Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Douglas Coupland's Generation X, OPD 1991, makes clear that we have had the same problems for decades, and have failed to address them properly for decades--climate change, ecological breakdown, obscene capitalist rape of the commons for the sake of enriching the few, moral bankruptcy of the flight from combat. From before Gen X to Gen Z/alpha -- yesterday I picked up Vonnegut's Breakfast of champions, 1972, and that too reads as if written this morning.

There is no generational conflict. As always there is only the conflict between the oppressed, and the ruling class abetted by the comfy smugheads.

I had the same problem with this book that I have with any book, piece of artwork, song, or movie that attempts to speak to and/or about my generation.

Part of the problem is the sheer weight of representation: in their attempts to wax philosophical on life and its accompanying angst, what most prominently stands out in the words of Claire, Dag and Andy is either the pretension that comes with making any grand gesture meant to stand for a collective consciousness or the disingenuous gravity that accompanies "Proclamations of the 'Truth'" (that's 'truthiness' to you Colbert fans).

Whenever I catch Juno or Empire Records or the like on television I get that same feeling - a sense of naughty delight at the winsome words coming off of the show more screen dampened by the realization that NO ONE REALLY TALKS LIKE THIS, and if they do, they are probably too caught up with their own words to really care to listen to anyone else's. Which is not to say that I'm a stickler for realism either, but in this book there is a clear line between the sad suck of reality and the semi-magical realism of the tales these three windbags tend to dream up, and the realism part just doesn't work.

But I'm being harsh. I have no problem with environmental and social responsibility, or a lessening of hyperconsumption in all its forms. And I admit, if I'd read this maybe 9 or 10 years ago I might've absolutely gobbled it up whole, but I find it all tiresome now. There is a lot that does ring true here, but the execution is sometimes taxing.

Maybe it is the author's intention that the characters just sound like a group of ungrateful, vacuous people taking up space, and if so then the job is done. Some parts of this genuinely made me laugh and some of the characterizations are done very well, but I have a hard time swallowing books that are filled with whining, particularly the kind of whining where there is a wink at how clever it all is to whine in such a way.

I also have a hard time with this notion that the answer is "out there," in some fading desert - a la Coehlo's The Alchemist (or, worse yet, in an underprivileged foreign country) just waiting for some 20-something lost American middle-class soul to pluck it from the ether. The act is seen here as courageous when it is really some imperialist orientalist romanticism that has more to do with avoiding answers than really finding them.

Not that I have any answers either, but still. show less

Douglas Coupland is a comic genius. 'Eleanor Rigby' was eerily perceptive and very droll, but this book is perfection - short, snappy and sharply humorous, sort of Brett Easton Ellis without the drugs.

Narrator Andy (although his 'voice' is almost unisex) and two best friends Claire and Dag are twenty-somethings living in Palm Springs. They tell each other stories to pass the time because nothing happens. It's hot, they go to work, sit by the pool, drive out into the middle of nowhere for picnics. But Coupland makes this work, because his characters are introspective, intelligent, abstract and also very real. I could feel the oppressive heat and boredom he describes, and empathise with their neurotic 'generation x' fears.

Coupland's show more writing is sharp, vivid but not pretentious - he captures the 'voice' of disaffected youth perfectly, with a wicked turn of phrase. One woman, nicknamed Elvissa, has a 'large, anatomically disproportionate head, like that of a woman who points to merchandise on a TV game show. This head is capped by an Elvis-oidal Mattel toy doll jet black hair-do that frames her skull like a pair of inverted single quotes'. A counter surface looks like the 'narrow horseshoe of flooring surrounding the toilet of an alcoholic, a lunar surface of leprotic cigarette burn sores'. Andy's father 'flounders through the empty rooms of the house like a tanker that has punctured its hull with its own anchor'. These are images that capture your imagination, making the reader 'see' without obvious comparisons what he is trying to say. Coupland should write a manual on how to phrase original metaphors and similes, he's that good.

There are also some very apt definitions of modern phrases and social conditions peppering the pages like footnotes - 'voter's block', 'diseases for kisses' or 'hyperkarma', 'paper rabies' - that fit perfectly, as well as Lichenstein cartoons and pithy 'bumper sticker' slogans. All in all a very 'visual' book, complete with dazzling neon pink cover! show less

I first read this book when it was most relevant to me. A friend, one of those friends who is not particularly hipster but always seems to know what's sharp on the bleeding edge, loaned it to me. It had that early 20s ring of authenticity. I thought it was marvellous.

