# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 222
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4425 "2021-11-30T01:04:41Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Terry Southern was born in 1924. Kinda not a boomer. When most people think about Forrest Gump, they’re probably thinking about the movie, not the book. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4426 "2021-11-30T01:05:10Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Because the Wise, Innocent Child as portrayed by FG is specific to boomers’ self-image. Previous and subsequent generations don’t portray themselves in that way. Huh? This is the first time I can recall seeing anybody claim that “the Wise, Innocent Child” is in any way linked to the Baby Boom generation. I thought that type of character was far older. [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFool](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFool) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4427 "2021-11-30T01:05:35Z")
The novel Forrest Gump was written by Winston Groom - born in 1943. The screenplay was written by Eric Roth (b. 1945) I have no opinion on what Forrest Gump means (never saw it), but the Baby Boom was a big demographic event, creating an unusual population distribution (see here [A Century of Population Change in the Age and Sex Composition of the Nation](https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/055/)), so it’s not completely unbelievable that the Boomers developed some unusual ideas about themselves based on the fact that they outnumbered the populations that succeeded them.\* \*I’m an extraordinarily late Boomer - born in 1964, but qualifying for the designation in a variety of other ways (oldest child of a WW2 veteran, raised by parents who lived through the Depression, first in the family to go to college and to grow up with TV, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4428 "2021-11-30T01:12:57Z")
Are you sure it wasn’t ironically? 😀 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4429 "2021-11-30T01:17:59Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > When most people think about Forrest Gump, they’re probably thinking about the movie, not the book. True. And the movie is crap. And, on edit, I must have been thinking about _The Magic Christian_. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4430 "2021-11-30T01:19:43Z")
No, she is saying Dorothy is neither ugly nor beautiful. Otherwise she wouldn’t ask. And in the film she is kinda plain, not glamorous nor ugly. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4431 "2021-11-30T01:27:28Z")
There was an immediate reaction and criticism to Forrest Gump being a promotion of conservative values and anti-progressive views. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest\_Gump#Political\_interpretations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump#Political_interpretations) If you’re dumb and oblivious, the American Dream will fall into your lap. If you’re a drug-using, anti-war, promiscuous hippie, you get cancer and die young. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4432 "2021-11-30T01:56:11Z")
I can definitely see big Boomer energy in Forest Gump. But I’m not sure it’s self-aware. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4433 "2021-11-30T03:34:55Z")
The boomers didn’t invent the wise fool. It has been firmly rooted in American culture since at least the days of Brother Jonathan. But they sure love to apply it to their generation as a group, which is where they differ with those before and after. “We’re the uncorrupted youth who will fix everything that all the evil people over 30 are doing.” And FG is a solid example in that they take it to such extremes for a laugh. Mooning LBJ out of dim-witted earnestness. Causing the Watergate scandal by (Mistakenly. remember, it has to out of a desire to do good) reporting intruders at the hotel. Apparently saying the most profound anti-war wisdom at a rally. Which The Man wrecks by pulling the speaker wires. All these things to show what a good person Gump is. Because after all, he’s a boomer. That holy, beautiful group. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4434 "2021-11-30T04:20:43Z")
Gee, it almost sounds like people over 30 are untrustworthy. I think the biggest shock the ensuing ‘gEnEraTiOns’ are experiencing is that they are nothing more than the New Boomers. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4435 "2021-11-30T05:25:34Z")
_Forrest Gump_ always reminds me of this Doonesbury cartoon: > **[Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 13, 1974 | GoComics.com](https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1974/11/13)** > > Zonker: So what's this new blockbuster of yours about, Rev? Rev. Sloan: Well, it traces the growth of a young philosophy student who gets involved in the Berkeley free speech movement, then moves on to a Buddhist commune in Michigan... Zonker: More!... Reverend Sloan is describing the plot of his new novel to Zonker, and ends by saying “it’s sort of about the sixties.” To me, _FG_ is a tragedy. Through sheer dumb luck, one man gets to experience some of the most extraordinary events of the late 20th Century, and he is completely unable to appreciate them. Not that brushes with fame should necessarily make someone happy, but all these amazing experiences are wasted on someone who doesn’t even realize he’s having them. That’s a tragedy. > [@K364](#): > > If you’re dumb and oblivious, the American Dream will fall into your lap. If you’re a drug-using, anti-war, promiscuous hippie, you get cancer and die young. I thought it was obvious that Jenny died of AIDS. “It’s sort of about the eighties.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4436 "2021-11-30T06:55:05Z")
