Cranial Gunk

Now 30 years old, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 can still make you laugh as the main character, Adrian, relays the adolescent struggles of his daily life. In addition to the book retaining its relevance more than a score since its first publication, Adrian Mole also functions as a time capsule, providing clues to the impact of the big events of the early 80s like Charles and Diana’s wedding and England’s involvement in the Falkland War.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, the interviewer, Evan Davis, and, the author, Sue Townsend, ponder if history is repeating itself –

Davis: “You probably didn’t watch Prime Minister’s Questions but the theme was how everything’s returned to the 1980s – We’re going on about the Falkland Islands, unemployment rising, a Tory government, you know.”

Townsend: (laughing) Nothing changes.

Val Hennessey writing in the Mail Online would disagree:

Yet things have changed. Already, Townsend’s masterpiece evokes a vanished, more innocent time before mobile phones, Facebook, internet porn, teenage binge-drinking, fast-food takeaways and substance abuse. Adrian’s world is one of phone boxes, gramophones, GP home visits, youth clubs, ping-pong matches, neighbourliness and respect for the law.

And I would disagree with Val Hennessey (and also with Sue).

Val is right in that things do change. However, I disagree that the 80s were a more innocent time. There was porn, teenage binge-drinking, fast-food takeaways and substance abuse before mobile phones, Facebook, and the internet. The latter three just made it possible to bring the former three into brighter lights and broader audiences.

Sue is right in believing that despite the technology people at their core don’t really change. Adrian Mole has withstood the test of time because the adolescent issues he contends with are a constant amid the technological advances. Acne, first loves, first heartbreaks, personal identity, and the fallibility of your elders, these are all things children address as they progress from age 12 to age 13 3/4. I agree with Sue, if this is what she means by “Nothing changes.”

However, Sue is wrong, if social tolerances are included in the discussion. I think we have advanced and changed as a society too. While not as fast as our technological advances, as a people we have crossed some important thresholds in terms of equality and tolerance.

Adrian Mole was published at the start of the 80s, before the AIDS epidemic and Band AID (and LIVE AID), before the rise of cable TV and MTV (my introduction to New Wave music and style), before the introduction of the Apple Macintosh and the rise of the personal PC, before movies based on Tama Janowitz and Brett Easton Ellis novels, before Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club, before Pac Man and Atari.

We Love This Book posts:

However Townsend doesn’t think Mole would have adapted well to teenage life in 2012. “He would be exactly the same but he wouldn’t be using Twitter to memorialise his life," she says. "He would keep a secret diary. Mole’s privacy is still intact. He would not use social networking."

I know he is her invention and I admit I have not read any of the other books in the Adrian Mole collection but I think she’s wrong. I think if Adrian were 13 3/4s in the 21st Century, he would be on Facebook and Twitter seeking out other intellectuals worldwide from the safety of his hometown.

Instead of a paper and pen diary, Adrian might have a password protected blog or a private YouTube channel where he records his daily observations and aspirations. The distractions offered by 20th Century comforts like video game consoles, VHS tape rentals, and cable TV would have certainly fed Adrian’s imagination and social development.

Is Evan Davis right? Is 2012 going to be a 1982 rerun? It’s too soon to tell.  I like how Like Totally 80s presents it: “80s Fashions Return With 21st Century Corrections.” Just change “fashions” to “social politics” or any other topic.

Emma Cossey begins her post at For Book’s Sake:

Every generation has a literary hero. Whilst the teens of today idolise Harry Potter and Bella Swan, the thirty-somethings had a very different idol: Adrian Mole.

I don’t know that Adrian Mole would have been an idol of mine had I read him in the 80s. I was too into Jim Carroll and Holden Caufield. But I do know that reading Adrian Mole now brought back memories of similar situations and feelings I had had when I was 13 3/4s. And I think if I pick the book up again in 2032 (Adrian Mole’s 50th birthday), I would revisit the same memories and laugh at the same descriptions.

Happy Birthday Adrian Mole!

