RANGE: Under hot rods, barstools, and appreciated. On motorcycles, telephones and crying jags. In back seats, record stores, and really, really serious trouble this time. Beneath strange hats, the class average, and the age of reason. Behind the wheel, the couch, and in their homework. HABITS: Teen Angels possess the bodies of all Americans between the ages of 12 and 21. They inspire in every adolescent the hallucination that the universe is a technicolor tragedy in Dolby Stereo starring themselves. They trick athletic young men into writing verse and academic young women into getting contact lenses. Wimpy math whizzes flex and pose in private before mirrors; working-class louts stare moodily into bus station photo machines. A formerly grave and sober girl-child develops a soul-consuming passion for the third guitarist from the left in a band named after a veterinary operation; a clean-cut suburban cub scout becomes the fanatic devotee of some Central American mystic agrarian reformer. With the onset (or threat) of puberty, their victim’s attention span shrinks to that of a brain-damaged moth—save for the uncanny ability to meditate, for days, on possible modifications to the mudguards or sideburns. HISTORY: There is no record of Teen Angels—or teenagers, for that matter—having existed before the 1950s. Prior to that time, in America as in the rest of the world, mature children simply passed into irresponsible adulthood. But, following an epidemic of ballad-celebrated grad-night auto wrecks, romantic bike crashes, lovelorn beach drownings, sensitive, misunderstood switchblade massacres, and an incident involving a level crossing and a high school ring, America was as jam-packed with Teen Angels as a fifty-cent-beer-and-extra-slice-night at a pizza parlor featuring a free concert by the Rolling Stones. SPOTTER’S TIPS: Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, has already spotted most Teen Angels quite nicely, thank you. A typical Teen Angel, on location in rock’n’rollin’ Encino, California.
棲息地 この通称つっぱり族と
呼ばれる妖精たちは一般的には
ティーンエイジャーにとりつい
ているのだが, なかには例外的
に中年のオジンやオバンにとい
ついていることもある。 どちら
もおなじ種類の妖精たちなのだ
が, 十代の若者たちのほうはテ
ィーンエンジェルといい、 中
年のほうはローン・レンジャー
と呼んで区別する。 どちらも社
会に反抗する態度に変りはない
が、中年のつっぱり族のほうが
根気を維持するのがしんどい。
素直につっぱれないのだ。 まわ
りを意識して若いところを見せ
ようとするぶんだけ, ついつい
ポーズにはしって, からまわり
に終わるケースが多い。
一方、ティーンエンジェル
たちは,することやることみん
なかわいい。 自由奔放なのだ。
思ったままに、誰にも、 なにに
も束縛されずに, 自分を表現し
ている。 学校でたばこを吸うの
も, 先生を平気でぶっとばすの
も、思ったとおりに行動してい
るからなのだ。 じつに, すばら
しいことではないか。 こんな行
動力があり, 自己表現のじょう
ずな少年少女たちを、どうして
学校は放りだそうとするのか。
教師のいうことをよく聞いて,
勉強ばかりしている自主性のな
い, 無気力な生徒よりも, よっ
ぽど人間的魅力にあふれている
ではないか。
習性 たばこを吸い, アンパン
をやり, 先生をはり倒し, オー
トバイに乗って夜の国道をつっ
走る。 さからう者がいればゴロ
をまき, 勇気をためすためには
いろんな危険なゲームもある。
リンチカツアゲ・暴行・マワ
シ。 学校ではけっして教えない
遊びを、独自に研究・開発して
楽しんでいる。
歴史 つっぱり族の歴史は,無
法者の歴史ほど古くはない。
私立探偵の情報 ひといちばい
さびしがり屋の連中の集まると
ころにいる。しかしまちがって
も、ヘルス・エンジェルには訊
かないほうがいい。 名前は似て
いても, 彼らはまったく別の妖
精たちなのだから。
154
Habitat
These sprites known commonly as tsuppari — the rebel gang — generally possess teenagers, but there are exceptions where they attach to middle-aged men and women as well. Both are the same type of sprite, but the teenage variety are called Teen Angels while the middle-aged variety are called Lone Rangers. Both share the same defiant attitude toward society, but the middle-aged rebels find it much harder to sustain. They can’t rebel naturally. Self-conscious about looking young, they end up posturing — and most cases just spin their wheels going nowhere.
The Teen Angels on the other hand are adorable in everything they do. Completely free-spirited. Expressing themselves as they feel, bound by no one and nothing. Smoking at school, casually punching out teachers — they’re just acting exactly as they feel. Isn’t that truly wonderful? These young boys and girls with such drive and talent for self-expression — why would schools want to throw them out? They’re far more humanly appealing than the spineless, apathetic students who just listen to teachers and do nothing but study.
Behavior
Smoking, sniffing glue, knocking teachers flat, riding motorcycles down national highways in the dead of night. Anyone who gets in their way gets a fight. To test their courage there are all kinds of dangerous games. Mob beatings, shakedowns, assaults, gang rape. Games that schools never teach — independently researched, developed, and enjoyed.
History
The history of the rebel gang is not as old as the history of outlaws.
Field Intelligence
Found wherever the loneliest people gather. But whatever you do, don’t ask the Hell’s Angels — despite the similar name, they are an entirely different type of sprite.
154
