities. | |
[Even contemporaries found silent movies dull, and so they amused | |
each other with humorous commentary and focused on the physical | |
beauty of the actors. Speaking of bad movies, this book was made | |
into two movies.] | |
The Plastic Age (1925) | |
Red Lips (1928) | |
* * * | |
[Being a single sex college, the football cheerleader was male.] | |
"When the day comes," said Alling, "that Latin can compete with | |
football, I'll--well, I'll probably get a living wage. You had better | |
go before I get to talking about a living wage. It is one of my | |
favorite topics." | |
* * * | |
"We've got a single standard now. The girls go just as fast as the | |
fellows. ... I tell you the old double standard has gone all to hell." | |
* * * | |
Henley leaned back in his chair. "What horrible little conformers you | |
are," he began sarcastically, "and how you loathe any one who doesn't | |
conform! You dress both your bodies and your minds to some set model. | |
The college is made up of men who worship mediocrity; that is their | |
ideal except in athletics. | |
I tell you further that you are as standardized as Fords and about as | |
ornamental. Fords are useful for ordinary work; so are you--and | |
unless some of you wake up... you are never going to be anything more | |
than human Fords. | |
* * * | |
He [Parker/Norry] had a slow, winning smile, a quiet, low voice. He | |
was a dreamer and a mystic, a youth who could see fairies dancing in | |
the shadows; and he told Hugh what he saw. | |
I knew that I was kinda different from other fellows, not so strong; | |
and I don't like ugly things or smutty stories or anything like that. | |
I think women are lovely, and I hate to hear fellows tell dirty | |
stories about them. I'm no fool, Hugh; I know about the things that | |
happen, but I don't want to hear about them. | |
He realized that there was something rare, almost exquisite, about | |
the boy, and that he [Parker/Norry] lived largely in a beautiful | |
world of his own imagination. | |
* * * | |
"Every intelligent man with ideals eventually becomes a cynic. It is | |
inevitable. He has standards, and, granted that he is intelligent, he | |
cannot fail to see how far mankind falls below those standards. The | |
result is cynicism, and if he is truly intelligent, the cynicism is | |
kindly. Having learned that man is frail, he expects little of him; | |
therefore, if he judges at all, his judgment is tempered either with | |
humor or with mercy." | |
author: Marks, Percy, 1891-1956 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/The_Plastic_Age | |
LOC: PZ3.M3423 Pl PS3525.A6657 | |
source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/1/6/5/3/16532/ | |
tags: ebook,fiction,gender,history | |
title: The Plastic Age | |
# Tags | |
ebook | |
fiction | |
gender | |
history |