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New Museum 90s Panel: Roseanne Profile as Decade's Time Capsule
Filed under: On the Spot Tagged: Aaron Lake Smith, John Lahr, Jonathan Taylor, Marisa Meltzer, Mark Greif, n+1, New Museum, Roseanne Barr, Scott Hamrah
Jonathan Taylor writes:
Friday night's "The 90s vs. The 90s" panel discussion was occupied for a long time on what, either at the time or in retrospect, was "dark" or "light" about the decade, in the words of the moderator, n+1's Mark Greif.
The purest vein of nostalgia for the 90s was expressed by Aaron Lake Smith, 25. To him, the "public conversation was more interesting," because, in its weird way, it was addressing "the roots of capitalism"—why did Columbine happen; Ross Perot and the "giant sucking sound"; the Zapatistas—as opposed to the sham of, say, today's torture "debate." Scott Hamrah—once of Suck.com, a URL worth a thousand Q&A's—was quick to knock down young Aaron's rosy version, countering that the "conversation" was about O.J., not Subcomandante Marcos.
At a certain point, Marisa Meltzer suggested that the middle period of the 90s was a high point of sorts for the well-being of women, on an arc described between the Anita Hill testimony (1991) and the Lewinsky affair (1998, although Meltzer zeroed in on that year's premiere of "Sex and the City" as the decade's Altamont). As evidence of the good times, she cited the 1995 New Yorker profile of Roseanne Barr—"it's like something beamed to you from some era you never lived through and never will again" she said, or something close thereto.
Quite so. The article is likely overshadowed in many memories by the foofaraw over Roseanne's consulting-editorship of the 1996 "Women's Issue." But after all the talk about authenticity and shallowness, John Lahr's profile of Roseanne, who might be the closest thing to America's Bertolt Brecht, is a heartening reminder of the substance that can be created by spectacle.
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker fan blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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