Getting the 60s Right

We're hitting the 40th anniversary of various 1960s phenomena, so maybe it shouldn't be surprising that a certain kind of uninformed nostalgia pervades the culture these days. I've seen two plays recently that adopt a 60s theme, one worse than the other. The worst one was a thematic production of As You Like It, my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. Transporting it to the 60s might have worked, if they had any idea of what the 60s were actually like. They didn't even get the clothes right. It makes me wonder if the Roaring Twenties themes have always been as reductionist and inaccurate as the Swinging Sixties.

It's odd that few novels have portrayed that decade well, and even the better movies usually leave out significant elements. More modest recollections have more of the ring of truth, as this one in the San Francisco Chronicle today by Gerald FitzGerald.