Matthew E over at Legion Abstract just turned me on to a great blog written by a Gen X’er: XTCIAN. Written by Ian Williams a screenwriter and director, it is mainly his own personal blog, but has some great posts about generations (he was a contributing writer on 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail with Howe and Strauss).
This post from last week is a great example. Williams is asking whether Generation X (born 1961-1981) is going to produce any monumentally great writers like earlier generations. His take on our position in the generational scheme is hilarious. For example, when it comes to our Silent Generation parents (born 1925-1942) he has this to say:
Every generation has a fatal flaw. The Silent Generation had one of the worst ever: they went through the “sexual revolution” at the same time as the Boomers – except the Boomers were doing it at 18, and the Silents were doing it at 38 with their spouse and kids at home. It was just bad luck for the Silent Generation; awesome sideburns, finding your G-spot, and having sex with your neighbors just came around too late for them to partake without fucking up us li’l Gen Xers.
That hits painfully close to home for me.
And how he sums up our problem:
Here’s Gen X’s problem in a nutshell: the internet appeared in the world at EXACTLY the right time to ensure we would never dive into our Masterpieces. As we were winding up to slap the world upside the ass with our lusty, groundbreaking works, we were fucking sidetracked by that “I KISS YOU!!!” guy from Turkey.
Is this the reason that my table on “Defending the Honor of Generation X” never got filled up?
I highly recommend reading his posts on generations. Here are few more (titles changed to make the topic clear):
- How Gen X and Gen Y are different
- Another Post asking where the great Gen X Artist are
- Predictions about Gen X’ers as Parents
- Ian’s Gen X vs. Boomer Battle on Oprah
- On Baby Boomer Hypocrisy
Great stuff, all. I am officially a fanboy.