Essay 4 for 1,400 words typed based on James Lasdun’s It’s Beginning to Hurt is due November 10:
Option One
Comparing at least 3 stories from Lasdun’s collection, develop an analytical thesis that shows how Joseph Epstein’s online essay “The Perpetual Adolescent” supports the assertion that Lasdun’s characters self-destruct under the weight of their adolescent fixation.
By perpetual adolescence, we meaning the following:
Chasing Eros instead of maturing.
Chasing the ego's needs instead of maturing.
Adulating or worshipping the culture of youth while shunning the wisdom of maturity
Chasing the compulsivity of youth and never learning the self-control of maturity.
Chasing the hedonism of youth instead of finding connection and meaning.
Making a mockery of adulthood through media: Homer Simpson, Al Bundy, Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, Walter White, the emasculated husband from Breaking Bad.
In an age of media-driven reckless spending, temptation, and tantalization, we are encouraged to pursue Dionysian impulses instead of Apollonian inclinations. Some say that all literature is about the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian forces.
Be sure your essay has a minimum of 3 sources.
Option Two
Develop a thesis that answers the following question: How do characters in Lasdun's "love stories" reach the demonic state? (cause and effect thesis)
By "demonic" I mean several things:
They go mad as they become disconnected from others and living inside their head, the condition known as solipsism.
They become irrational so that they are incapable of maturity, which means having the faculties of love and reason.
They have no boundaries with others, so that they are “clingers,” as we discussed last class, people capable of symbiotic relationships, which render both people emotional cripples.
They become blind to their own self-destruction so that they have no self-awareness or metacognition.
They chase a pipe dream or a chimera and obliterate themselves in the process.
They become bitter at their wasted life and realize they've squandered their existence on a cheap dream. They're overcome, as a result, with self-hatred and remorse.
Consider, their madness as the result of the Faustian Bargain, settling, the dream of eternal adolescence, and the chimera for a comparison essay that includes at least 3 stories, "The Half Sister," "An Anxious Man," "The Natural Order," and "Peter Khan's Third Wife." Be sure your essay has a minimum of 3 sources.
Option Three
Analyze "An Anxious Man" in terms of the Faustian Bargain described in the essay "Love People, Not Pleasure," by Arthur C. Brooks. (definition thesis in which you show the distinguishing characteristics of the Faustian Bargain and show how they apply to "An Anxious Man"). Be sure your essay at least 3 sources.
Study Questions for “The Perpetual Adolescent” by Joseph Epstein
One. How has our clothing reflected deep change in the psyche?
Sixty years ago, we had adolescent outfits followed by adult clothing. Now we just stick to adolescent clothing throughout our entire existence.
Cargo shorts are the uniform from childhood throughout adulthood.
Men love cargo shorts because of convenience. They can use the pockets for keys, wallets, protein bars, Red Bull, tablets, smartphones, etc.
Men can keep the TV's remote control in a hidden pocket so they can dominate the television over their wife and children.
Men can keep a second smartphone in a hidden pocket for secret relationships and illicit activities that are in line with their teenage shenanigans.
This stubborn refusal to let go of cargo shorts and typical teenage garb reflects a worship of youth and a stubborn objection to growing up, to navigating through what Carl Jung called the 4 Stages of Life:
One. Athlete: As a child you're not yet educated, so you’re defined solely by your physical characteristics.
Two. Warrior: You combine your physical attributes with training in a career field to become successful, amass money, and establish mastery in your area of specialization. You build yourself up and crush your competition. In essence, you are a warrior.
The warrior stage is largely ego-driven. The warrior is compelled by the reptilian part of his brain to reproduce, amass wealth, and crush his competition.
He defines success as having the most toys and the most coveted trophies.
To be fixated on the warrior stage is to be an obnoxious jackass. Anyone with a modicum of common sense and decency becomes disillusioned with the warrior stage and exits this life phase with a bitter taste in his mouth.
