dan solomon: sharing this one again because i spent a lot of time talking to people about the concept of selling out, including the writer of reality bites and one of the smartest gen-z writers i know, to understand whether it really no longer exists or if we just stopped talking about it in the larger culture

sharing this one again because i spent a lot of time talking to people about the concept of selling out, including the writer of reality bites and one of the smartest gen-z writers i know, to understand whether it really no longer exists or if we just stopped talking about it in the larger culture

wrote 3,000 words about Reality Bites, and what happened to the idea of selling out that's at the core of the movie, thirty years later (the answer may surprise you!) www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enterta...

‘Reality Bites’ Is Thirty Years Old. Is It Dated or More Relevant Than Ever?www.texasmonthly.com The concept of “selling out” at the heart of the film feels like an artifact from another time. But it may be that we’ve just stopped talking about it.

i went into this assuming that the "selling out" ship had sailed, but the more i talked with young people, the more it seemed to me like the people who create the cultural conversation these days are simply no longer representing their concerns about who controls the world and their complicity in it

the remarkable thing about reality bites is that it's a studio movie whose thesis is "be very careful when you entertain the idea of taking money for your creative work from a big corporation, because they will fuck you over without even understand why you'd be mad about it," framed as a rom-com

"What, you mean like a sponsored post?" 💀

Nice piece; I was a mid-teen when this movie came out & also saw it as aspirational. I've been thinking of this concept a lot in recent years (tho not in the context of RB): once upon a time you COULD survive working at e.g. the Gap, or the gas station, & selling out was a thing cos then you...

wanted more. But now, those jobs don't hardly pay enough to live on. And I think that has contributed greatly to the greater acceptance of selling out (w/a dash of corp propaganda for sure). Also, as you said, the corps are much bigger now--omnipresent, seemingly inescapable,& that's part of it too.

absolutely—there's definitely more to say about this (outside of the context of reality bites). i think so much about how i could afford a lil studio apartment in Austin working at half price books when i was 23, and how that apt now costs 3x my rent in 2004 (while the bookstore pays $2 more/hr)

i think it's probably true that the dilemma that the aging Troys face when they hit 30 and want health insurance is being faced by people today much, much younger

Not to mention a lot of jobs didn't require a college degree back then, but now those same jobs do, yet don't pay that much more. So now your COL is much higher PLUS you're in college loan debt, but the pay hasn't risen accordingly. The math isn't mathing!

I hate everyone (e.g., many Boomers) who doesn't understand how much the world has changed in this regard in the last 30 years.

Enjoyed this piece! I have been thinking about whatever happened to the idea of “selling out” a lot lately, glad you took the time to explore it. (I also worshipped at the altar of this movie as an angsty teen…)

thanks! anecdotally, the true x'ers i talked with about it were mostly a little embarrassed of the movie, while millennials with x rising tended to think of it more fondly, which is interesting

it’s funny—I loved it as a teen, then as a pragmatic adult (and corporate biglaw sellout!) I found it to be saccharine and obnoxiously naive. It’s only now, in my post-sellout era, that I’m revisiting it with affection. (I’m either the babiest X or the elderest elder millennial, so…tracks, I guess?)

Interesting story, but I despised this movie. I remember looking forward to seeing it, then exiting the theater ticked off at all the whiny, self-importance. Later, I heard Cracker's "Get Off This" on the radio, which was a perfect answer to all that I hated about the film. Cracker still rules.

enjoyed this read, as an X'er

thank you!

The neoliberal hellscape that this country built over the last 35 years IS a mass, societal selling out. In a world with no social safety net, no "lifetime jobs", no security, with massive inequality, we can't afford any kind of personal integrity that keep any part of us out of the marketplace.

If you're not willing to sell every part of yourself at every moment, you can just die in the street, homeless for all anyone cares. "Starving artist" is a lot more cruel and literal a concept than it was 35-50 years ago.

Feel like the term and context has changed slightly, there also seems to be a bit more prevalence of take the money and run attitude.

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