An excellent summary of the Lost Generation mentality. By a generation that didn't feel that lost, anyway. I never really thought about whether the 20s generation in America could relate to that term. Though from what I heard, the term was coined by a French mechanic one of the writers met over there: where a generation truly was lost. Looking forward to reading Renaissance Radio sometime!
Thanks, Felix. Yes, Gertrude Stein coined the label "Lost Generation" while lambasting a French mechanic she disapproved of. You Millennials have never been thought of as lost. We Xers certainly were. We were often called the Second Lost Generation.
I never felt like GenX was lost because you guys created a lot of awesome culture, especially punk rock: but listening to more people's views on podcasts and stuff you're right. Countless people don't have GenX on their radars. Perhaps I was a perceptive exception. In any case I really enjoyed the 90s, which is probably why I've always gotten along with GenXers.
My generation is kind of inside-out in comparison: largely sheltered, taught that "you're special," definitely not lost to Boomers; but then the 2010s didn't really see any kind of great artistic production in terms of originality and creativity: only in quantity. You guys have Infinite Jest, The Matrix, even Beavis & Butthead. (Fight Club too, though I'm not a big fan) We have just the poppiest of pop singers (like Justin Bieber) and ideologues (like Ta-Nehisi Coates). While I think GenX was big enough demographically (and creative enough) to dominate their youth market in the 90s (and also had a greater purchasing power to consume culture than Millennials), we failed to leave our cultural mark on the 2010s in a strong and meaningful way, partly also due to market conditions: a lot of "Millennial culture" is really Boomer culture 2.0. (of course the Internet and 2008 Financial Crisis compounded this) Subtract the "Boomer 2.0" culture from the 2010s, and there's not a lot left. This missed chance also means that GenZ will become the first true digital culture.
We might not be a lost generation, but I think we Millennials are a failure of a generation. Or we were simply dealt a bad (or weird) hand, depending on one's perspective. It's too late to change the 2010s, but I hope to redeem the Millennial legacy a teeny little bit with my novels. If only for the history books.
An admirable goal. And keenly perceptive observations.
I still expect great things from Millennials, despite the "snowflake" problem.
My friends and I came of age in the mid-to-late-1980s listening to the Police and Sting, U2, and Peter Gabriel. Not sure that music has been surpassed since, but we're all biased toward what we liked in our late teens and early twenties. David Foster Wallace was an amazing writer, including the essays, and I read everything he ever wrote within weeks of him writing it. Took his death very hard.
Hopefully we'll soon come up with a better name than GenZ for your next-juniors. Zoomers is temporary too. I'm not an expert on that generation, but I'm starting to pay more attention.
I hope you're right. We are the last generation to remember the pre-internet era. That, I'm sure, will amount to something a few decades down the line.
The Police were awesome. But I'll admit, I liked them a lot more after getting a copy of Synchronicity on vinyl. The sound was amazing, while the record companies screwed up how they sounded on CD, making the songs sound tinny. It remains one of my favorite albums to listen to on a turntable.
Where does good vs evil fit in.....some people would have considered ( if fact a lot of people) Hitler normal.....do we simply imply he wasn't normal or was he evil....... it was a good debate I guess I just wanted to go deeper....
A valid point, Zoe. The first novel only goes so far. The main focus of my second novel, coming out in July, is the psychology of Fascism -- and overcoming it, emerging out of it -- and the problem of good and evil in the Third Reich and its aftermath.
I can just picture these characters standing around in their tight corsettes and top hats. Yes, morality and morale always beefy subject matter and bringing the good forward and learning from past generations is the great hope. 'The Great Gatsby' is one of the few books that just had to be put on film. Now Mike, you have given me a list of books and authors to search and this is yet another,😊 did you include pictures of your characters?
Troy and Mary Edwards are African-Americans. Francis Calderon and his sister Carmen are Hispanic-Americans Riis Evans and his sister Gwen are Welsh-Americans. They all grew up in Colorado or Wyoming and they broadcast the radio show from Denver.
Had a feeling Gwen was Welsh or some variation of Celtic lineage. I never read the full G G just abridged I think. Not sure I want to read other books by Fitzgerald. Thomas Hardy was a great writer but he did lead readers into fatal endings and I'm not into that. Hitchcock said I believe, horror is life and that's why he always made sure his movies included aspects of humor. Reading Hardy was also an excerise in page flipping as he did gone on about all those details of Architecture 🙃 But your title 'Radio and Renaissance' wow try and walk passed that one!
Oh, for me personally, The Great Gatsby was a great novel -- Fitzgerald's only great novel. But Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were also the most famous cultural figures of their generation and tried to define the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s and define their generation. And for a century they've remained the leading cultural icons of the Jazz Generation, which is still usually called the Lost Generation. So this writing involves some pushback and giving a more accurate picture of the 1920s and of that generation. What's your view, Kathleen?
Nice I think this all makes sense. Gatsby is also hugely harshly critical of the era. It’s weird seeing it against the persona of the Fitzgeralds. Think the setting is ripe for more discovery and is a good choice for you
An excellent summary of the Lost Generation mentality. By a generation that didn't feel that lost, anyway. I never really thought about whether the 20s generation in America could relate to that term. Though from what I heard, the term was coined by a French mechanic one of the writers met over there: where a generation truly was lost. Looking forward to reading Renaissance Radio sometime!
