Gen X Reader Edited by Douglas Rushkoff
Monday, January 9th, 2006
The GenX Reader, edited by Douglas Rushkoff, is one of the classic collections of texts relating to the emergence of Generation X in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Published in 1994 by Ballantine Books, New York, The GenX Reader provided a connection point for emerging voices. Douglas has the table of contents on his site, www.rushkoff.com
The introduction by Douglas Rushkoff presents the case for a new generation’s voice to be heard. He writes that until this point Generation X has been explained to the public ‘by the people who fear and detest us the most’. “Many chroniclers of Generation X have reduced us to, at best, a market segment and, at worst, the downfall of the Western World. Douglas’ final words make it clear he’s aiming at the heart of readers in older generations. “Whether you like it or not, we are the thing that will replace you.”
1. Here We Are
Douglas Coupland � Interview in Elle magazine by Kim France (founding editor of Lucky Magazine)
Shampoo Planet � Douglas Coupland � an excerpt from Douglas Coupland’s 1992 novel set in California.
Twentysomething - an essay published in 1988 by Washington Post columnist Jefferson Morley.
Slackers � an excerpt from the script of Richard Linklater’s movie (1991) and novel (1992) exploring the lives of ‘twenty somethings’ in Austin, Texas.
Richard Linklater � Interview in bOING! bOING! focusing on his 1993 movie, “Dazed and Confused.” The interview team includes Carla Sinclair, back in the days when Boing Boing was a very small print zine in Austin rather than a world famous blog. Also on the team was Jon Lebkowsky.
Whatever � Mark Saltveit, developed of Real People for Real Change, writes about the need to go beyond stereotypes when writing about the new generation.
2. Legacy
Elizabeth Moran, author of Bradymania! writes up the funeral of Bob Reed, the guy who played Mike Brady, for Gen X zine Teenage Gang Debs.
Pagan Kennedy, author of Platforms: A Microwaved Cultural Chronicle of the 1970s, writes on the religious energy crisis experienced the year she moved from a Christian school to a public school.
Matt Groening, known now for The Simpsons, could be described as the artist of the Gen X experience. Doug includes a cartoon from Matt’s book, Life is Hell.
Julian Dibbell, rock critic with the Village Voice and author of My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World, writes about ‘Classic Rock’. He says Gen Xers are under pressure to come up with an approach to rock music that meaures up to the radical shift of the rock revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. He responds by saying that we’ve decided it’s more liberating to live with the past than to live in it.
3. Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Eric Liu , author of Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life, writes about the philosophy behind the magazine, “The Next Progressive”
Lead or Leave, a GenX movement in the 1990s, focused on policy relating to public debt, and social security, with a focus on generational equity.
Katie Roiphe, author of The Morning After : Sex, Fear, and Feminism
Ice Cube � an interview with Cheo Choker in The Source talking about gangsta rap.
Douglas Rushkoff � Strength Through Apathy - an essay on young people and mainstream news.
Wiley Wiggins, who played Mitch in Richard Linklater’s movie, Dazed and Confused, explains the title of his zine, Happy!
4. The Dregs - Gen X Writers
Walter Kirn, Mormon novelist known for She Needed Me, 1993, Thumbsucker, 1999, and Mission to America, 2005 ‘, tells a disturbing story that explains his reluctance to enter the Baby Boomer world of success.
Bruce Craven provides an excerpt from his novel, Fast Sofa. The book was translated into a movie in 2001.
Darius James, novelist and script writer known for his 1993 book, Negrophobia: An Urban Parable, provides an excerpt here exposing the
Peter Bagge, Seattle artist/author of the Buddy Bradley comic books, provides a peek into the depressing life of Buddy’s sister Babs.
Dan Clowes, artist/author of 20th Century Eightball, provides a cynical take on outsiders and parties in a cartoon strip. He’s also known for his movie, Ghost World.
Mark Frauenfelder � co-founder of Boing Boing, writes a report on Toys R Us.
5. Metamedia
Ren & Stimpy � Dan Persons writes an analysis of “Stimpy’s Invention”, an episode from the bizarre animated TV series, Ren & Stimpy.