The former warrior looks back on his life with chagrin and says, "What an idiot I was. Can I ever forgive myself?"
This state of contriteness and a hunger for something more than materialistic and egotistical gratification leads our wounded warrior to life's next phase.
Three. Statesperson: You become disenchanted with the shallow materialism and egotism of the warrior stage. “Been there, done that” becomes the common mantra in this regard. You crave meaning, substance, an ideal larger than yourself to fill the awful vacuum of misery and depression that consumes your existence.
As a statesperson, you are someone who wants to do more than leave a carbon footprint as your slog through life as a mindless consumer. To the contrary, you want to make a contribution, you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, you want spiritual fulfillment, so you devote your life to service to others, your family, your community, your world.
The statesperson stage is a moving away from ego.
Four. Spirit. Few people attain pure spirit. This is a condition of complete separation from ego. Your old selfish person has died and has been replaced by your statesperson.
Adolescent Fixation = Moral Decay and Spiritual Dissolution
Wanting to stay in the adolescent stage, as encouraged by media and advertising, is wanting to stay in the narcissistic, ego-driven stage. This results in the moral dissolution and moral decay, which inevitably leads to misery.
In other words, the Adolescent Ideology championed by media and advertising is a false god, a false gospel, and a false path.
Two. How did adulthood become demonized?
Epstein writes that adulthood became associated with being stuffy, rigid, authoritarian, part of the “evil hierarchy.” In other words, an adult was The Man.
An adult was a sellout who lost his soul for materialistic comforts. In some ways, this is true of adulthood, or at least a particular kind of adulthood.
In the 1960s, professors wore jeans and T-shirts to show solidarity with their students. Many professors donned pony tails and man buns while sporting Che Guevara and Bob Marley T-shirts.
In the 1970s, many professors and their students sat on the roofs of the campus buildings while smoking pot and listening to Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.
Even though such recreational pastimes between professors and students are more rare these days, the the fashion statement remains.
Now you’ll see adult men sitting in an expensive restaurant while wearing a baseball cap backwards. You'll see 40-something guys, on the way home from the gym shopping at Target in tank tops and spandex. Such sartorial casualness goes unnoticed because we've become inured or accustomed to it.
You'll see a lot of 50-something female professors teaching some sort of cultural studies course who aspire to the avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson look with short spiked hair as they create the affect and manner of a supercilious, pretentious pixie.
Adulthood became demonized by television, especially sitcoms featuring the Emasculated Father: Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons, Married with Children.
Three. How is our adolescent cult a violation of human nature?
By denying the natural stages of life and fixing on the adolescent one we are impeding the “Aristotelian unities: to have, like a good drama, a beginning, middle, and end.” Life has a shape and structure to it, Epstein asserts, and to alter the structure is to violate nature, which in turn must result in a violation and betrayal of our own selves.
In other words, life should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We must embrace this inevitability, not deny it. To deny the natural stages is to self-destruct and to destroy others.
One of life's natural trajectories is to be youthful and to be youthful is to be absorbed by Dionysian ecstasy. The term Dionysian refers to impulsivity, rapture, ecstasy, intuition, inspiration, epiphany, revelation, spontaneity, self-abandon, communal union, sensuality, and chaos.
Being young is by its very nature intoxicating or more succinctly put youth is a drug. You feel like you'll never die. You feel invincible. You feel the Dionysian urge.
If you're normal, Epstein observes, this Dionysian impulse will eventually give way to the Apollonian drive. Apollonian refers to order, quiet, tranquility, structure, quiet, control, reason, logic, and intellect.
Marketing and advertising wants us to spend money. And marketers know we spend more money if we are Dionysian adolescents.
Mature Apollonian adults are too logical and rational to spend money with exuberant, unbridled enthusiasm.
Marketers have punked us, as it were, or perhaps better put have brainwashed us to be beholden to Dionysian adolescence.
