Quotent Quotables vol. 3

"What is it about the 1960s that makes liars of men, and wide-eyed, goofy romantics of us all? It’s the most misunderstood of decades to be sure, and just as certainly the most deliberately distorted, as if its storytellers had a personal stake in ensuring that the assorted marches, chants, and mini rebellions had more of an impact than reality dictated. Because let’s face it: the war so “uniting” as a symbol of evil continued to grind up young men well into the 1970s, and, if we’re keeping score, two nutty assassins changed the direction of this nation far more than the hundreds of thousands of stoned hippies with their trust fund sit-ins and incoherent rhetoric. In sum, the revolution was a failure from the opening bell, and anyone who cites that period as one of inspiration is suffering from the usual delusions that clog the arteries of the nostalgic."

- Matt Cale, from his review of Julie Taymor's Across the Universe.