Circa spring 2008, I took the capstone class requirement for my undergraduate history major. The theme around the readings and discussions that semester was the idea of Social Darwinism, which sounds dark looking back at it. McTeague was the novel that the class worked through on the first half of the semester; I managed to make a brilliant comparison of the title name character to Lenny from Of Mice and Men.
Maybe Dr. Haley was just thrilled that I was piping up with an original idea.
Which is why when I showed an active interest of being interested in social movements, perhaps to the point of wanting to write a near-thesis level paper, he seemed relieved. I had always been rather obsessed with the culture of the 1980s and to a lesser extent the 1960s and 1970s, and as such we decided a capstone on a comparison of hippies and yuppies was in order. I was directed to read Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, and Bret Easton Ellis. While I focused on the first two, I would not go on to read Bret Easton Ellis and his toxic twin Jay McInerney until I left for graduate school that summer.
Having newly arrived in the DMV, the first roommate of my group house, I opted not to immediately hook up cable. Instead, I devoured the books that I collected since the previous spring: Story of My Life, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, and The Informers. I would go on to read The Last of the Savages, Model Behavior, Brightness Falls, Lunar Park, Imperial Bedrooms, and grow super nauseous while reading the torture scene in Glamorama while eating truffle macaroni and cheese at Noodles and Company during an internship lunch hour.
So it should come as no surprise that I am enjoying the Bret Easton Ellis and Ryan Murphy collaboration of The Shards on F/X. While I am not a massive fan of the latter, and I still have not gotten through the audio book, I am enjoying the series.
The production value is fantastic. Costumes, sets, props, hair. The level of detail that poured into the production is incredible. I especially enjoyed the Seniors’ Homecoming Float that was giving Memphis Group Design (aka Nicolodeon’s Double Dare), albeit early in timeline. Also the makeover montage of Really, Rhonda into a gothic version of a Heather which would have been especially forward for the early 80s timeline, was a phenomenal detail.
Highly recommend watching the video podcast recording of Evan Ross Katz interviewing costume designers Lou Eyrich and Josh Marsh.