We are obsessed with looking like teenagers forever. And we want to act like teenagers: wild, crazy, full of short-term gratification, Dionysian self-abandonment with no Apollonian order as a counterbalance.
We are obsessed with exercising (I have since the age of 12), cosmetic surgery, “makeovers,” New Age gurus who promise the unlimited possibilities of existence and who are of course sham artists.
Life is a balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian.
The Dionysian is letting go, going crazy, a response to order and control. Spring Break is a Dionysian response the Apollonian rigors of college study.
Four. What cultural events caused the shift from adult to adolescent culture?
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a novel that “exalts the purity of youth and locates the enemy—a clear case of Us versus Them—in those committed the sin of having grown older, which includes Holden Caulfield’s pain-in-the-neck parents, his brother (the sellout screenwriter), and just about everyone else who has passed beyond adolescence and had the rather poor taste to remain alive.”
Perhaps no song celebrates adolescent alienation and loneliness in the face of a phony adult world more than The Smith’s “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” where the song’s narrator wants to escape his family who make him feel like he’s not welcome home anymore.
Poetic and Philosophical Interpretations
We can draw from anti-adulthood poems and philosophies as well. Epstein points out that the poet Wordsworth’s “Intimation of Immortality” champions the idea that as we grow older we become more and more corrupts and lose the jewel of purity and enchantment that radiates inside us.
Plato, too, believed that “we all had wisdom in the womb.”
Rousseau believed we were “noble savages” who lost our noble ways through embracing the corruption of adulthood.
The iconic status with the handsome John F. Kennedy contributed to “the triumph of youth culture.”
The Beatles possessed American culture and influenced fashion and sensibility, including the idea of self-reinvention as they sought gurus for their enlightenment.
We are so immature today that we will entertain the possibility of electing a Reality TV star to the Presidency.
Silicon Valley “Tech bros” who makes tens of millions wear sneakers, jeans, and hoodies.
Economic Shifts
Post World War II prosperity gave a lot of Americans the luxury of postponing their adolescence as they took time to “find themselves.”
When you’re short on money, you’ve got to figure things out quickly. As a result, you have to grow up fast.
Today’s hyper-competitive economy may be a factor that shortens adolescence.
Advertising
Materialism, hyper-masculine peacock strutting, and youthful sexual charisma are the focus of most ads.
This bombardment of sexualized advertising imprints a sensual, rakish youth as the core identity of Americans well into their mature years, so that a guy in his 50s can have bleach blond spiked hair or toupee, plucked eye brows, pec implants, Botox, and several coats of bronze tanner to give him that “youthful devil” appearance when in fact he looks grotesque, a monster incapable of facing the realities of his age.
The health industry makes billions. For example TRX training promises to “unleash your inner beast.”
The Paleo Movement promises 10 foods that will make you look younger.
I find it ironic that adulthood has been shunned by making the adult father an emasculated joke while young men are strutting peacocks when this strutting is a sign of weakness, identity confusion, and herd conformity.
Television
In the 1980s, we got our first taste of the Father Clown motif in the likes of Al Bundy in Married with Children. In the 90s, self-absorbed, naval-gazing narcissism was celebrated in Seinfeld and Friends. Today, we similar self-absorbed protagonists who are incapable of growing up in two smartly written shows, You’re the Worst and Bojack Horseman.
In the Narcissistic TV trope, the character does not achieve centrifugal development experiencing a transformative character arc. Rather, the character slogs through centripetal movement, becoming more and more of what he already is, a narcissistic, selfish, petulant, immature grouch.
All the Housewives reality shows on Bravo feature people who are stuck in the high school gossip stage.
In Breaking Bad, which in my opinion is the greatest TV series ever made, a middle aged Walter White becomes an edgy drug producer and calls himself “The Danger.”
Walter White played by the rules, became a grownup, cared for his family, and he was betrayed by the system. He felt worthless in his middle-age and he felt compelled to reinvent himself.
