Few of us, I think, would claim to be unaware that Americans often seem strange to their international neighbors. I wouldn't bother making that point, except that Anthony Hecht brought a YouTube link to Slog tonight, under the title, "Tonight in Racial Harmony (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/tonight_in_racial_harmony)". While the race debate of my generation is not unrelated to our apparent strangeness, there is also a broader point to be had.

I am, technically, a member of the so-called Generation X, as are many of my neighbors here at Sciforums. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X) describes this generation as "generally marked early on by its lack of optimism for the future, nihilism, cynicism, skepticism, alienation and distrust in traditional values and institutions".

Gee, that doesn't sound familiar, does it?

At any rate, it is often difficult to explain "what's wrong with Generation X". After all, the generation is only vaguely defined demographically, and has been extended more than once to include greater numbers. Theories as to the origin of the name are often grim, including the "baby bust", the lack of a better term, and the lack of any specific cultural identifiers. Indeed, the generation seems more defined by attitudes and stereotypes than by demographics, to the point that the subsequent generation of children has evolved into something called "Generation Y", apparently to be phrased as a question.

Hecht's post at Slog, though, brought one of those moments in which I wanted to hunt him down and slap him until he weeps in exchange for the flash of memories he brought about. It is, indeed, an apt and poignant statement about "what's wrong with Generation X". Because this is the kind of shite-flavored pabulum so many of us were fed as we grew into the consumer culture:
YouTube: Silver Spoons (closing credits, episode unknown) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzDaNEJudAs)
Really, this is part of what we're trying so hard to forget.

Did I confuse you?

Try this:
YouTube: Diff'rent Strokes (opening credits) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfH1RsxWEc)
Or these:
Growing Pains (featuring Brad Pitt) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKc8EdtwzYQ)
Punky Brewster (first scene, including "educational" titles) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3DO3zE9zeo)
It's Your Move (opening, with advert intermission) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmG7G4HbOR4)
El Debarge, "Who's Johnny" (theme song to Short Circuit) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cnBACZVsDA)
Lost Boys (pt. 1 of 9; okay, I admit I adore this film, no matter how much it sucks) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_3SKjcozs)
At any rate, I would hope my international neighbors can understand ... there's a reason we are the way we are. And, yes, that Silver Spoons clip is soul-scarring.

"Silver Spoons"

"Really, this is part of what we're trying so hard to forget."

I did it!!! I can't remember seeing this awful TV series anymore...Yeah!!!
I know I did see it when I was younger....:puke:
But now its totally gone!

"Diff'rent Strokes"

Wach you talking about Willis?

"Growing Pains"

Yeah!!! I am free of this one too!!!

"Punky Brewster"

Nancy says
"Just so no to drugs!"
Eehhhh...help me!!!

"It's Your Move"

Sounds like I didn't miss much here!!!

"El Debarge,"

Or here!!!

"Lost Boys"

I agree...it was sorta good at the time???
What is wrong with me?:scratchin:



Being a Gen X kid I can relate to what you are saying.
I grow up in such a bleak, boring, poor, lame, stinky, awful era during these times. But I was always considered the odd ball who didn't fit in the picture...
because the picture was puke inspiring.

I pushed on and now I am here!
Times are more interesting...I am more aware then I was then I and enjoy my life. I am proud to be a GENERATION X kid...it makes me feel like professor X
from the x-men!!!

For those of us who didn't give in into the crappy content of those poorer times, we have came up stronger and more aware, we have learned from the crap that that crap is to be avoided!

GO GENERATION X!!!!:bravo:

I wonder if Generation X ever voted at all..

Go iGen.. or Generation Y.

We know there's a reason why you're the way you are Tiassa. Doesn't mean us Aussies can be bothered to find out.

Where oh where did this bullshit of naming generations ever start? I wish they would stop it because prior to the "baby boomer" generation there wasn't any names being given to older generations before that one. I rellay makes no sense to me to name a generation anything because everything just keeps on going into the future. I can only hope that future generations won't have names because I[m getting to damn old to remember which came when . :(

"Where oh where did this bullsjit of naming generations ever start? I wish they would stop it because prior to the "baby boomer" generation there wasn't any names being given to older generations before that one. I rellay makes no sense to me to name a generation anything because everything just keeps on going into the future. I can only hope that future generations won't have names because I[m getting to damn old to remember which came when . ":grumble:

CosmicTraveller,

Your just jealous that being an old fogie, your generation doesn't have any name of its own!;)

You come from Generation 'too old to have a generation name'.:itold:

