So, one of the most influential writers of the 1960s passed away early this month at the age of 77, and I remember Theodore Roszak for more than his most famous book.
I first heard of Theodore Roszak when I picked up a mass market edition of his novel, Flicker, a book about film, the love of film, set in yesteryear, a golden age of monster movies, a thriller, a mystery, and I read all the accolades on the book jacket and put it back on the shelf. More than a decade passed and only last year while wandering around a used bookstore on Friday Harbor I came across a reissue of Flicker. The copy was a bit worn, with eared pages, the new reprint cover artwork not as thrilling as I remembered the original’s black and white film stock with repeating images (and I passed on it way back when, great cover and all), but the story stayed in my mind and I bought it, and read more on the internet about Mr. Roszak.
He was a historian, a teacher, a social critic and a novelist who analyzed the youth rebellions of the late 1960s, giving it the name: counterculture. He wrote his most famous treatise, The Making of a Counter Culture and followed it up almost 40 years later with The Making of an Elder Culture.
Flicker is a wondrous book, a complex book, and a thrilling amusement ride filled with ideas. Find a used copy somewhere today.
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