{"id":878,"date":"2015-06-20T19:48:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T19:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=878"},"modified":"2020-06-25T22:02:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T22:02:56","slug":"on-rabbit-and-60-is-the-new-30%e2%80%b3-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=878","title":{"rendered":"On RABBIT \u2013 and \u201c60 is the new 30\u2033 \u2013 (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

I recently got a copy of A Sequel, \u201cRabbit Remembered<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is another way of saying that Harry \u201cRabbit\u201d Angstrom is dead.\u00a0 (Heck, I didn\u2019t even know he was sick<\/strong>.<\/em>)\u00a0\u00a0 I first met Harry back in 1971, when I took a junior-college class in American literature.\u00a0 One of the books was Rabbit, Run<\/a><\/em>, and it made a deep impression.<\/p>\n

\"SixtiesMore Rabbit<\/em> novels followed \u2013 one at the end of each decade \u2013 and I read them all.\u00a0 (One benefit was seeing how others got through the 1960s<\/a>, interpreted at right.\u00a0 Also the 1970s<\/a> and 1980s<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em> Then came\u00a0 Rabbit Remembered<\/em>, the novella<\/a> by John Updike<\/a> published in 2000.\u00a0 That novella<\/em> marked an end of an era \u2013 five<\/em> books on Rabbit Angstrom.\u00a0 (Wikipedia<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

(But see also Still Wild About Harry<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cAnother decade has come and gone and here[‘s] the latest installment in the [‘Rabbit’] saga.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The reviewer added that one hesitates to declare it the final installment, then gave a pithy<\/a> synopsis<\/a> of the whole series.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The saga began in 1960 with Rabbit, Run<\/a><\/em>, the only one of the five to be made a movie, as seen in the poster at the top of the page.\u00a0 (It\u2019s also very hard to find a copy.\u00a0 See \u2018Rabbit,\u2019 lost<\/a>.)\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

As noted, a new Rabbit<\/em> novel came at the end of each new decade, and so each became a time capsule<\/a>, based on the density<\/a> of\u00a0Updike<\/a>\u2018s writing.\u00a0 (His attention to detail.) <\/em>\u00a0 Just to review, a time capsule<\/em><\/strong> is a \u201chistoric cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people,\u201d and here\u2019s what one obit<\/a> said:<\/p>\n

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The detail of his writing was so rich that it inspired two schools of thought on Mr. Updike\u2019s fiction:\u00a0 those who responded to his descriptive prose as to a kind of poetry, a sensuous engagement with the world, and those who argued that it was more style than content<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

See John Updike, Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class, Dies at 76<\/a>.\u00a0 But in this case, those \u201cfuture people\u201d include us aging Baby-boomers, as we look back and wonder how the heck we survived relatively<\/em> intact.\u00a0 (Considering all the garbage we went through.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The original Rabbit Run<\/em> showed \u201cthree months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry \u2018Rabbit\u2019 Angstrom<\/a>, and his attempts to escape the constraints of his life.\u201d\u00a0 (Wikipedia<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em> But then escaping constraint<\/em> was pretty much what the \u201960s were about.\u00a0 (The \u201970s \u2013 at left \u2013 were a whole \u2018nuther story\u2026<\/em>)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll get back to that, but first consider what the same obit<\/a> said of Updike (who died in 2009):<\/p>\n

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His best-known protagonist, Harry Rabbit Angstrom, first appears as a former high-school basketball star trapped in a loveless marriage and a sales job he hates.\u00a0 Through the four novels whose titles bear his nickname \u2014 \u201cRabbit, Run,\u201d \u201cRabbit Redux,\u201d \u201cRabbit Is Rich\u201d and \u201cRabbit at Rest\u201d \u2014 the author traces the funny, restless and questing life of this middle-American against the background of the last half-century\u2019s major events.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which is another way of saying that the Rabbit<\/em> novels are a great way to remember the major events of our<\/em> formative years, from 1960 to 1999 \u2013 and then on to a New Millennium<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Again, in\u00a0Rabbit Run<\/a><\/em> Harry is a 26-year-old has-been whose life peaked in high school.\u00a0 (He was a star basketball player and quintessential BMOC<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em> Then one day at age 26 \u2013 trying to escape the \u201cconstraints of life\u201d \u2013 he leaves his pregnant wife and infant son Nelson.\u00a0 He first plans to drive south to Florida \u2013 where he eventually gets, in a sequel \u2013 but ends up bedding and moving in with Ruth Byers, a woman with a shady past.\u00a0 (He gets her pregnant, and their daughter Annabelle ends up finally meeting her brother in\u00a0Rabbit Remembered<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

