Synopses & Reviews
The finest pieces by Barry Farrell, one of America's preeminent journalists, are drawn together for the first time in this wise, funny, and moving collection. From first-person musings to scathing social commentary, Farrell chronicled the country's changing cultural tides from the 1960s through the '80s -- and articulated his views with unparalleled precision and insight.
His peers (among them, Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne, John McPhee, Calvin Trillin, and Norman Mailer) still regard him as one of the most talented nonfiction writers of his time. And what a time: Woodstock, the Manson murders, Allen Ginsberg's tender raging, Patty Hearst's kidnapping and trial, Gary Gilmore's execution/suicide, the LAPD's laughable botching of the Hillside Strangler case. Farrell somehow found his way to the center of all these media events, quickly separated the heroes from the charlatans, and went home to out-write every reporter on the scene.
A must-read for students of writing and followers of journalism, How I Got To Be This Hip is a timeless mirror of America, as seen through the eyes of one of its most astute observers.
About the Author
Barry Farrell was one of the premier writers of his era, a writer's writer, revered by his peers. He started at Time in 1961, then became a staff writer for Life in the late 1960s, where he wrote a column every other week, alternating with Joan Didion. He then moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s and was West Coast Editor of Harper's. He also taught writing. Barry Farrell died in 1984.
Table of Contents
Contents Introduction
Innocence and Guilt
On a Sailboat of Sinking Water
Second Reading: Bad Vibrations from Woodstock
Celebrity Market
For the Only Freak in Ohio
First Floor Rear at the Jungle's Edge
The Ghost of Shoplifting Past
The Repression in the Mirror
Some Notes on the Last Twenty Years
Tragedies at Hollywood and Vine
On Flying First Class
That Toyota of Mine
Why My Friendship with Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl Ended
Secrets of the Kite
Dances of Death
In a Let-Burn Situation
In Hollywood, the Dead Keep Right on Dying
California Inquest
Merchandising Gary Gilmore's Dance of Death
The Court Said the Victims Invited the Trouble
Stalking the Hillside Strangler
Pimps and Poets
The Case Against F. Lee Bailey
George in the Afternoon
The Guru Comes to Kansas
Sinatra: One Hell of an Enemy
Gee, Gordon
An Indigestible Dinner with Professor M.
The Rules of the Game
Billy in the Garden
How I Got To Be This Hip
Reading Group Guide
Reading Group Guide ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for discussion for Barry Farrell's How I Got to Be This Hip. We hope that these ideas will enrich your discussion and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Many fine books from Washington Square Press include Reading Group Guides. For a complete listing, or to read the Guides on-line, visit http://www.simonsays.com/reading/guides
Discussion Questions
1. In the essay "On a Sailboat of Sinking Water," what does Farrell suggest happens to the imagination as we grow up? Is this a tragic loss, or a necessary function of maturing?
2. What did the author think of the use of drugs at Woodstock? What did he mean by "crossing a cultural Rubicon"?
3. How did the threat of the Weathermen affect other anti-government activists? Farrell asserts that repression can be a "state of mind." Do you agree with that statement?
4. Why did the author usually ride coach class in airplanes? Why did he feel guilty in first class?
5. What did the kite competitions illustrate about fatefulness? What was the omen that appeared?
6. In the essay, "In a Let-Burn Situation," why didn't the LAPD try to put out the fire? Why didn't the members of the SLA surrender rather than burn to death?
7. How did the fact that Patty Hearst's father owned several newspapers affect the coverage of her "kidnapping"? Did the SLA ultimately benefit from it? What role did language play in the media portrayal of the politics surrounding the treatment of the SLA?
8. Gary Gilmore insisted on the right to die and chose death by firing squad. Was there dignity in his choice of death? Why did it cause such excitement in the media?
9. In the essay "Stalking the Hillside Strangler," did you think that Kenneth Bianchi was insane, or just a good liar and actor? The author ends the essay on a sardonic note. Why?
10. What are the arguments the author makes against F. Lee Bailey?
11. In the essay "Gee, Gordon," what was Gordon's burned hand testimony to?
12. In the essay "How I Got To Be This Hip," what does the author feel that the role of the journalist is in street life? Does he himself subscribe to this? Why?
13. These essays were written over three decades. How has media coverage of events changed over this time period?
14. How did the events of the sixties change this country? How would Patty Hearst or the Weathermen be dealt with today?
15. What are some of the dominant themes that run throughout these essays?