top of page
Search

Presence: The Eighties

Writer's picture: Ralph BurtonRalph Burton



Freddy's speech in Chapter Two may be clumsy exposition, him flapping his arms about and screaming about The Eighties (in case you were confused as to what decade the book was set in) but it was necessary -- every generation thinks it's the last one left before the apocalypse. While there was some substance to this in The Eighties with the threat of nuclear war, that threat had been around since the forties, and while President Reagan's rhetoric against the Soviet Union got a lot of folks nervous, it's safe to say The Eighties kids weren't the last ones left alive.


What they were, however, was on the precipice of global-changing political events, such as Thatcherism, Reagan's election and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which would forever change the world as we knew it. In this way, Freddy's predictions are ironic. The Eighties gave birth to the world we live in today, the supposed "end of history" world with its capitalism, post-cold-war-grudges and constant, overriding fear.

4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


RALPH BURTON - AUTHOR

bottom of page