Be careful you young whipper snapper or I'll come roll over there in my wheel chair and gum you to death! :p

"Be careful you young whipper snapper or I'll come roll over there in my wheel chair and gum you to death! "

LOL:bravo:

You might be an old guy, but you are still cool!!!:thumbsup:

Where oh where did this bullshit of naming generations ever start? I wish they would stop it because prior to the "baby boomer" generation there wasn't any names being given to older generations before that one. I rellay makes no sense to me to name a generation anything because everything just keeps on going into the future. I can only hope that future generations won't have names because I[m getting to damn old to remember which came when . :(

Hard to say for sure. The Lost Generation (http://ok.essortment.com/whatlostgenera_nkj.htm) is the earliest reference to this sort of thing that I'm aware of.

Naming the boomers something was probably inevitable. The demographic bulge, their economic and educational opportunities, all resulted in a group that people became aware of. Back in the seventies, and through the eighties, when people referred to yuppies, you instantly knew who and what they were talking about. As individuals, they had unique ideas and tastes, but viewed from a distance a pattern emerged, like a pointillist painting.

I don't think us X'ers really had the same generational conforming pressure, or the same unique shared experiences of the boomers (such as the civil rights movement, Vietnam protests, the emergence of drugs and rock and roll music) so the naming of our generation was probably mostly done because it had become habit by then. I can still remember the first time I saw that I was part of a "generation"; it was in late 1987, and I believe it was a Newsweek that had a cover story about "Twentysomethings". Baby busters was thrown around for a while. I didn't hear the term Generation X until some time later. It was firmly cemented by the time Coupland's book came out.

A strange thing happened in the mid nineties though. I'd noticed this, and Tom Tomorrow pointed it out in his strip; as I aged, the demographic seemed to stay static. In 1995, when I turned thirty, teenagers were being referred to as Gen Xers. Which graphically demonstrates the limited usefulness of terms such as this.

FIRE CALL

Hello,
Help!
"Send someone over quickly!"
The old woman screamed into the phone. "Two naked bikers are climbing up toward my bedroom window!"
"This is the Fire Department, lady," the voice replied. "I'll have to transfer you to the Police Department."
"No, it's YOU I want!" she yelled. "They need a longer ladder!"

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/991/grannyds0.jpg

...

Hey, I liked the lost boys!! The rest of the crap I kind of noticed was crap back in the day so the TV wasn't quite as important to me as it was say for my parents.

Hey, I liked the lost boys!! The rest of the crap I kind of noticed was crap back in the day so the TV wasn't quite as important to me as it was say for my parents.

I remember that, when The Wonder Years hit, it was like blessed rain after a lifelong drought. We had no idea what we were missing. Yet, even that show creeps me out these days. I keep thinking I should go back and watch the whole series over (I never did see the end of it), but I've always been a sucker for nostalgia, and so it actually hurts to watch (http://youtube.com/watch?v=OXHWsY5uVbE).

And it's easy to see and feel, but hard to explain what's wrong with The Lost Boys. I mean, I remember at my school Corey Haim was the first sexual crush for a lot of the girls. And there's not much for good acting in that film. (Dianne Wiest and Ed Hermann did well, but they didn't have much to work with for a script, and Barnard Hughes was entertaining for his part.) Rather, the film is a testament to the MTV generation. I mean, there are some crushingly bad scenes in that film.

Although The Stranger's Eric Grandy did recently bring us this testament to the genius of Corey Haim (http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/01/im_into_the_newim_into_that_japanese_fun):

One of many golden moments occurs around the 3 minute mark, when Haim, after demoing his rack of Roland drum machines and synthesizers, declares, mouth all a-twitchy: “As far as what I really like in today’s music…um…I’m Into the New…I’m Into that Japanese Funk.”

Well, we all had a good laugh at Corey’s expense. Then today, I checked in over at the excellent mp3 blog Headphone Sex, and discovered—to my horror—that Haim was right. Prescient even ....

(Grandy (http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/01/im_into_the_newim_into_that_japanese_fun))

• • •

An interesting note on The Lost Boys:

If all had gone as planned, The Lost Boys may have ended up a very different film. As most die hard, Honorary Frog Brothers know, Richard Donner was originally going to direct this film. Coming off the success of The Goonies, Donner was fashioning The Lost Boys as a thematically similar, kid-friendly adventure, pitting child vampires against The Frog Brothers (one of the few characters that survived the first draft and made it into the final version). The pre-production went on too long and Donner decided to jump ship and make Lethal Weapon instead. Rather than junk Lost Boys, it ended up in the hands of a promising new director named Joel Schumacher and Donner became the producer instead. With his noted eye for style, Schumacher re-imagined the piece as a sexy, scary teen thriller, flush with comic elements and an MTV-ready style. A new screenplay was prepared, filming took place mostly in Santa Cruz, California and the summer of 1987 saw the release of a genre classic.

