Teens contra mundum

Counter culture
Leonie Caldecott
COUPLE OF years ago,
we were visiting Chartres Cathedral with our children, when we came across a display about everyday life at the time when the great cathedrals were built.
One of the panels explained that in the Middle Ages, children were deemed to have grown up when they reached the age of 12. Our eldest daughter, who was due to turn 12 the next day, reacted with dismay. "I'm glad I didn't live then," she remarked. "I don't want to stop being a child just yet."
Sitting in a darkened cinema nearly two years later, waiting for The Phantom Menace to begin, I was forced to reflect that things are not quite so simple. The teen-orientated ads covered everything from shampoo to hair-gel. There was also a rendition of The Pied Piper of Hamlyn. In this version, the cool dude who bins the rats takes his revenge for late payment of his invoice by stealing the town's women, a stunt which is achieved by the simple device of spraying himself liberally with a certain deodorant (and good riddance too, you might say, to such an undiscriminating bunch). After this we had a trailer for the next James Bond movie.
It was a relief when we filially got to the film we had come to watch. Queen Amidala, it seems, never has a bad-hair day (although she could brush up her make-up technique).
No mention is made of deodorants either, in spite of some perspiration-inducing combat scenes. In any case, the family trip to the latest Lucas blockbuster was an exercise in generational nostalgia, since we watched the original Star Wars movie while on honeymoon in the USA, all of 22 years ago.
There has been plenty ,of derision at the lack of plot in the new offering, not to mention the superficial religious concepts of the Star Wars universe. Lucas seems to have plumped for a materialistic exegesis in the new film, explaining the "Force' in terms of micro-organisms that inhabit and cooperate with their human hosts for the good of all. But the fact remains that the world view presented here is, so far at least, a let more child-friendly than the surrounding culture to which the advertisers who exploited our presence in the cinema ate pandering. I for one rejoiced that my eldest was struck more by the death of the noble Jedi than by the special effects, not to mention her scorn at the idea that actor Leonardo di Caprio might be cast as the adult Anakin Skywalker (for her 13th birthday party, she seriously considered playing pin-thedagger on Leonardo).
Growing up at the end of the 20th century is a complicated business, and growing up Catholic adds an interesting dimension. Short of protecting your children from everything, and home-schooling them through to A level (a decision that some of our friends have taken, and one which I respect), you haveto adopt a warrior-like mentality not dissimilar to that of a Jedi knight. An alertness to hidden agendas can then be applied even to Star Wars (or example, the use, or abuse, by George Lucas of the idea of the virgin birth).
And so the combat contnues: making war on the Adversary "as though you were dancing" (to lift a phrse from one of the Church Fathers), and taking every opportunity for a reality chek. The resident adolescent is well aware of her peculiar staus as a marketing target. When I asked her the other day hAv she feels now about being The of "them" — you know a teenager — she replied pfilosophically that it was difficult not to "be" something if everyone around you is laking at you in that light. "53 1 intend to enjoy it," she muted "And leave out the stunid bits ..." In short, to retrain contra mundum about the suff being dished up over tat mass-media counter.
At least she is still incr• ested in visiting cathedrals, not to mention prayinj i n them. Which is about as counter-cultural as you :an get, these days.