Bright Young Things; The Magic Tempting Culture Of Youth

The awkwardness of adolescence; if you have been through it, you probably wouldn’t want to do it again. When did we define this time period? We often think of the idea of the teenager as relatively modern, yet the concept of the age range from childhood to adulthood has been around far longer than most of us may well realise. It has also been the hook for many great pieces of fiction, from the isolated to the troubled. From the bright things, to the raves of the 1990’s arguably Britain’s last big Youth Movement, the term has spawned many great pieces of literature, exploring the world of teenagers. Let’s explore some books on the life of a teenager, here in Bright Young Things; The Magic Tempting Culture Of Youth

It was an American psychologist, G.Stanley Hall, who coined the term ‘puberty ‘. In 1898, he proposed that the life stage referred to as ‘adolescence’ covered the ages between 15-24. But it wasn’t until the 1950s that the label teenage first came into common parlance. The word “teenager” itself gained popularity, becoming an international buzzword during this period, because of marketing and the recognition of a new spending power of this recently defined group

 In a post-World War Two society, starting in America, the teenager flourished with several factors being part of the journey. With higher education becoming compulsory, and the need for fewer young people having to go out to work because middle-class communities were on the rise, society gained a new subcultural facet; and so the teenager was born and alongside came energetic, frivolous and rebellious youth-focused subcultures. 

Before this level of freedom, the only youths able to have this level of freedom were wealthy elite teens, who created their own ‘gangs’. The most famous of these were given the title by the British press as The Bright Young Things.

This set of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites was based in London during the 1920s. They threw flamboyant parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London, and some drank heavily or used illicit drugs, all of which was enthusiastically covered by tabloid journalists and who elicited outrage from the population at the time.

But what became interesting and also almost set a playbook for future youth subcultures was the creativity that grew from it. From the young minds of writers like Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies, to Trainspotting, the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, the sect of the ‘salad days’ has been consistently explored in literature.

Vile Bodies, the second novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1930, became a satire of the very bright young things, of which he was part. This elite group in 1920s Mayfair had a paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercising their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade, whether it was promiscuity, dancing, cocktail parties or sports cars.

The book highlights a vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, who hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfilment of their desires.

Evelyn Waugh’s acidly funny and experimental satire showed a new generation emerging in the years after the First World War, revealing the darkness and vulnerability beneath the glittering surface of the high life. Interestingly, the original title, Bright Young Things, was changed by Waugh because he thought the phrase had become too clichéd.

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by S. E. Hinton published in 1967 by Viking Press. The book details the conflict between two rival gangs of White Americans divided by their socioeconomic status: the working-class “greasers” and the upper-middle-class “Socs”. The story is told in first-person perspective by teenage protagonist Ponyboy Curtis, and takes place in 1965.

One of the interesting thoughts behind the book is that the writer Hinton began writing the novel when she was only 15, with the bulk of it finished when she was 16 and a junior high school student. Not only was she only 18 when the book was published, but she also used only her initial SE so no one could undermine the writing (her name was Susan Eloise). She came to be credited with inventing the genre of Young Adult, aka YA.

Trainspotting was totally in step with the Zeitgeist when it was published in 1993, the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh.

It revolves around various residents of Leith, Edinburgh, who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are effectively addictions. The novel is set in the late 1980s and has been described as “the voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent” It has since achieved cult status and was the basis for the film by the same name. 

In Anthony Burgess’s Clockwork Orange, an influential nightmare vision of the future, where teen criminals take over after dark. Teen gang leader Alex narrates in fantastically inventive slang that echoes the violent intensity of youth rebelling against society. Fifteen-year-old Alex and his ‘droogs’ Georgie, Pete and Dim wreak havoc throughout this “horrorshow” of ultra-violence in this 1962 classic.

Dazzling, as much as it is chilling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom.  The book is partially written in a pseudo-Russian-influenced argot-slang called “Nadsat”. The name supposedly is from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to ‘-teen’ in English. According to Burgess, the novel was written in just three weeks.

Rave by Rainald Goetz was initially published in Germany in 1998, the result of Goetz’s intense collaboration with major figures from the early techno scene, such as Sven Väth and DJ Westbam. It came with the tagline, ‘Meet girls. Take drugs. Listen to Music. It scratches the surface of this layered narrative of the cult like dance scene, and is a true headlong dive into nineties techno culture.

The narrative captures the religious fervour that permeated the clubs and parties of this decadent time in Berlin. There is no developed storyline or even enhanced characters as such, but personal and revealing moments hint at a life beneath the party. And a modern take on the 1930s Bright Young Things, fizzled out by excess.

This short period that comes with a visceral sense of youth, one that feels indelible, unshakable, is only a passing phase, but a powerful one at that. It’s probably why it has birthed great books exploring times of trouble and tribulation, hurt and love, joy and jubilation.

If you enjoyed reading Bright Young Things; The Magic Tempting Culture Of Youth, then why not read Rebirth The Love of our Artisan World, here

.Cent Magazine London. Luxury Minded