(Wurst (http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/07/15/film-retrospect-the-lost-boys/))

Schumacher was not a promising new director. Before The Lost Boys, he had already directed the cheese-factory known as St. Elmo's Fire (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eGys_dhhkxs), a disaster starring Mr. T called D.C. Cab, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman with Lily Tomlin and Charles Grodin. He also had credit as a television executive producer, time as a costume designer, and several writing credits. So he wasn't new. Promising? Maybe. He would go on to direct Cousins (a decent rehash), Flatliners (with Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon ...), and perhaps his best film, Falling Down, before going on to drive the nails into a decaying Batman cycle.

At any rate, if we were to call Schumacher an influential voice in Generation X media, we probably would not be so horribly wrong about that. And it would be another testament to "what's wrong with Generation X".

And yes, I admit, I do have a soft spot for St. Elmo's Fire. Of course, I also had a thing for Ally Sheedy, which, well, I suppose that says a few things. (To the other, I never knew Andie MacDowell's credit was for "Dale Biberman". Really, I always thought it was "Beaverman", which made for a hell of a joke. Oh, well.)

The thing about SEF is that it was hyperactive and overstated, and I remember my dad once chuckled about how unrealistic the characters were. And he had a point. But if life imitates art, that would explain something about how part of GenX went on to be so hyperactive and melodramatic. What strikes me as tragic is that so rarely among my peers have I found anything resembling the immense trust underlying the the character relationships. Unfortunately, the segment I posted cuts off before that scene finishes playing out, but the only thing about it that is missing from my own associations—I've seen the hyperactivity, the self-destruction, the delicate structures of lies—is the surrender to trust, and that's absolutely tragic. It seems strange that perhaps the only beautiful aspect of that film should be the one so elusive to the Generation X outlook.

But it also seems to be what's wrong. "Catharsis" is a word rarely spoken among my generation. We don't seem to trust one another enough for such an experience, and so it seems foreign and therefore dangerous or, even worse, ridiculous. Perhaps my view of this American generation is too constricted, but we're a media generation, for sure, and so there are little signs and suggestions everywhere you look in our cultural reference canon.

And what's even more bizarre, I think, is that while so many of our parents were correct that there was something different, amiss, and even awry about us, they could not, for the most part, have been more wrong in their diagnoses.
____________________

Notes:

Grandy, Eric. "I'm Into the New…I'm Into that Japanese Funk". LineOut. January 19, 2008. See http://lineout.thestranger.com/2008/01/im_into_the_newim_into_that_japanese_fun

Wurst, Barry. "Film Retrospect: The Lost Boys". FirstShowing.net. July 15, 2007. See http://www.firstshowing.net/2007/07/15/film-retrospect-the-lost-boys/

You really must have alot of time on your hands Tiassa, if you have time to reference every post.

More than most.

Okay, check this out. Five points to anyone who remembers this:
• What's Happening? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpj6ihSwPXw) — season one opening credits
• What's Happening? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDffxteZXLg&NR=1) — season two opening credits
• What's Happening? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av0Xa2lVq-k) — season three opening credits (note the white guy boppin' in the background in the closing restaurant scene)
• What's Happening? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuEpouRT7bk) — ReRun dancing
• What's Happening? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QaNYN7plFc) — Strawberry milkshake disease
• What's Happening? (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5xM9ldu3l7w) — The tickets
That last is too painful to watch.

changer it doesnt take much to refference a post. The way i do it takes about 1 min longer than not doing it, most of that time is spent typing the time and date

Wow. You're blaming TV.

I remember that, when The Wonder Years hit, it was like blessed rain after a lifelong drought....
...
...

Holy crap I loved the goonies. You nailed it right on the head that our Gen X bretheren are absent of trust. While the media may have played a role setting unrealistic social examples that ruined many, a good chunk of it came from the culture of mommy and daddy. I can remember back in the days of sesame street, electric company, and 3-2-1 contact. In those days my friends didn't trust their parents worth beans... on anything and neither did I. They had quite a bit of neurotic cognitive dissonance about them and you wanted to be far away from it by any means necessary. How did that happen?