In the midst of all this drama, Harry\u2019s wife Janice accidentally drowns their new baby daughter, Rebecca.\u00a0 Also, Harry puts the move on the Lucy Eccles, wife of the Episcopal priest trying to get him to \u201cdo the right thing.\u201d\u00a0 (It would have been nice to find out how the Eccles\u2019 turned out \u2013 after all those years \u2013 and especially Lucy, whose \u201crump\u201d Harry found so pleasant to pat\u2026<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\"RabbitReduxbookcover.jpg\"In Rabbit Redux<\/a><\/i>, Harry gets a bit of comeuppance.\u00a0 While he couldn\u2019t keep his hands off Janice in the first novel, here she\u2019s<\/em><\/strong> the one at her sexual peak.\u00a0 It\u2019s Harry<\/em> who falls short in that department.\u00a0 So Janice runs off to live with her lover, Charlie Stavros.\u00a0 (Charlie later ends up as Harry\u2019s only real friend \u2013 and fellow car-salesman at Springer Motors \u2013 in a sequel.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Then Harry gets finagled into having a runaway named Jill \u2013 and her black lover Skeeter \u2013 move in with him and Nelson.\u00a0 But all this is set against the rich back drop of the summer of 1969<\/a>, and Neal Armstrong\u2019s setting foot on the moon.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on that in Part II<\/a>.\u00a0 Meanwhile, in Rabbit is Rich<\/a><\/i>, \u201cHarry\u00a0has reached a paunchy middle-age without relocating from Brewer, Pennsylvania<\/a>, the poor, fictional city of his birth.\u201d\u00a0 (Actually, Reading, PA<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em> The book was published in 1981, on the cusp of the decade that led to the end of the Berlin Wall\u2026\u00a0 And Rabbit is indeed rich, thanks to Janice.\u00a0 (She inherited her dad\u2019s Toyota dealership.)<\/em>\u00a0 But he\u2019s also restless.\u00a0 He covets the young wife of his golfing partner, while the wife of his former high-school teammate \u2013 Ronnie Harrison \u2013 has the hots for him.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Ronnie and Janice end up married in Rabbit Remembered<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Nelson is living with them too, in the old house Janice grew up in.\u00a0 That\u2019s until Ronnie calls Annabelle \u2013 visiting for Thanksgiving \u2013\u00a0 \u201cthe bastard child of a whore and a bum.\u201d\u00a0 (Referring to Ruth and Harry.\u00a0 That<\/em> dramatic turn of events leads to the novella\u2019s denouement<\/a><\/em>\u2026\u00a0 Also incidentally, Ronnie too knew<\/em> Ruth in the Biblical sense<\/a> back in the original, Rabbit Run<\/em>.\u00a0 (Which may explain his hostility.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For the rest of the story<\/a><\/em>, see On RABBIT \u2013 and \u201c60 is the new 30\u2033 \u2013 (Part II)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

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The original post included an upper image of a movie poster,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/em>courtesy of movieposter.com\/poster … Rabbit_Run.html<\/a>.\u00a0 See also Rabbit, Run (film) \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a>, and Rabbit, Run \u2013 Wikipedia<\/a>.\u00a0 Note also \u2018Rabbit,\u2019 lost \u2013 Reading Eagle<\/a>, which said \u201cfinding a copy of Reading\u2019s most famous feature-length film is just as hard as obtaining an interview with the novel\u2019s elusive author.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But for some reason this \u201cplatform for publishing\u201d sometimes substitutes an actual image with a block stating \u2013 for example \u201cimage may contain sky, outdoor, nature,\u201d which does me no good and is quite aggravating. When that happens I usually delete the useless \u201cinfo box,\u201d and note \u2013 as here \u2013 what used to be there. Like my addendum to the first note-graf, “<\/span><\/i>(And you might want to check Symbolic Rabbit Meanings<\/a>\u2026)”\u00a0<\/em>And for more on the platform, see <\/span><\/i>WordPress.com \u2013 Wikipedia<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I continued with notes on the rating system for such movies – and posters:<\/p>\n

Re: the rating system.\u00a0 See Motion Picture Association of America film rating system<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cThe ratings used from 1968 to 1970 were:\u00a0 Rated G<\/b>: General audiences, Rated M<\/b>: Mature audiences \u2013 parental guidance advised, Rated R<\/b>: Restricted \u2013 admission limited to persons older than 16, unless accompanied by parent or adult guardian, and Rated X<\/b>: No one younger than 16 admitted.\u201d\u00a0 In 1970 the ages for \u201cR\u201d and \u201cX\u201d were raised from 16 to 17, but regardless, the system \u201chas had a number of high-profile critics.\u00a0 Film critic Roger Ebert argued that the system places too much emphasis on sex, while allowing the portrayal of massive amounts of gruesome violence.\u00a0 The uneven emphasis on sex versus violence is echoed by other critics, including David Ansen<\/a>, as well as many filmmakers\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Other sources used in writing this post included John Updike Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com<\/a>, The 100 best novels: No 88 \u2013 Rabbit Redux<\/strong> by John Updike<\/a>, In Reading, Pa., Memories and Monuments of Updike<\/a><\/em>, and Rabbit at Rest<\/strong> \u2013 The New York Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0The 1960\u2019s poster-image is courtesy of www.cecil.ebranch.info\/blog\/?tag=1960s-series<\/a>.\u00a0 See also Americans Have Changed in a Big Way Since the 1960s<\/a><\/em>, for a different spin on today\u2019s theme\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The 1970s poster-image is courtesy of www.retrowaste.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lower (1980\u2019s Berlin-wall) image is courtesy of 1980s \u2013 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/a>.\u00a0 The caption:\u00a0 “The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of German reunification.”
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * I recently got a copy of A Sequel, \u201cRabbit Remembered.\u201d Which is another way of saying that Harry \u201cRabbit\u201d Angstrom is dead.\u00a0 (Heck, I didn\u2019t even know he was sick.)\u00a0\u00a0 I first met Harry back in 1971, when I took a junior-college class in American literature.\u00a0 One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9357,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/9357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}