Alan A. Block

At the age of seven, I saw my first movie, Intermezzo . . . I fell in
love with the background music. I couldn't fathom why it felt so
good to hear a specific combination of notes in a certain order
with a particular rhythm, but it gave me such pleasure just to
keep humming that sweet melody over and over to myself. It was
like having a secret companion. I couldn't wait to tell Mischa
Goodman that I wanted to learn how to play Intermezzo. But he
obviously didn't share my enthusiasm.

"Intermezzo?"he sneered. "That's not right for you."
His words reverberated in my heart. That's not right for you!
This was not merely a turndown of my request. It was a
universal declaration of war upon the individual.

-- Paul Krassner

IN THIS CHAPTER I DISCUSS POPULAR CULTURE and chil-
dren and the magazines of popular culture that are directed specifically
at children and to which we adults subscribe--on behalf of our chil-
dren--in extraordinary numbers. We buy these magazines for our chil-
dren because we read magazines ourselves--and we assume our chil-
dren will want to read them as well. Children's magazines represent the
culture of adults organized for children. Why adults read these maga-
zines and how we read them will be part of this discussion, because chil-
dren's magazines are marketed on the same basis as adult magazines--
that is, they promise information in entertaining and/or palatable
forms. Highlights for Children, for example, is subtitled Fun with a Pur-pose

-153-