Thanks, Felix. Yes, Gertrude Stein coined the label "Lost Generation" while lambasting a French mechanic she disapproved of. You Millennials have never been thought of as lost. We Xers certainly were. We were often called the Second Lost Generation.
I never felt like GenX was lost because you guys created a lot of awesome culture, especially punk rock: but listening to more people's views on podcasts and stuff you're right. Countless people don't have GenX on their radars. Perhaps I was a perceptive exception. In any case I really enjoyed the 90s, which is probably why I've always gotten along with GenXers.
My generation is kind of inside-out in comparison: largely sheltered, taught that "you're special," definitely not lost to Boomers; but then the 2010s didn't really see any kind of great artistic production in terms of originality and creativity: only in quantity. You guys have Infinite Jest, The Matrix, even Beavis & Butthead. (Fight Club too, though I'm not a big fan) We have just the poppiest of pop singers (like Justin Bieber) and ideologues (like Ta-Nehisi Coates). While I think GenX was big enough demographically (and creative enough) to dominate their youth market in the 90s (and also had a greater purchasing power to consume culture than Millennials), we failed to leave our cultural mark on the 2010s in a strong and meaningful way, partly also due to market conditions: a lot of "Millennial culture" is really Boomer culture 2.0. (of course the Internet and 2008 Financial Crisis compounded this) Subtract the "Boomer 2.0" culture from the 2010s, and there's not a lot left. This missed chance also means that GenZ will become the first true digital culture.
We might not be a lost generation, but I think we Millennials are a failure of a generation. Or we were simply dealt a bad (or weird) hand, depending on one's perspective. It's too late to change the 2010s, but I hope to redeem the Millennial legacy a teeny little bit with my novels. If only for the history books.
An admirable goal. And keenly perceptive observations.
I still expect great things from Millennials, despite the "snowflake" problem.
My friends and I came of age in the mid-to-late-1980s listening to the Police and Sting, U2, and Peter Gabriel. Not sure that music has been surpassed since, but we're all biased toward what we liked in our late teens and early twenties. David Foster Wallace was an amazing writer, including the essays, and I read everything he ever wrote within weeks of him writing it. Took his death very hard.
Hopefully we'll soon come up with a better name than GenZ for your next-juniors. Zoomers is temporary too. I'm not an expert on that generation, but I'm starting to pay more attention.
I hope you're right. We are the last generation to remember the pre-internet era. That, I'm sure, will amount to something a few decades down the line.
The Police were awesome. But I'll admit, I liked them a lot more after getting a copy of Synchronicity on vinyl. The sound was amazing, while the record companies screwed up how they sounded on CD, making the songs sound tinny. It remains one of my favorite albums to listen to on a turntable.
Interesting about the Synchronicity album.
Where does good vs evil fit in.....some people would have considered ( if fact a lot of people) Hitler normal.....do we simply imply he wasn't normal or was he evil....... it was a good debate I guess I just wanted to go deeper....
A valid point, Zoe. The first novel only goes so far. The main focus of my second novel, coming out in July, is the psychology of Fascism -- and overcoming it, emerging out of it -- and the problem of good and evil in the Third Reich and its aftermath.
I can just picture these characters standing around in their tight corsettes and top hats. Yes, morality and morale always beefy subject matter and bringing the good forward and learning from past generations is the great hope. 'The Great Gatsby' is one of the few books that just had to be put on film. Now Mike, you have given me a list of books and authors to search and this is yet another,😊 did you include pictures of your characters?
Troy and Mary Edwards are African-Americans. Francis Calderon and his sister Carmen are Hispanic-Americans Riis Evans and his sister Gwen are Welsh-Americans. They all grew up in Colorado or Wyoming and they broadcast the radio show from Denver.
Had a feeling Gwen was Welsh or some variation of Celtic lineage. I never read the full G G just abridged I think. Not sure I want to read other books by Fitzgerald. Thomas Hardy was a great writer but he did lead readers into fatal endings and I'm not into that. Hitchcock said I believe, horror is life and that's why he always made sure his movies included aspects of humor. Reading Hardy was also an excerise in page flipping as he did gone on about all those details of Architecture 🙃 But your title 'Radio and Renaissance' wow try and walk passed that one!
Glad to hear it, De. I love that generation. They've gotten a bad rep. I don't have images of them, De.
That's ok my imagination is always on speed dial
Is the novel somewhat of a response to The Great Gatsby? Just wondering!
Oh, for me personally, The Great Gatsby was a great novel -- Fitzgerald's only great novel. But Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were also the most famous cultural figures of their generation and tried to define the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s and define their generation. And for a century they've remained the leading cultural icons of the Jazz Generation, which is still usually called the Lost Generation. So this writing involves some pushback and giving a more accurate picture of the 1920s and of that generation. What's your view, Kathleen?
Nice I think this all makes sense. Gatsby is also hugely harshly critical of the era. It’s weird seeing it against the persona of the Fitzgeralds. Think the setting is ripe for more discovery and is a good choice for you
Thank you, Kathleen. A good discussion.