I never thought of Forrest Gump as a Boomer. Jenny, Lieutenant Dan, everyone else - _they’re_ the Boomers. They’re the generation who’s main problem is that they think too much, which often means that they waste their lives on naval-gazing. Forrest, who barely thinks at all, is the outsider chronicling their follies. In other words, the movie is about Boomers mocking themselves, made back when they still had a sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4437 "2021-11-30T08:06:38Z")
According to numerous websites I just checked, Forrest Gump was born on D-Day, June 6 1944. This is apparently stated specifically somewhere in the novel or the book. He was thus a member of the Silent Generation, not a Baby Boomer. Most of the Baby Boomers were born too late to serve in Vietnam. Those Americans who served in Vietnam were either in the Silent Generation or were Baby Boomers. I’m getting really tired of hearing people who use the term boomer to mean just “you know, someone older than me, but I can’t be bothered to actually look up dates”. it doesn’t mean, for instance, anyone who’s retired. 60% of Baby Boomers aren’t retired. Many members of the Silent Generation aren’t retired either. > **[Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children." In kinship terminology, it is a structural term designating the parent-child relationship. It is known as biogenesis, reproduction, or procreation in the biologi... ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4438 "2021-11-30T08:24:21Z")
A previous thread about generations: > [@Is the term Boomer Generation loose enough to include someone born in 1936?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-term-boomer-generation-loose-enough-to-include-someone-born-in-1936/924002): > > Is the term Boomer Generation loose enough to include someone born in 1936? If not, is there a term for those who were too young to have been drafted during WWII? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4439 "2021-11-30T10:11:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@DPRK](#): > > > > I have one— at least, I think I do. The Afterlife bar in _Cyberpunk 2077_ , and the Harukiya bar in _Akira_ are located in the same building. In the game, you are told there used to be a mortuary there before the Afterlife opened. > > I don’t see how they could be - _Akira_ is set in Tokyo, and _Cyberpunk_ is set in a fictional city in California. I am aware. But, look at the entrance, and the stairwell, and tell me that’s not the same place? Perhaps the original owner of the Afterlife was fond of the old bar in Tokyo, and modeled his or her place after it. It would fit the theme, too, where [in the game’s fictional world] Night City was originally founded as a corporate project rather than organically, and the Afterlife itself is held to be a poor imitation of the spirit of Club Atlantis, so who would be surprised if the grungy-looking décor were a rip-off too. [As for the game’s designers, how could they not be aware of 1970s–1980s Japanese cyberpunk cinema…] ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4440 "2021-11-30T10:21:20Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I never thought of Forrest Gump as a Boomer. Jenny, Lieutenant Dan, everyone else - _they’re_ the Boomers. They’re the generation who’s main problem is that they think too much, which often means that they waste their lives on naval-gazing. Forrest, who barely thinks at all, is the outsider chronicling their follies. _Forrest Gump_ is kind of like _Being There_ but with less cynicism and more pop-culture references. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4441 "2021-11-30T15:14:52Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > _Forrest Gump_ is kind of like _Being There_ but with less cynicism and more pop-culture references. And I love Being There, and despise Forrest Gump. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4442 "2021-11-30T15:28:06Z")
I think FG is a great movie, one of the weirdest films ever to win Best Picture (and it deserved the nod, sorry), and, above all, it’s one of the great Rorscharch tests in American cinema. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4443 "2021-11-30T15:35:40Z")
Interesting observations / comments re FG and the boomer thing. I really like FG and in the dozen times I’ve seen it, I guess I always took it at face value (not a boomer, btw). I don’t really see what some are seeing but to each his own. So, boomers were always assholes? I thought they were just the scourge of _today_ 😏 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/4444 "2021-11-30T16:10:31Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > So, boomers were always assholes? I thought they were just the scourge of _today_ No. They’re just the useful whipping boys of today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=221) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=223)