On Post: The Golden Age

Date: January 12, 2013

The inspiration is fairly straightforward. The “narrator” of the song admits in the opening stanzas that she longs for the Golden Age and wishes to be a part of it. She seems more oriented towards a New York Golden Age moment then my character’s want of a Hollywood one, but otherwise they both possess that same longing.

The twist, if you can call it that, is the editorializing my character allows me to do. I have no doubt that there are those who wish they saw the Roaring Twenties or the Broadway scene of the 50’s or the rise of the 70’s filmmakers, but I think many people wear that longing as an affectation. And so it is with our lead character. His longing for Hollywood’s Golden Age, which I purposelessly have him inaccurately discuss as he applies it to an impossibly large span of time, is born not of a genuine interest in the time but as a shield to protect him from negative feelings. As long as he believes the Hollywood of today is a corrupt empty version and that “Golden” Hollywood would’ve been pure enough to accept him, he can continue to feel good about his talent. To retrofit Sunset Boulevard, he didn’t lose him talent, Hollywood did.

Thus, the moment he receives good news, Hollywood is suddenly redeemed. It’s not a fluke but evidence that there is still some Golden left in La La Land. It’s not just that you win some, you lose some, it is that finally, FINALLY, someone in casting reconnected with the past of film and recognized how our monologist was a bridge to that (nebulous) era.