BloguesRichard Martineau

La jeunesse infinie

Un livre qui explore le monde merveilleux des "adulescents", ces adultes qui vivent comme des ados…

Once upon a time, boys and girls grew up and set aside childish things. Nowadays, moms and dads skateboard alongside their kids and download the latest pop-song ringtones.

Captains of industry pose for the cover of BusinessWeek holding Super Soakers. The average age of video game players is twenty-nine and rising. Top chefs develop recipes for Easy-Bake Ovens. Disney World is the world's top adult vacation destination (that's adults without kids).

And young people delay marriage and childbirth longer than ever in part to keep family obligations from interfering with their fun fun fun.

Christopher Noxon has coined a word for this new breed of grown-up: rejuveniles. And as a self-confessed rejuvenile, he's a sympathetic yet critical guide to this bright and shiny world of people who see growing up as "winding down"-exchanging a life of playful flexibility for anxious days tending lawns and mutual funds.

In Rejuvenile, Noxon explores the historical roots of today's rejuveniles (hint: all roads lead to Peter Pan), the "toyification" of practical devices (car cuteness is at an all-time high), and the new gospel of play.

He talks to parents who love cartoons more than their children do, twenty-somethings who live happily with their parents, and grown-ups who evangelize on behalf of all-ages tag and Legos. And he takes on the "Harrumphing Codgers," who see the rejuvenile as a threat to the social order.