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# 2025-06-06 - The Plastic Age by Percy Marks
I read this in my exploration of flapper-related literature. The
title refers to the neuroplasticity of youth, as opposed to
petrochemical polymers. The protagonist, Hugh Carver, is a young man
who goes to college about 300 miles away from where he grew up.
There are multiple flappers in this book, and they play support roles
without much character development. What is developed is their
cultural context.
I found this book easy to relate to. The author seemed to write
sympathetically toward all of the characters.
What follows are interesting excerpts with comments in square brackets.
... some of them clad in Kollege Kut Klothes that they would
shamefacedly discard within a week.
IMG Kollege Kut Klothes
* * *
[In a full theater for a silent movie:]
Immediately the boys began to whistle, and as the comedy was utterly
stupid, they relieved their boredom by whistling the various tunes
that the pianist played until the miserable film flickered out.
Then the "feature" and the fun began. During the stretches of pure
narrative, the boys whistled, but when there was any real action they
talked. The picture was a melodrama of "love and hate," as the
advertisement said.
The meretricious melodrama did not fool them, but they delighted in
its absurdities.
[Even contemporaries found silent movies dull, and so they amused
each other with humorous commentary and focused on the physical
beauty of the actors. Speaking of bad movies, this book was made
into two movies.]
DIR The Plastic Age (1925)
TEXT Red Lips (1928)
* * *
[Being a single sex college, the football cheerleader was male.]
"When the day comes," said Alling, "that Latin can compete with
football, I'll--well, I'll probably get a living wage. You had better
go before I get to talking about a living wage. It is one of my
favorite topics."
* * *
"We've got a single standard now. The girls go just as fast as the
fellows. ... I tell you the old double standard has gone all to hell."
* * *
Henley leaned back in his chair. "What horrible little conformers you
are," he began sarcastically, "and how you loathe any one who doesn't
conform! You dress both your bodies and your minds to some set model.
The college is made up of men who worship mediocrity; that is their
ideal except in athletics.
I tell you further that you are as standardized as Fords and about as
ornamental. Fords are useful for ordinary work; so are you--and
unless some of you wake up... you are never going to be anything more
than human Fords.
* * *
He [Parker/Norry] had a slow, winning smile, a quiet, low voice. He
was a dreamer and a mystic, a youth who could see fairies dancing in
the shadows; and he told Hugh what he saw.
I knew that I was kinda different from other fellows, not so strong;
and I don't like ugly things or smutty stories or anything like that.
I think women are lovely, and I hate to hear fellows tell dirty
stories about them. I'm no fool, Hugh; I know about the things that
happen, but I don't want to hear about them.
He realized that there was something rare, almost exquisite, about
the boy, and that he [Parker/Norry] lived largely in a beautiful
world of his own imagination.
* * *
"Every intelligent man with ideals eventually becomes a cynic. It is
inevitable. He has standards, and, granted that he is intelligent, he
cannot fail to see how far mankind falls below those standards. The
result is cynicism, and if he is truly intelligent, the cynicism is
kindly. Having learned that man is frail, he expects little of him;
therefore, if he judges at all, his judgment is tempered either with
humor or with mercy."
author: Marks, Percy, 1891-1956
TEXT detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/The_Plastic_Age
LOC: PZ3.M3423 Pl PS3525.A6657
DIR source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/1/6/5/3/16532/
tags: ebook,fiction,gender,history,video
title: The Plastic Age
# Tags
DIR ebook
DIR fiction
DIR gender
DIR history
DIR video