The Long Road

07/22/2003 Archived Entry: "Terry Wallis"

The man was in a car accident in 1984 and had been in a coma until earlier this year. Imagine the huge culture shock this guy is experiencing.

In 1984, the original Nintendo hadn’t been released yet; imagine him seeing an X-Box game. The Berlin Wall was still up. The U.S.S.R. was still the Evil Empire. Movie effects consisted of puppets and makeup, what would he think of The Matrix? He doesn’t know what the bloody Internet is! Punk, Alternative, Rap, Boy Bands, and Britney Spears are all new to him. 1984 was hugely more conservative; imagine what this guy would think of all the sex, skin, swearing, gore and violence on TeeVee and in movies today. His daughter was still a baby and his grandmother was still alive.

I know that I’d love to see what the world 19 years from now would be like, but I doubt that I’d want to be stuck there.

Replies: 10 comments

Yeah, what about seeing how 20 years in bed has affected you?

Posted by Hyperion @ 07/22/2003 04:47 PM EST

If he is a canadian, there's a good chance he's asking himself why the hell did we keep Jean Chrétien as a Prime Minister for almost ten years. ("okay, stop joking now, who is REALLY the prime minister?")

Posted by Étienne @ 07/22/2003 05:23 PM EST

*asks Thai to delete the words "most of his" from his post*

[Rayne: done and done.]

Posted by Étienne @ 07/22/2003 05:24 PM EST

Lots of culture shock. He'd also probably feel helpless against all the new technology. Terry Wallis' car accident did leave him quadriphlelegic (SP?), so he has a huge amount of adjusting to do.

Posted by Rayne @ 07/22/2003 05:55 PM EST

Thai, you seem to forget in your post that, in 1984, disco and funk had very clear sex themes to them, even if the quantity of skin revealed was different.
Cindy Lauper's "girls just wanna have fun"'s lyrics are about masturbation, James Brown was singing "Get up off off that thing, it's time to release the pressure" and Madonna, well... was Madonna, i guess.

Punk also began in the middle of the 70's with sex pistols, and was by 1984 a movement known around the world because, among other, of the british band The Clash, who was later forgotten. Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne were also very popular in that era, and Metal/Rock-Metal were soon to be two important musical genres. :P

It was more conservative than now in some ways, for instance porno had been more or less banned since its days of glory in the 70s and the swearing wasnt as used as now in cultural products, but the 80s were also the years when cocaine, if illegal, was accepted almost everywhere and a very "hip" thing to take.

Still, your point is very relevant, just wanted to clarify some details. :)

Posted by Étienne @ 07/22/2003 10:44 PM EST

Maybe he'll want to go back into his coma...:P

Posted by dAN @ 07/22/2003 10:51 PM EST

Thanks for that info, Etienne. I'd like to point out that I actually have little to no knowledge of the music scene from before the mid-80s.

Posted by Rayne @ 07/23/2003 01:24 AM EST

i have "little to no knowledge of the music scene from before the" mid-90s. i suck!

Posted by shawnathan @ 07/24/2003 11:43 AM EST

wow, that's crazy! what's your excuse?

Posted by Rayne @ 07/24/2003 03:57 PM EST

thank God hes back anyway.

Posted by feji @ 01/27/2005 04:40 PM EST