Lorentzen: To Wed and To Fail

Christian Lorentzen sent us a link to his take on Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and The Whale:

“People over age 50 are signally absent from Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s a neighborhood where members of the ‘creative class’ move during their breeding years to mate, spawn, and keep housepets. The elegant brownstones are spacious and just barely affordable, grocery stores and veterinary clinics abound, the streets remain fairly safe, and a majestic park sits atop the hill. What better place to fall in love and raise a family?”

“But here comes the paradox. No zone – besides perhaps a college dormitory – could be more hostile to monogamy… The density of the Slope’s educated, attractive, liberal-minded population translates… into a practically limitless array of analogous sexual options within walking distance. The lonesomeness of the uncoupled, or the isolation of marital strife, can be assuaged without difficulty. Someone else will always be thirsty too, and chances are he or she is pretty good-looking, attended a respected college, holds a really interesting job, has an intriguing ethnic background, and there’s always the thrill of seeing the inside of someone else’s apartment…” Read more…

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