Guy:
 
Howdy again. Can't resist this one because that issue has
been zipping around this household since the Flintstones
hype balloon was release and gassed its way around and
around without anyone really noticing too much until it
flopped limply to the ground. Like SO many of the rehashed
sitcoms all over the cable networks, the sixties Bedrock
family has bronto-loads of nostalgia for a simpler time
(ie, when Betty and Wilma stayed home, did all the things
that made Fred, Barney, and their progeny happy, and didn't
ask for money for luxuries -- and never opened their "yaps"
about it). Even though the women almost invariably outwit
their paunchy spouses, they never cash in on their victories
because they're so sweetly affected by the dumboxes that,
well...let's just forget the whole thing ever happened, honey.
(Beginning to sound like True Lies yet? How's about Jurassis
Park? See what fearless ASA Prez Catherine Davidson says about
that one in the most recent American Quarterly. Fascinating.)
(Also, Celeste Olalquiaga's Megalopolis makes some great points
about what all this end-of-the-millenium recycling (some
revisionist, some not) means to our culture.
Just a start -- not to say "everything's political" and ruin
your whole day, but Flintstones (at least as far as my
household was concerned) may indicate that politically speaking,
American audiences really are pretty inscrutable in terms of
what they'll lap up unquestioningly and what they'll equally
unquestioningly reject. Points to ponder...
 
Amy
 
Amy Nelson
Department of English
Rutgers University
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