»
S
I
D
E
B
A
R
«
TRUTH-IS-STRANGER DEPT.
November 13th, 2002 by Clark Humphrey

Gus Van Sant’s movie My Own Private Idaho envisioned Portland street gangs with colorful names, strict internal codes of conduct, and allusions to classic literature. Apparently the town’s real teen thugs are much like Van Sant’s fictional ones. Where he referenced Shakespeare, the author of the above-linked newspaper story tells of “a subculture that resembles Fagan’s gang in the classic tale of Oliver Twist.” Just don’t romanticize ’em: These teens and young adults exist in a milieu as sad as Dickens’s, and as prone to (figurative or literal) backstabbing as Shakespeare’s.


Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

»  Substance:WordPress   »  Style:Ahren Ahimsa
© Copyright 1986-2025 Clark Humphrey (clark (at) miscmedia (dotcom)).