Beavis & Butthead are interviewed by Charles M. Young for Rolling Stone. The interview’s online here.
The Immediast Underground, Greg Ruggiero and Stuart Suhulka edited and published Open Fire: The Open Magazine Pamphlet Series Anthology in 1993, and The New American Crisis in 1996. These collections of essays featured challenges to widely held assumptions about society. Here Rushkoff has included their essay, “Seize the Media”, a call to celebrate public culture without the control of corporations and government.
Mark Kriegel, NY sportswriter, author of Bless Me Father, a novel about the son of a NY gangster, and Namath: A Biography, � writes “Fear and Loathing in Atlanta”, a humorous critique of celebrity, the SuperBowl and Fox coverage.
Hugh Gallagher, author of Teeth (1999) and whose Scholastic Press award-winning college application essay was published in Harpers Magazine, writes a satirical journal, “Seven Days and Seven Nights Alone with MTV”. The college application essay appears on many sites, including this one. He’s now Literary Assistant at America. See his faith story at Catholic American Magazine. He’s now performing in New York as Von Von Von, an Antwerp pop star from the 1980s.
6. Ranting (Opinion)
The GenX Computer Conference, “People try to put us down”, an online conversation from The Well - Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, sparked by a rant by Bob Rossney.
I Hate Brenda Newsletter, a one-off zine dedicated to hating Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills 90210, edited by Kerin Morataya and Darby Romeo, editors of zine, Ben is Dead. The I Hate Brenda Newsletter is reprinted here.
R.U. Sirius, original editor-in-chief of Mondo 2000, a cyberculture magazine in 1980s and 1990s. Here he writes a critique of popular thinking on public debt. “There’s No Such Thing as An Original Debt.”
Maggie Estep, poet and onstage artist writes “Humping Hilda”. She’s since gone onto become the writer of the Ruby Murphy Mysteries, along with a number of other books, including Love Dance of the Mechanical Animals: Confessions, Highly Subjective Journalism, Old Rants and New Stories (2003).
David Martin, currently a journalist with CBS News, writes an ‘anti-rant’ for Newsweek, Nov 1, 1993, “The Whiny Generation”. In fact an anti-GenX rant.
7. Raving (Dance Scene)
Jody Radzik, promoter of Californian raves in the 1990s, writes “Rave On”, a ‘how to’. Jody blogs on gurus at Guruphiliac.
Earth Girl, the psuedonym of Lux d’Coda, frontwoman for Foxgluv, was associated with the Toon Town raves in the UK in the 1990s. She spearheaded the smart bar phenomenon, selling brain tonic drinks at these early raves. Here she responds to questions on GenX and the rave scene. “This Is the Drawing”.
Todd C. Roberts, co-founding editor of URB, a DJ magazine on urban alternative culture, writes with guest contributor Meredith Chinn on ambient electronic music. Roberts is now editor of Puta, a truant art magazine, and a music producer, with a web site at www.wearetruant.com in development.
3393 � The Night Before Jesus Woke Up - an anoymous online article from a Judeo-Christian-hip-hop perspective.
Marc Laidlaw and Rudy Rucker collaborate on ‘Probability Pipeline’, a cyberpunk short story published in Rudy Rucker’s 1991 book, Transreal.
8. GenXploitation
Nathaniel Wice, co-author of Alt. Culture: An A-To-Z Guide to the ‘90S-Underground, Online, and Over-The-Counter (1995), writes “Generalization X”, a cynical report on a marketing conference that has focused on Generation X.
Debra Goldman writes on the “X Factor” for Adweek. Debra died in 2004, aged 52.
Neil Howe and William Strauss, generational theorists and consultants, write on “The New Generation Gap”, in The Atlantic December 1992. The article is available online to subscribers.
Andrew Hultkrans, San Francisco author of Forever Changes (2003), a review of Love’s famous album, writes on the the ‘Slacker Factor’ for magazine Mondo 2000.
Tags: Douglas Coupland, Douglas Rushkoff, Gen X
Chris Seay confesses to generational arrogance in his Counter Culture column at 