I was disappointed by every single subsequent Coupland book and eventually stopped reading him. It was hard to reconcile the author of Generation X with the author of Girlfriend in a Coma. Were they really the same guy?

Re-reading it now, 21 years later, I can see all the stylistic quirks and tedious fixations that so depressed me in all his other work and the joy and relief and recognition I once felt reading Generation X is hardly even a memory.

This is a book about show more storytelling and fear and the pomposity of youth. It's pretty good. show less

I first read this book shortly after it came out and it started my love affair with Douglas Coupland. It wasn't until very recently that I reread it. I'd been afraid that it wouldn't have passed the test of time--that it would seem as dated as the movie Singles. Fortunately, I still found it to be quite enjoyable. However, what I've found over Douglas Coupland's career, is that I most enjoy his novels set in the Pacific Northwest. He writes of the environment with a greater sense of authority--no doubt from living his life in and around Vancouver. One of his greatest strengths, in my opinion, is capturing the "feel" of life in the PNW.
The three main characters in Generation X have turned away from the expected path of their peers, show more namely the acquisition of careers and material goods. They're looking for happiness and meaning in simpler ways and their jobs are simply a mean to an ends--their jobs aren't their lives, their jobs are simply something to keep food in their bellies and a roof over their heads while they look for real meaning elsewhere. Even now, almost 20 years after the novel was published, there's something beautiful about that idea. show less

Wow, talk about reading a book at the right time in your life. If you’re in your twenties, fresh out of college, and in that phase where you’re trying to get your life sorted out, this is the book for you.

We live in a time where our options are limited and we’re forced to conform to “the system” – AKA you can’t get a good job without a college degree and most of us can’t get a college degree without putting ourselves into overwhelming debt, and then we can’t get jobs without experience but we can’t get experience without jobs. It’s a vicious cycle, but one we’re forced into. My father didn’t go to college but was still able to get a job that paid well enough to put him into the upper middle class. That’s not show more an option my generation has, and there’s this whole sense of “wtf is the point then?” among us.

Everything is bigger than us. Giant corporations control what we buy and what we can afford, the bank more or less controls everything else, including whether or not we’re qualified for a home, a car, or other things life has taught us are necessities but we learn are often outside our reach. Our protests don’t mean much, and the person with more money always seems to win. It’s frustrating to feel so small, and I think Generation X can be summed up by the following:

“We know that this is why the three of us left our lives behind us and came to the desert – to tell stories and to make our own lives worthwhile tales in the process.”

I love it. I love the idea of living my life through a story, because we all want our lives to have meaning. And the jealousy Andy feels at realizing the Baby Boomers hit the “genetic lottery” (able to attain good jobs and various luxuries without having to throw oneself into a lifetime of debt) is something I personally feel every time another student loan bill shows up in my mailbox or I get a call from a collection agent. The desire for a simpler time, to just run away to the desert and escape everything, resonates within me, and in that regard I really feel like I connected with this book.

I wouldn’t consider this a traditional book by any means. I didn’t really care for the characters so much as the ideas of the book. There wasn’t really a story (there were lots of tales within the book, but not really a cohesive storyline) – it was more the existence of the characters. I have no problem with this, but some might, so I thought it worth mentioning. However, the ending was really weird, I’m not going to lie. I’m still not sure what happened exactly, except perhaps Andy had some sort of spiritual experience he felt gave his life meaning. It’s my best guess. And the ending did throw me a bit, because it didn’t feel like it was part of the main book. But honestly, I loved this book too much to really care, because I felt like it was the truth of today written in a book. show less

Notes:
- I really like the scene with Elvissa in the house with the dude that i have to assume looks like Levi Ryan, it reminds me of Lana Del Ray and Neutral Milk Hotel and I want to live there forever
- The same goes for the scene with Andy and Tyler in the green architecture place
- We are always hiding from ourselves and those around us

ps. i fucking found this book outside a nightclub on the seafront and when i finished it i lent it to a friend who lost it whilst moving into a council house that only he and his mum can live in, which has resulted in his dad renting a room in a shared house and when i helped him clear the room and move his stuff i found a detuned guitar that said fuck capitalism on it, the most ludicrous amount of show more cigarette filters, a duslshock four, on the road by jack kerouc, some sigmund freud stuff and some foot ointment cream, if you ever think the characters in Coupland's books are too quirky, check yourself show less