Charles Degelman's Blog - Posts Tagged "fiction"
Gates of Eden: Fact or fiction? History or Literature?
How do we remember those who protested the Vietnam War? Were they hippies, revolutionaries, or terrorists?
Millions of baby boomers came of age during the 1960s, each bearing his or her differing — often conflicting — impressions. Generation X missed out but many are curious about the rebellion and counterculture that preceded them.
And what about today’s young people? What do they understand about the Vietnam War and the resistance movement that rose up on the same campuses many of them attend today?
Enter Gates of Eden, a new novel that may provide educators with a unique resource to help students explore an often-obscured era. [More...]
Millions of baby boomers came of age during the 1960s, each bearing his or her differing — often conflicting — impressions. Generation X missed out but many are curious about the rebellion and counterculture that preceded them.
And what about today’s young people? What do they understand about the Vietnam War and the resistance movement that rose up on the same campuses many of them attend today?
Enter Gates of Eden, a new novel that may provide educators with a unique resource to help students explore an often-obscured era. [More...]
Fact to Fiction: the author discusses real-life origins of his '60s resistance novels
The Resistance Series
Reinhabitory Institute : The multiple protagonists in Gates of Eden are young people coming into adulthood in the 1960s. The novel captures this time of great changes and especially the political awakening of these characters who come from different backgrounds but who are all swept up in the turmoil and possibility of the times. Can you say something about how you came to create these different characters and why you tell the story this way?
Degelman: In order to set a context for our discussion, let me tell you about Gates of Eden and the characters who inhabit the novel. Gates of Eden follows a handful of young rebels who grow up crazed in the conformist claustrophobia of 1950s America. As they grew into awareness, they begin to notice the injustice and inequity in the society that loved to call itself “The American Dream.” They began to notice that the dream often resembled a nightmare, if not for themselves, then for others. Individually and in groups, they began to share their awareness and joined the trickles and torrents that flowed into the resistance, rebellion, and power of the civil rights and anti-war movements.
[Read more... ]
Reinhabitory Institute : The multiple protagonists in Gates of Eden are young people coming into adulthood in the 1960s. The novel captures this time of great changes and especially the political awakening of these characters who come from different backgrounds but who are all swept up in the turmoil and possibility of the times. Can you say something about how you came to create these different characters and why you tell the story this way?
Degelman: In order to set a context for our discussion, let me tell you about Gates of Eden and the characters who inhabit the novel. Gates of Eden follows a handful of young rebels who grow up crazed in the conformist claustrophobia of 1950s America. As they grew into awareness, they begin to notice the injustice and inequity in the society that loved to call itself “The American Dream.” They began to notice that the dream often resembled a nightmare, if not for themselves, then for others. Individually and in groups, they began to share their awareness and joined the trickles and torrents that flowed into the resistance, rebellion, and power of the civil rights and anti-war movements.
[Read more... ]
