What is new under the sun? Supposedly, the "odyssey years." This is the stretch of time, according to social scientists cited in a column by the New York Times' David Brooks, between adolescence and adulthood--say, between age 20 and age 35--during which careers are tried, commitments are deferred, and no one wants to be called "Mister."
If that sounds a little bit like the phenomenon analyzed in my book, The Death of the Grown-Up, it is--but only a little bit. I finally crystallized the difference for myself, but after being interviewed for a Times of London article on the subject, so here it is:
The "odyssey years" theorists still see adulthood at the end of the young--youngish--person's journey. "The D of the G," on the other hand, argues that "adult"-ness is no longer our destination. That is, even as we, most of us, get to work on time, keep up with out mortgages and bring up our children, the state of mind fostered by our culture and seemingly shared by most people is decidedly non-adult. This pose of perpetual adolescence has led to all sorts of crises (confidence, identity, etc.) that, together, pose a threat to civilizational longevity (the focus of the second half of my book).
That, to me at least, is what's new, and not so much the "odyssey years" --particularly as explained by one odysseyer (odysseus
to the the British newspaper: "There is a lot of expectation that you can have a career that really matters and a life of success," this not-so-youngster said (he is 30). "People won't settle for just anything. They want to be happy."
There is? They won't? They do? I could say, So what else is new, but I think I'll close with a few lines of verse from Phillip Larkin.
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me)—
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP
I'm on the road tomorrow, trying out the D of the G theory on a college audience.