Bluebells & willow-seeds

[bunn]

I went for a long walk over Dartmoor last weekend and must dig out the photos.  Too hot for a long walk today, but in the shadow of the woods the bluebells are at their peak, and the sunny fields are white and golden with lady's smocks and buttercups

Comments

[heartofoshun]

(though as always with American series that feature some 'high school' children, I always wonder if the 'high school' bits are supposed to look quite as horrifyingly dystopian as they appear to my eyes...)

I don't watch much TV and what I watch does not include much American TV in contemporary settings. I wonder if they would look that way to me? I know I really dislike "high school" AU fanfic in every fandom I have been involved with. On the other hand, I like those British boarding school ones--hardly a better model--but not my model, so they are exotic to me! There is, however, something vastly creepy to me about easy access of kids to cars and wide-open spaces with little to no adult supervision.

Love the opening descriptions above.

[bunn]

I think it's the normalisation of violence and cruelty that seems particularly jarring, though I remember when first watching Buffy that what seemed to be a kind of baked-in anti-intellectualism also seemed odd. Admittedly, my own school, a rather dismal British private semi-boarding school, was not typical (or of particularly good quality) and I have not had much experience with schools since, but I don't remember anyone looking down on clever kids purely for their cleverness.Perhaps it's just the format that makes that seem unfamiliar...

I agree the lack of adult intervention seems disturbing, but perhaps that's partly fiction?

[heartofoshun]

I agree the lack of adult intervention seems disturbing, but perhaps that's partly fiction?

Only partly! I know I had the earliest curfew in high school of any of my circle and had strict parents. They were perfectly happy as long as I was home on time and allowed a lot of liberal entertaining within the house.

Think the anti-intellectualism is bullshit. Smart/accomplished kids were always admired in my high school days and, as far as I can observe from my children's and grandchildren's school experiences, still are. There are lots of problems growing up in this country involving racism, class differences, rural and urban poverty, unequal access to good schools. Those things produce some extremely negative effects within U.S. culture. Trump's slogan "Make American great again" is particularly offensive in light of all that--the good old days were bad and the present needs some serious work!

[bunn]

I don't remember anyone at my school having a curfew, though perhaps they did. At primary school, yes, or a bedtime if it was a school night.

I was thinking less that sort of thing, and more that there seem to be so many situations where children are bullied and there seems to be no appeal for them, and no authority figure that can step in to help. Though I know teachers do complain of not having time to teach properly here, the idea that a child is being physically beaten up or persistently bullied and that's just how it is, no way out, seems often to come up in these series. It's horrifying, yet seems to be presented as a fact of life?

[pixel39]

Having been in high school in America in the 80s, can totally confirm dystopia. Especially if it's a small rural town*--EVERYONE had a car, because in a small rural town you need transportation and most of the kids could drive a tractor by the time they were in their early teens

[bunn]

I begin to see why it is that in American culture, people are desperate to get away from the rural town where they grew up, whereas in Britain, it's more likely they would be complaining that they can't afford to buy a house there!

Wow. That level of supervision seems... very odd to me. At 17! Good grief!

I was going around to visit friend's houses unsupervised before I ever went to school! And when I was 13 and we'd moved to Devon, I went to see my old friends in south wales, travelling alone on the train, stayed there for a week... Her mother was dead and her father was at work most of the time. I guess her older brothers probably had some idea where we were, but we certainly weren't notifying anyone of our location! But if someone had bullied us or attacked us, we would have had loads of choices on safe people to appeal to for help. Though I hear from friends that there is a lot of pressure for children to be much more supervised here now than they were in the 80's.

...Still, wow. The US seems such a scary place.

[marycatelli]

You must remember that when a small town is described as being in the middle of nowhere in the US, it's much more isolated than the equivalent in the US.

[bunn]

Yes, I know - I'm used to a tiny micro-culture where 'the sticks' can be an hour's cycle ride from town, it's hard to adjust the expectations!

[anna_wing]

I have a friend, from a diplomatic family, who suffered through an American high school in the 80s (and not in the backwoods either, this was an elite school in New York city). He told me that it was indeed as dystopian as the films make it look, down to the anti-intellectualism and petty tribalism. He said the strangest thing was the way that clever girls were pressured to pretend to be stupid in order to attract boys (which in our own societal context is...unimaginable).

[bunn]

That's... really sad and upsetting. :-(

[anna_wing]

Yes, it left him with a somewhat...ambivalent attitude towards the US, though I believe his university experience there was somewhat better.