I'm awake again at 5AM. I should probably do some yoga or something but the carpet in here is kind of nasty.
Some random thoughts upon waking:
I forgot to talk about a very interesting conversation Dan and I had yesterday. Dan, Okada and I are all 34 years old (!!!). So Okada's plays are really about our generation. Okada of course has two kids (an infant and a 4 year-old) but Dan and I, although we are in serious relationships, are SINGLE and have been living that artist's single life. It was surprising to me how common our experiences are in terms of this "generation" thing. Dan talked about how at the 5 year college reunion, when some people showed up with kids, the general attitude towards them was like "oooooh, what happened there?" but at the 10 year reunion, when some people showed up without kids, the general attitude towards the childless was "Ooooh, what went wrong there?" Dan said he thought that now the trend is moving backwards now, that younger people (in their 20s) are actually having kids in their 20s (and I would guess this is true, since Connie's younger brother is having a kid now) and while that idea sounds preposterous to us (and I'm sure to many of my friends my age) these younger people are like, "OK, I see you and your generation and how you've basically wasted your 20s on internships or whatever, and now, in your 30s you have nothing to show for it -- and yes it's hard to have kids, but I might as well do it NOW while I have the energy to do it," like they are way more focused and clear-headed (?). I mean... it's tricky, right? I feel like proud of the way I spent my 20s, being independent and not focusing on "building financial stability" or anything, but it's true, now I'm kind of like, wait a sec. I AM old, or getting older, and if I do want a family, I've got to buckle down and "get serious" or something (?)? Waaaaaa!
Which is exactly what Enjoy is about -- the rift between our generation and the younger generation -- and it is a symptom of a larger socio-economic problem that plays itself out on a personal level. I mean, it may not be exactly the same in Japan as it is elsewhere, but I definitely see the parallels.
2 comments:
you've gotta watch the Japanese film FINE TOTALLY FINE (Zenzen daijoubu). it's about a guy in his 30s who is trying to make the scariest haunted house on earth- basically unable to really "grow up".
anyway, there's this part in the film where he's trying to fundraise for the haunted house, and his rich uncle asks him "have you ever wanted something so badly that you were willing to die for it?"
essentially, i think that says everything about our generation (in the US and in Japan)- we don't want anything badly enough. we go from job to job, city to city, searching for "meaning" that is apart from the conventional. but ultimately i think it's just apathy, as well as physical and emotional detachment.
i blame Haruki Murakami entirely.
DING DING
Oh damn there goes that bell of self recognition.
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