New Victorians in New York

The Observer has an interesting piece on The New Victorians, who are apparently bringing monogomy and early adulthood back. To get a mental image, think: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger in Boerum Hill, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss in Park Slope and Liv Tyler and Royston Langdon in the West Village. A new breed of 20-somethings in the big city, and apparently this new regime is more into nesting than late nights.

The Observer assures us this isn't a case of famous couples in certain neighborhoods, in fact "eminent New Victorian couples can be found all over New York these days, puttering about their brownstones (original detail carefully restored), or pushing babies with names like Beatrice, Charlotte, Theodore and Henry in gigantic prams to the local playground." The "lifestyle" has even invaded the long-standing hipster mecca of Williamsburg! One 26-year old from that neighborhood even went as far as saying, “It’s no longer cool to be a slacker and be living in your basement." Her friend assured readers that no one in their circle would be working at The Gap, either.

Another shocking detail: we learn on page 2 that models are no longer doing heroin, in fact they're becoming pregnant and popping out babies. If Madonna were to come here as a young, aspiring songstress today we'd have nothing to offer her. She'd have a litter of children, a good recipe for sweet potato casserole and we'd be living in a world without "Like A Virgin" (which, incidentally, is probably on many of the New Victorians iPods, albeit tastefully secure inside a lace iPod 'cozy').

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By Jen Carlson in News on July 12, 2007 11:05 AM

Comments [rss]

guest

So the New Victorians are a take on the Old Victorians of the 19th century? I'm not sure I follow, seems that they are just following the convention of family life, just like the rest of America.

guest

YOU'RE ALL STUPID

Nick S

i agree with #29... if you haven't been exposed to a Nicole Krauss book, consider yourself lucky.

guest

Old money was snooty.

New money is crass.

guest

New York has always had "a LOT of people with money". That comment is not really saying anything.

But old money had class.

Nunyah Bidnit

Hey, #6... Just because something is a bestseller doesn't mean it's good. It just means that a lot of unimaginative people have read what the Times told them to read. I avoid bestseller lists and prefer to read books that I discover on my own. If that means I don't know who the trendy authors of the moment are, I can certainly live with that! Pffft!

Robot

#21 is very confusing.

New York has always had "a LOT of people with money". That comment is not really saying anything.

guest

26, didn't a lot of you guys go corporate and cash out in the late '90s anyway? Most yuppie scum I happen to notice are in the genX age group.

guest

hello? what about Generation X? we're still here. don't forget about us, the few, the proud, the baby busters, the slackers, the punk embracers. We are getting forgotten in a sandwich of neo-traditional New Vics and naive navel-gazing boomers. We are resigned to the fact the we will change the world, but no one will notice.

guest

RIP NYC

guest

23

Yippie! to that!

other_islander

ummm, as they used to say... DIE YUPPIE SCUM!!!

guest

turn on, tune in, drop out

guest

something no one else has mentioned:

in order to be 25 or 26 and have

-a nice wedding

-a down payment on a brownstone

-kids and their accessories

you have to have a lot of money. and new york is a city where there are a LOT of people with money. so it makes perfect sense that it would be more visibly conservative than it was in the baby boomer's glory days.

guest

“It’s no longer cool to be a slacker and be living in your basement." Another 26 y.o. Williamsburger telling us what is cool.

Sp living off trust funds isn't cool, actually investing them in home and hearth is. Thanks.

guest

Foer is another trash writer who will be forgotten over time. Be sure and read B.R. Myer's critique of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" (The Atlantic, "A Bag of Tired Tricks", May 2005). An excerpt:

"Those who liked Foer's first novel will no doubt feel otherwise. Part of postmodernism's appeal has always derived from the drudgery of its spurious playfulness, a drudgery that, while requiring no real thought, makes its followers feel that they are dealing with something too difficult for the herd... After a while the gimmickry starts to remind one of a clown frantically yanking toys out of his sack: a fatal image."

www.theatlantic.com/doc/200505... (subscribers only)

guest

g-damn breeders!

guest

Wait, wasn't there an article just a few weeks ago in NY Mag about there being too many single women in the city?

JMH

These fuckers should move to Connecticut and stop driving up housing costs for the rest of us.

guest

conservatism reigns in nyc. with terrorism, climate change, the executive branch taking on more and more power, i don't think it's surprising that us 20 somethings are becoming more traditional. but i do think it's scary, especially as a feminist.

whatever Judgy von Holierthanthou. You give feminism a bad name if you are really a feminist. Sounds like you hate anyone that makes choices other than the ones you would make. But that's typical for New Yorkers, Democrats, and other assorted lefties.