Part of writing history...

Well...since it's already being tweeted about, I guess I can say I'm helping move some of Judy Blume's archives from Key West to Yale's Beinecke Library. Picked them up, this morning, and will have them packed and on their way tomorrow. She was there to see them off -- 78 cartons of papers and CDs. She's a very sweet lady. I've never read any of her books because I always felt they were geared towards girls. That and she started writing after I was out of high school, so it would have been a bit late for me.

I never did get into the teen angst books that came out, anyway. I read Catcher in the Rye when I was in my late 20s, which is about 10 years past its due date. I thought Holden Caulfield was obnoxious and a very privileged brat. Lord of the Flies was too cerebral to be angst-ridden, really. The Confusion of Young Törless was to arch and symbolic. Plus I found the whole worship of James Dean and Marlon Brando confusing...

At least, I did until I saw the wide-screen version of East of Eden after having read the novel. I'd seen it on TV in the hideous pan-and-scan mode that only showed part of the frame at one time, and I disliked it. And I did still think the music was too much and some of the acting poor, when I saw it as Kazan intended, but James Dean scorched the screen, especially in his scenes with Julie Harris.

It was on a double-bill with Rebel Without a Cause. Between those two films, I got the whole idea of angst and confusion, even though parts of the second movie were just silly. Like Jim Bacchus putting an apron on over his full business suit in order to do some cleaning or cooking or something, and the drag race towards a cliff in a game of chicken was over the top. And Plato's socks switching feet at the end. (I used to blame that on poor continuity, but I've heard from editors that sometimes the director or producer will use a take with an error in it because they liked the performance more.)

Anyway, a lot of the teen angst stuff was geared towards boys, and Judy's the one who got it going for girls. Makes her historic, to say the least.

And I was part of history.