Robert H. Rimmer (1917–2001)

I first read this book back in the 60's when it was first published. At the time, it was a bold, exciting view of life as we wanted it, back in the day. I remember coming home from a date and not being able to find my copy; I asked the parents and was told they had thrown it out (and they let me read ANYTHING) because I had left "that trash out" for my younger (12 yr old) brother to read. (Who already knew all about the subject, since he was an extremely early bloomer.)

I bought another copy with my very scarce pocket money so as to finish.

Now, 40 years later, I found it again at a book sale, with "new exciting material" added. Actually, not so much.

The ideas in the book now seem so idealistic, and at the same time, so dated. At the time, co-ed living was simply not done, and even just plain living together in the "outside" world was really unusual. Now, it seems like every teenager has had many sexual experiences (or so they would have you believe), and living together is not even worthy of comment. And the idea of having to read, as 18 yr olds, various sex manuals to learn how to do it is fairly laughable.

I actually think that this is unfortunate, and life would be a lot better for many many people if some of the more conservative values were still in vogue.

The idealized life espoused in The Harrad Experiment, including reasonably-priced education for everyone, mature attitudes toward family, etc., never came to be. And never will. At the time it was written, an average decent wage for one of the parents was less than $10K a year and when he was given a raise to $40,000 a year as a dirty trick, his life became much less pleasant. And $500,000 constituted "filthy rich." Things have changed. And not necessarily for the better.

The Harrad Experiment was a product of the time in which it was written--sexual freedom, women's lib, racial and religious bias just beginning to be tested, the "age of Aquarius." Not to mention Vietnam, a scar that will never go away.

I grew up during those times, and they were heady indeed. We realized things were changing, and hoped for a bright, different future. For whatever you feel about that, good or bad, it didn't come true.


… (altro)