Xer irony and sarcasm are honestly earned, said Howe.
"They started coming of age with the Reagan revolution and deregulation and the consciousness revolution. Kids were expected to be free agents and take care of themselves too. There are so many images of cultural hostility to children during this period," including the popularity of the birth control pill, which led to record lows in fertility, and "child-as-devil movies."
"When Xers were kids," Howe said, "they were told, 'Trust no one, don't count on the institutions, make deals and then move on.' " This led to an entrepreneurial flair and individualism, and wariness. "When it comes to community and civic activism, this generation represents a historic void, and Millenials are going to rush in to fill it."
Short time in the sun
Over its brief heyday in the early '90s, Generation X and its plight served as the impetus for movies ("Slacker"), rock albums (Nirvana's "Nevermind"), developments in fashion (remember flannel?) and a whole slew of books. Some of them were pop-sociological, such as Coupland's, which took its "X" from Billy Idol's old group and a category in Paul Fussell's "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System."
Others were soberly demographic (William Strauss and Howe's "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069"), still others were political, such as the several books blaming the boomers for an upcoming Social Security meltdown. Despite the gloomy 1990 Time cover story -- "While the baby boomers had a placid childhood in the 1950s, which helped inspire them to start their revolution, today's twenty-something generation grew up in a time of drugs, divorce and economic strain . . . " -- some of these were funny, ironic, angry, or all three.
"I didn't intend to write a perfect book," Gordinier said. "When I was coming up, a lot of the books that inspired me were by Norman Mailer or Henry Miller or Hunter Thompson -- books that were these mad gobs of prose."
Gordinier's tome is an energetic, often vivid, hastily argued and compulsively overwritten document -- one penned, he said, "in a kind of lunatic trance."
In fact, it originated in the hazy, sleep-deprived weeks in which its author and his wife (who live in the suburbs north of New York City) recovered from the 2006 birth of their son. When his editor at the magazine called to check in, Gordinier -- still a bit dazed -- hung up the phone with an assignment to "take on Generation X."
The ensuing article, "Has Generation X Already Peaked?," which Gordinier said was written mostly around 4 a.m. on a series of consecutive mornings, became popular and controversial, catching fire online and in the press.
"X Saves the World" which sprang from that article, has the energy of a barroom conversation, along with the digressions, long-windedness and specious reasoning those sessions sometimes include. Gordinier's editors, not wanting to scare off mainstream readers, trimmed a 4,000-word song-by-song deconstruction of the Replacements "Let It Be" album.
"Sometimes," said Gordinier, finishing his fries back at Pie 'n' Burger, "I think authors ought to think less and sort of react."
--
scott.timberg@latimes.com