As a failed adult, he represents a lot of men's anxieties as we see in this essay. The crisis of male adulthood represented in television is further developed in this essay.
Adulthood Is a Place of Weakness, Impotence, and Irrelevance
Modern man finds that he tries to be an adult, embrace adult family responsibilities, work a job, he feels more and more irrelevant, worthless, and inept. He seeks escape in the glory of his adolescence: Watching NFL, MMA, playing poker with friends, dabbling in fantasy football and baseball, starting a blog about fly fishing, making YouTube videos with other members of his garage band. They posture in front of the camera while they play their electric guitars, smash drums, and croon under the moonlight, but when the music is over they crawl into their beds, curl up in the fetal position, and cry themselves to sleep.
Modern man in essence is a caged animal who lived in accordance with the script society gave to him and now he finds himself essentially unhappy and unfulfilled and is in search of cheap compensation in the form of liquor, entertainment, and prurient distractions. Yet these measures fail to make him happy, and he feels compelled to look back with nostalgic fondness at his high school days when his dreams seemed so unlimited and his strength, potential, and virility seemed so potent he believed he could knock out an elephant.
Who would want to live in this adult hell? Is it any wonder that perpetual adolescence has appeal for the modern man?
Longer Lifespans
We expect to make it to 90 these days, so we feel we’ve got time to burn, luxuriate in narcissistic indifference to the world and to our responsibilities as we sulk in our bedrooms, in front of the TV, in front of the computer, in front of our smartphones. We burn our time on entertainment because entertainment is the apotheosis of human existence. “We’ll never die.”
Pushing Up the Timeline for Marriage
We used to marry in our early twenties. Then it was our mid-thirties. Now it’s in our forties. You can “play the field” for over 20 years before you settle down.
If you don’t think playing the field for a quarter of century isn’t going to saddle you with toxic emotional baggage, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Professional Athlete
Celebration of the professional athlete, a smiling Billy Goat, an unapologetic satyr, a wild partier, has also contributed to our adolescent fixation.
In modern America, the modern athlete is the apotheosis of manhood. Couch potato men live vicariously through their favorite athletes as an escape from their domestic ineptitude and feelings of self-worthlessness.
Five. How have meaning and fulfillment been curtailed by the adolescent cult?
Epstein observes that the “hunger for life, the eagerness to get into the fray as been replaced by an odd patience that often looks more like passivity.”
In other words, the perpetual adolescent is a slacker, a bum, a dude living in his mother’s basement sitting in front of his laptop while eating a Hot Pocket. Epstein calls this new person, the “passive-nonaggressive.”
Epstein argues that our adolescent cult has resulted in a dumbing-down of culture, a laziness, and the malaise of lowered expectations.
The word for being lost in the fog of a malaise of lowered expectations: acedia.
Acedia is a spiritual disease, part apathy, part nihilism, part lethargy.
Nihilism is the belief that there is no meaning or purpose in life.
Written before social media in 2004, Epstein’s essay criticizes the media and television for its dumbed-down content. His criticism would be even worse if he were analyzing social media.
Danger of Self-Esteem
Another dangerous component of the adolescent cult is the placing inordinate value on something as specious (misleading) as self-esteem.
For Epstein, self-esteem is an odious disguise for “smug complacence.”
Another disastrous result of the adolescent cult is the “coarsening of American culture,” the breaking down of civil behavior, the erosion of a reverence for oneself, for others, and for life itself.
To Meander Is to Evidence Self-Contempt
I’m reminded of Viktor Frankl’s masterpiece Man’s Search for Meaning in which he says to live one’s life as if there is no meaning, in a mindless, meandering, capricious manner as Epstein associates with adolescent apathy, then one is showing self-contempt, which is a powerful form of self-betrayal.
To meander mindlessly is enter the dangerous realm of No Return where one gets lost in the woods and can never get out.
