Growing Up Absurd

As another reviewer, Dylan Miller, stated, "this ain't dated." If anything, his analysis of the woes of society is even truer today than when he wrote the book at the beginning of the `60's. This was a second reading for me, after 40 some odd years. Some of the vocabulary is quaint, e.g., The "Beats," "hipsters," et al., but many of his central criticisms ring solid. Perhaps the saddest part is wondering who are the "Paul Goodmans'" today, or are they all co-opted? I continue to believe that Goodman is strongest in his critiques on the nature of work, both in this book, and in his excellent "Communitas," which he co-authored with his brother, Percival. Once mankind mastered the "means of production," there has been a steady, fundamental problem with how a person is to live in a meaningful fashion. Much work is busy work, to keep people occupied. Essentially, one person digs a hole, and another comes, and fills it in. Fifty years on, the endless "war on terror" is a job creator; witness only the slender slice of thousands upon thousands of airport screeners. The primary focus of the book though is on youth, generally men, and their acceptance or rejection of their adult roles in society - to use the words from Charles Reich's "The Greening of America," another classic from this period, " the machine tooling of the young to fit the needs of various baroque bureaucracies...". He devotes two chapters, one each, to groups who reject their roles: one he calls "the early resigned," the other "the early fatalist." The former are roughly what was once called "The Beat Generation," primarily the intelligent who consciously rejected society's assigned roles, and tried to maintain a viable economic life at the fringes of society. The later group seeks identity through juvenile delinquency, often hoping to be caught for their actions. Another of his central points is that many of the problems of today's youth relate to "unfinished" revolutions from prior decades. Overall, I feel that he meanders too much in his style, appending irrelevant points to his analysis. He redeems himself though with crisp pithy zingers which neatly describe an issue. Consider: "Where there is official censorship it is a sign that speech is serious. Where there is none, it is pretty certain that the official spokesmen have all the loud speakers." This book was written only a couple of years before "The Feminine Mystique," and numerous years after "The Second Sex." On page 13 he displays some flaming male chauvinism, outlining why it is difficult for a boy to achieve meaningful manhood, but for a girl, since she is just going to get married anyhow, it is no big deal! "Her career does not have to be self-justifying, for she will have children, which is absolutely self-justifying...". Later, on page 186, in terms of a woman involved with a Beat poet, he says: "This is a satisfaction for her female narcissism, or penis envy." Overall, Goodman is one of America's essential so

The words are still important to ingest and ruminate, if not meditate, upon. All educators with any soul left must read this book. The cyclical nature of politics and the efforts by the right to destroy education make this a must read! If only to gain an alternate insight. Taken in small doses, or all at once, it suffices to ease the pain of a country's once great educational experiment circling the drain on its way to fourth-world eminence.

What a great and wonderful book! Bunches of insight about the natural disaffection of the modern citizen. Truly a book about one of society's big questions. Oh... wait... this was written in 1959? But there's all that government-business collusion? And the outrageous pharmaceutical industry and media monopolization scandals? And the hope for the near-future? 1959?! How stinkin' depressing! Great book. Read it; maybe the world is ripe for change. Okay, the part about Russia is dated.

Paul Goodman knew the 1950s, its bland neighborhoods, its schools so like prisons, its emphasis on athletics and prom queens. His book, "Growing Up Absurd," told every high school graduate and fresh-faced frosh in college exactly what they already knew. High school was and is a waste of time and energy. How much better to just skip it entirely. High school students grew up deformed and degenerated, skipping classes, taunting teachers and each other, not doing homework and still making the honor roll. Just having an adult say these things, recognizing just how absurd high school continues to be is so freeing, and so affirming. And about time, too. However, nothing notable has been done to improve it since the 1950s, and no matter how that boring school day is arranged, it still feels like prison.

This is the first title by Paul Goodman that I have read. He had an interesting critique of modern society (c. 1960). If one can get around many of his assumptions (i.e, everyone is in the rat race, man!) and his sometimes facile diagnostics (progressive education is the panacea!) the book has a lot to say to a modern reader. Many of the reasons he points out for the discontent of youth (both affluent and otherwise) are still with us. His section on "Beat Economics" is pretty interesting as well. Well worth a read.