Disrupting the Garden: THE INVASION OF THE MACHINE AND THE VANISHING AMERICAN

In an advertisement for a 1953 children’s novel, the eponymous protagonist, Danny, is described as being akin to a farm boy, an “unspoiled, naïve” American who, like his adult counterpart, is “a vanishing breed” (Hass BR12). Encouraging adults to identify with this idealized boy, the advertisement continues, “Meeting him—if it happened that you spent your youth in a small town—is like meeting yourself coming around a corner. He is Everyboy as he was before our kids were blasé at 11 and sophisticated at 13. And he is wonderful” (Hass BR12). The celebration of the farm boy’s innocence is