There is uplifting religion that treats people like adults by assigning high expectations and responsibilities.
But then there is infantile religion that treats believers like children who need to be coddled.
Clearly, Epstein prefers the former spiritual orientation to the latter.
Whereas in the past adolescence was taken for granted to be a transient phase. Now, however, adolescence has triumphed as the Final Resting Stop, the Apotheosis of human existence. Epstein says you now have two choices: “to seem an old fogey for attempting to live according to one’s own standard of adulthood, or to go with the flow and adapt some variant of pulling one’s long gray hair back into a ponytail, struggling into spandex shorts, working on those abs, and ending one’s days among the Rip Van With-Its.” Epstein finds these alternatives odious.
Quoting Santayana, Epstein claims that perpetual adolescence is a “great sin,” a violation of human nature, and that such a violation eviscerates meaning, spirit, and morality while disfiguring its practitioners into grotesque monstrosities.
Possible Counterarguments
In a spirit of fair-mindedness, we should consider some rebuttals to Joseph Epstein's argument that cultural decay is a result of the worship of perpetual adolescence.
For one, Epstein, writing for a conservative magazine, is embracing a common conservative trope, that the culture, led by liberal forces, is going to hell.
To make Epstein's argument, some might claim that Epstein's portrait of perpetual adolescence is a caricature: He has taken the worst traits of the modern slacker and pasted these traits on the desire to be youthful. His exaggeration makes his argument guilty of the Straw Man, in a way.
Epstein's critics might point out that someone with Epstein's writing talent could have just as well written an essay titled "The Adult Sell-Out," a portrait of maturing into compromise and selling one's soul to embrace the lifestyle of adulthood. Such a lifestyle is materialistic, vain, and shallow.
I don't really believe the above statement. I think perpetual adolescents and "adults" alike can be guilty of selling out, consumerism, materialism, and idolatry. That's my biggest gripe with Epstein's essay. He places all moral blame on the adolescent lifestyle, which is a code for liberalism. But a conservative approach to life in which one embraces adulthood and its responsibilities can be just as fraudulent as the counterfeit life Epstein describes in his essay.
Epstein's essay's biggest flaw is that it is an implicit indictment of the liberal mind in the guise of a non-partisan psychological analysis. Epstein's analysis is sodden with conservative bias.
His bias is evident in his preference for conservative dress, conservative music, conservative literature, and a conservative's disdain for political correctness, which he sees as a liberal farce.
I actually agree with about 80% of what Epstein is saying. But to be fair, models of adulthood in our culture are just as morally bankrupt as our ideals of youth.
Another Reason We Are Inclined to Fixate on Adolescence: The Adult's Sense of Betrayal After Playing by the Rules or Living in Accordance with Society's Script
Adulthood = Sellout = Death = Walter White
Adulthood = Playing by the Rules = Betrayed by Society = Walter White
In other words, why grow up when most adults we know are miserable?
Fatherhood is ridiculed in modern culture.
Walter White has failed as a an adult. He can't provide for his family. He is a chemistry teacher who also works at a car wash and he doesn't have enough health insurance for his cancer treatments.
He is ridiculed by family and friends.
He is ashamed and guilt-ridden for who he has become. He avoids eye contact.
His coping mechanisms have failed metaphorically and literally evidenced by his cancer diagnosis.
He has failed to meet society's expectations of the empowered adult.
He is emasculated.
He has played by society's rules, but society has cheated him so he now has pent-up rage.
His life is one of constant deprivation. This constant deprivation and humiliation define his adulthood.
As an adult, he is Emasculated Man.
He longs for the happiness and glory of his youth when he was an experimental scientist working on the cutting edge of discoveries and having a relationship with his co-worker, a beautiful woman who left him for another scientist, an unctuous, smug philistine.
McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure
Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.
Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.
Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb
Faulty
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.
Corrected
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.
Faulty
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.
