p.11 In the future, children will cease to exist. As a social category, we will simply become irrelevant. My generation is likely the last generation of children. Or , rather, the last generation to experience childhood, that doesn’t necessarily mean that now is the time to put away childish things. Instead it may mean that the use of childish things may be extended indefinitely, until death. (Children’s Video Collective, 1995)
Could it be that the imprint of childish things on the twentieth century culture has been so profound that ultimately it is not children but adults who will cease to exist?
p. 23 In a corporate State, a place must be made for innocence, and its many uses. In developing an official version of innocence, the culture of childhood has proven invaluable… Over the years it had become a children’s resort, almost a spa. If you were an adult, you couldn’t get inside the city limits without a child escort. There was a child mayor, a child city council of twelve. Children picked up the papers, fruit peelings and bottles you left in the street, children gave you guided tours through the Tierpark… child police reprimanded you if you were caught alone, without your child accompanying. Whoever carried on the real business of the town —- it could not have been children —- they were well hidden. (Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow, 1973; New York; Penguin, 1995, p.419) *http://samizdat.co/shelf/documents/2003/10.21-gravRainbowReview/gravRainbowReview.pdf
* other ideas reminded of: Pinocchio (+ George Orwell’s 1984 & Animal Farm + Lord of the Flies)
Pinocchio's bad behavior, rather than being charming or endearing, is meant to serve as a warning. Collodi originally intended the story, which was first published in 1881, to be a tragedy. It concluded with the puppet’s execution. Pinocchio’s enemies, the Fox and the Cat, bind his arms, pass a noose around his throat, and hang him from the branch of an oak tree. (Rich, Nathaniel (2011-10-24). "Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio: Why is the original Pinocchio subjected to such sadistic treatment?" slate.com)
Pinocchio Paradox
The Pinocchio paradox arises when Pinocchio says "My nose grows now" and is a version of the liar paradox. The liar paradox is defined in philosophy and logic as the statement "This sentence is false." Any attempts to assign a classical binary truth value to this statement lead to a contradiction, or paradox. This occurs because if the statement "This sentence is false" is true, then it is false; this would mean that it is technically true, but also that it is false, and so on without end. Although the Pinocchio paradox belongs to the liar paradox tradition, it is a special case because it has no semantic predicates, as for example "My sentence is false" does. (Wikipedia) *https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/Pinocchio
p. 26 …in relation to technology, children are seen not as being innocent but as worrying, dangerous, and out of control.
If there is one lesson that adults should learn from children, it is that at a time of environmental and economic crises, play is a crucial point of connection to the physical and imaginative world. We need to give ourselves time and space for play, space in which the unpredictable can happen.
p. 29 The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred, ‘yes’… (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1883)
+ The book referenced Gravity's Rainbow - which I went ahead and purchased after reading this review: http://samizdat.co/shelf/documents/2003/10.21-gravRainbowReview/gravRainbowReview.pdf
which made me think of 1984 as well, which I really enjoyed in school - I repurchased it to read again.
which made me think of 1984 as well, which I really enjoyed in school - I repurchased it to read again.
