In my book, Take the Cannoli, Sarah Vowell pulls together a collection of essays that discuss the discovery of herself in different points in her life. In the essay, "The End is Near, Nearer, Nearest", she discusses growing up in the 80's in a pentocostal christian family who supported Reagan and his "nuclear plan". Vowell claims that she did not have many friends before high school because everything she did with her family was church-related. But when she got to her freshman year, she began questioning her faith and political views. She dicovered a anti-nuclear club that was populated by kids that shared her cynisism and fear of a nuclear holocaust. Vowell recalls a high point in her high school years when she was fortunate enough to contribute to a roundtable dicussion about nuclear development on the local Bozeman public TV station, "You got to grow up! Do you know what it's like to think you're not going to grow up? Do you?" (pg 45). The "supporting characters" in her life seemed very interesting. They are all depicted as the freaks of their high school who are constantly ridiculed for trying to save the world. "They played in rock 'n' roll bands and wrote poetry and didn't eat meat. They had spiky hair and smoked cigarettes and debated whether or not William Burroughs's Junky was better than his Naked Lunch. They remind me of my friends back home. We too spend time at local coffee shops for hours discussing politics, music....anything, really. I guess the words "pretentious" and "teenager" are synonymous after all!
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