Corrected
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.
Faulty
Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.
Corrected
The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.
Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause
Faulty
When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.
Corrected
Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.
Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction
Faulty
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.
Corrected
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.
Faulty
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.
Corrected
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.
Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over
Faulty
In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.
Corrected
In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.
Faulty
Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.
Corrected
Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.
Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.
Faulty
We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.
Corrected
We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.
Faulty
Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.
Corrected
Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.
Faulty
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.
Corrected
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.
Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent
Faulty
The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Corrected
Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.
Faulty
Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.
Corrected
Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.
Faulty
A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.
Corrected
A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.
Faulty
The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Corrected
I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Faulty
The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.
Corrected
I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.
In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:
One. Verb after a prepositional phrase
Two. Verb after a dependent clause
Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.
Five. Faulty predication
Six: Faulty apposition
Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
General Punctuation Rules Including Comma, Semicolon, and Colon
Semicolon Rules
Use semicolon for two related sentences:
Dark chocolate is my second favorite dessert; my first favorite is Costco-purchased Ghirardelli Triple-Chocolate Brownies.
When I was five years old, my parents moved us into the Royal Lanai Apartments of San Jose, California; by the time I was seven we had advanced to a large house in the nearby suburbs.
I used the Jack Crazy Man Ripped Abs Training Program for six months; it proved worthless: I'm as fat as ever.
Use semicolon for two related sentences separated by a conjunctive adverb:
I didn't get the pesto pizza; instead, I chose the zesty feta cheese with Greek olives.
I won't loan you a thousand dollars; however, I'll pay you $50 to wash my car.
Torrance is a good place to live a sedate, stagnant existence as you grow old in your elastic waistband Dockers; in contrast, Santa Monica is more snappy and urbane for aspiring hipsters.
I won't break up with you for cheating on me; nevertheless, you must now live with the guilt of knowing that I will forever feel like a rusty claw just ripped into my chest and tore out my heart.
Use semicolon to clarify a list:
Planet Earth was saved by Superman, the Man of Steel; Aquaman, the Creature of the Deep; Batman, the Caped Crusader; Captain America, Fighter for Justice; Wonder Woman, the Goddess of Crime Stoppers, and Thor, the Hero of Fury.
Without the semicolons, you would think the world was saved by 12 heroes when in fact it was saved by only 6.
Colon Rules
Use a colon to introduce a list:
My favorite desserts are the following: triple-chocolate brownies, cherry pie ladled with Italian vanilla gelato, fresh apple jelly donuts doused with powdered sugar, German chocolate cake, and cinnamon butter pecan coffee cake.
I decided to hire you for several reasons: One, you are reliable. Two, you pay attention to details. Three, you appear to be someone of conscience. Four, you appear to have a hard work ethic. And five, I'm hoping you can set me up with your sister. And perhaps throw in a few good words for me.
Use a colon to emphasize further explanation:
I feel like an old, beat-up dollar bill: Just as an old dollar bill is never accepted in the Coke machine, I'm never accepted by mainstream society.
I remember the first thought I had when my first girlfriend told me she loved me: Oh my God, I need to find a way to get out of this.
Use a colon to precede a quotation, a summary, or a paraphrase:
Paul Fussell explains that X People supremely discard middle-class values and mores: For X People, Fussell explains, the good life is experiencing the Now in all its richness, not groveling for some pathetic social status.
In the masterpiece memoir Muscle, author Samuel Wilson Fussell contemplates his growing paranoia and pent-up emotions: "The threat wasn't just from without; it also came from within. The fright I'd felt on the streets of New York I also felt deep within myself. Who was this man who cried not just at graduations and weddings but during beer and credit-card commercials? Who was this man terrified of his own rage, his own anger, his own greed, his own bitterness? Who was this man who never head a compliment without hearing a subtextual insult, who never said 'I love you' without resenting the other fact: 'I need you.' I couldn't deny it was me, or could I?"
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