on a related note to all that, i remember people were obsessed with poetry like the ethan hawke character talking about his little moments in the face of absurdity etc. very cliché poetry.
but see poetry was a real deal back then, and i remember going to see the nuyorican poets cafe who were touring in dc, and saw paul beatty read this:
https://powerpoetry.org/content/that...ob-description
that there was exactly what hahahahahaaa. a great read, worth your minutes.
he's famous now and teaches at columbia but anyway i laughed so hard he was exactly talking about all that stuff. i became an office temp not long after that, then took off into the deep end and beyond.