Frank Kogan

My brother, Richard, writes:

Frank, I experienced mid-sixties "cool" the way you did, and reacted the same way, too - I wanted no part of it; it was the refuge of people who had nothing to offer, and who denigrated anyone who tried (successfully or not). I think coolness is still equated with the cutting edges, the put downs. But I don't think it is dead, I merely think it has made its way to the Style pages of the Washington Post. Nan and I regularly bemoan the fact that their movie editors are too cool to like movies. It is not that have such refined sensibilities that a movie has to be truly excellent to earn high praise; it is not that they are tough but fair graders. It is that they give the overwhelming impression of disliking the whole experience of going to movies, so that only the truly outré can move them out of their cool lethargy - they are too cool to care, but sufficiently snide to let us all know how cool they are. They are the "whatever..." crowd.

"Whatever" is the world's most insulting reaction to any of my statements, because it says that no matter what I opine or ask, it is not even worth considering; all my concerns are a waste of time. I don't and didn't see "cool" as grace under pressure, but as a complete reaction against even trying for anything that might be worthwhile - knowledge, involvement, love, passion, fear, failure, integrity, dissent, creation, solidarity, politics, art, empathy. I most specifically saw no aspect of knowledge in the attribute of coolness, other than the knowledge of how to portray indifference with style.