I was always intimidated and self-conscious when I talked to her or was in her presence because she was like art. I mean, she was an object that had been very strongly, effectively created. (Robert Rauschenberg, Edie: An American Biography, 1982)

George Plimpton did an excellent job editing all the interviews Jean Stein gathered for her book, Edie: An American Biography. The amazing thing about it is how well the different interview segments come together to tell a cohesive story – but differ in tone enough so you are reminded of all the different characters talking.

It feels as if Warhol himself pressed Play and Record together on the old Sony cassette recorder and just left it at a party for Edie. I would imagine hearing the din of the party goers and the white noise – the echoes and static — from the recorder’s built-in microphone as I read further.

Edie is very thorough. The Addenda to the book is a family tree that begins with Edie’s Great, Great, Great Grandparents. I kept having the refer to the Addenda to keep all the names and relations straight in my head. Having finished the book, I have a deeper appreciation of how the Plimpton and Stein chose to start it:

John P. Marquad, Jr. – Have you ever seen the old graveyard up there in Stockbridge? In one corner is the family’s burial place; it’s called the Sedgwick Pie… The descendants of Judge Sedgwick, from generation unto generation, are all buried with their heads facing out and their feet pointing in toward their ancestor. The legend is that on Judgment Day when they arise and face the Judge, they will have to see no one but Sedgwicks. 

This starting passage is perhaps the root of all of Edie’s problems. It begins as far back as Judge Sedgwick who moved to Massachusetts after the Revolutionary War. The Pie might be a comment of how much the Judge valued the idea of family or it might be the materialization how egotistical and self-important the Judge was.

The book carefully provides readers with an understanding of the circumstances that created Edie Sedgwick. Starting with those that created Edie’s father, Fuzzy, and the tragic results of his needs on his children. You have to be patient though. In Edie you are watching the painter dip his brush into the paint and carefully apply it onto the canvas. The end result maybe exciting but the process can be potentially monotonous. I found myself leaving my place in the book to skip ahead for mentions and photos of Edie.

Mentions of Edie are sprinkled throughout the book but nuggets of Edie don’t appear until the half way point. Half way through the book is when the discussion turns from Babbo, Fuzzy, brothers Bobby and Minty, and Andy Warhol to Edie. You eventually feel like you know Edie (which is the sign of a successful biography) but you must be patient.

The biography works because as you read about Edie you start applying all of that background information you were fed during the first half of the book. It helps that the story of Edie’s family is an interesting one but the payoff for me was that I was using that information to understand why Edie was always late and why it took her so long to put on make up, etc.

When I wrote my review of Factory Girl, I had seen the movie but hadn’t read the book. It was the movie that inspired me to read the book. I had read somewhere that the book inspired the movie. I believe the book is now named, Edie: American Girl.

Having read the book, I can honestly see why Factory Girl’s critics were so upset…

But I would like to add that it is unfair to have discussions regarding depth when you compare a book to its movie. A book has much more flexibility with time. It can be set down, left aside, reread, and returned to. Whereas a movie is a linear experience without the benefit of breaks. Unless you are watching it on DVD or Blu Ray, when you watch a movie you only have one shot at getting the whole picture (pardon the pun).

I still like Factory Girl — though I still believe its problem is that it lacks “art.” And I still think Andy would have liked Factory Girl because it was a “Hollywood movie” with its perfect people and “happy” (over-the-top dramatic) ending.  There’s another point in Popism where Andy playfully ponders which popular star would portray him in a movie about the Factory. He didn’t make Hollywood movies but he was fascinated by them and the stars they made.

There are some that say Andy Warhol made Edie Sedgwick a Superstar. There are others who say that Edie made Andy a household name (gained him a level of notoriety that everyone thought they knew something about). I like to think that there was a chemistry between them. Each made up for the other’s lack of social ability and vision while suffering the same personal insecurities.

I read somewhere (though I can’t remember where) that Andy Warhol asked Lou Reed to write a song for Edie Sedgwick. He commented, “Doesn’t she look like a femme fatale?”

Some might think that Andy was a “homme fatale.”