Sunday, May 30, 2004

 
Nostalgia is dead, long live nostalgia
It's now official, I Love the '90s will make its debut in July, further strip-mining the precious resources of nostalgia left in this country. The ad I saw for it was quite amusing, though, featuring I Love The ... regulars Hal Sparks, Michael Ian Black and Rachael Harris (who is of the Tina Fey/Lisa Loeb sorority of women who look far better with glasses) in a 90210 bit.

And speaking of nostalgia, I just finished What Really Happened to the Class of '93?, which naturally piqued my interest since I'm also the class of '93. Even more intriguing is that the author, former Salon.com writer Chris Colin, went to Thomas Jefferson High School in northern Virginia, and I know a friend who went there (long after this class graduated, though).

Anyway, the book attempts to encapsule a strange and momentous 10 years in American history (Clinton presidency, dot-com boom/bust, 9/11, etc.) through people like myself who "came of age" during that time. Thus, the book comes across as more "serious" version of The WB's High School Reunion, which loved to wallow in labels and silly drama instead of "reality."

But back to the book, Colin does a great job of profiling a number of his classmates, writing compelling narratives that show the development of his peers from their high school personas to what they are now. There are even some nice curveballs thrown into the mix (like a career change, family emergency, etc.), somewhat reflecting what these people went through during their lives over the past 10 years. Colin strikes a nice balance of objective detachment (in painting a fair and accurate picture) and emotional connection (when needed to provide some relevance -- like a former girlfriend and his "arch-enemy").

For the most part, Colin picked out interesting people to profile. In some cases, the book would've been incomplete without some of them -- the homecoming queen (who didn't seem the type), the girl who had a baby during her junior year, the guy suspended for having a BB gun in his truck, John Sununu's son, and unfortunately, the gifted kid who would commit suicide while in college. But he also got a nice cross-section of other types: the quiet drama girl, the stereotypical Asian overachiever, some misfit types whose lives have gone in multiple directions (to a Mormon mission, to a northern California monastery, to a world of hazy gender issues). Colin does a good job of making you want to care about these people, even if he wasn't close to all of them -- I'm sure he learned a ton about his peers he never would've believed while in the process of writing the book.

However, while he is trying to tie these stories to the events of the past 10 years (and obviously has to touch on political issues, both national and international), I have to wonder exactly how politically charged his classmates really were back then, and to a lesser extent now. Colin says that the social order at TJ wasn't as much the usual jock vs. geek, but liberal vs. conservative. It seems a bit hard to fathom, and my friend at TJ disputes this notion.

Yes, issues would polarize students, especially in a school in the DC area, but to make it the overarching theme of high school (especially at a science/tech magnet school) seems a bit far-fetched. No doubt, there were some major politically charged events during his time -- the outing of a few students (including one profiled who has HIV) and the fight over changing the school handbook to outlaw harrassment on sexual orientation terms. Some of those events would have long-lasting events on some of the people featured -- another girl came out during college and one guy has now become a she (sorta). But at times the book felt like the profiles would veer off into a political rant, either from the left or the right, although usually tied into that person's career.

I imagine this supposed framing of high school shouldn't be too surprising given Colin's "arch enemy" was a military brat with a definite conservative bent (at least during high school), even though the guy didn't really think Colin as a "nemesis." But maybe that's how some lasting high school memories will end up framing things years later, even while reconnecting with everyone proved to be a catharsis.

Nonetheless, the book is compelling and topical voyeurism, and maybe it's a good thing he didn't touch on pop cultural references, which might've bogged down the story taken away from his thesis. (I guess I Love the '90s will have to do in its stead.) And at least his reunion went off far better than mine, as I've chronicled before. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time find some of my old high school friends on Google, Friendster and those alumni finder Web sites.