Subject: Re: 13 Gen'ers<-----the creative bunch
From: Sasha Stone (sstone@primenet.com)
Date: Fri Mar 07 1997 - 03:50:49 GMT
On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, Andrew Kennis wrote:
> Uh, Sasha, I was the one who stated the position you are now currently
> distorting, not paraphrasing. The correct paraphrase of my statement
> would be read that our generation is one of the most creative ever, and
> certainly not the lazy and conforming generation that the media and elder
> generations (namely boomers) like to characterize us as. So, you want to
> evaluate this claim, right? So, you go ahead and evaluate our pop icons
> so as to measure the creativity of our generation? Uhhhh, even as Malcolm
> pointed out, there are some damned creative pop icons and an untold
> amount of undiscovered creative artist types. Art and music is terribly
> underappreciated in this country, as any European can tell you, and
> that's a sad, sad state of affairs (one way it is not appreciated? NEA
> cuts, despite the fact that the NEA is already zillions less funded than
> how art is publicly funded overseas).
>
Listen, we have a misunderstanding here. You seem to be talking about
creativity in general while I am talking about creativity that makes for
(to me, personally, what I consider to be) important work be it in
literature, film, music or architecture, hell even environmental. Perhaps
this generation is more creative but there is such an overload that it
become impossible to disguish one angst-ridden Xer from another. Or maybe
simply being creative doesn't mean all that much. Hell, lots of people
are creative aren't they? Just look at the fucking internet. Does that
mean their work will last? Eventually we're just going to have to chalk it
up to a difference of opinion. To you it is a beautiful, powerful,
awesome generation (expressed most beautifully in John Hughes' THE
BREAKFAST CLUB) aka the most creative generation ever to hit this country.
I think it is an interesting but decidedly whiney generation with nothing
real to fight against but feels the need to feel tortured anyway simply
because there is nothing to fight again - whose biggest claim to faim is
that they aren't the Baby Boomers. A generation raised on eight hours of
television. Perhaps we are all a generation of brilliant artists, the
likes of whom haven't been seen since the Renaissance itself. Somehow, I
doubt that. But hell, I could be wrong. Besides, I am positive the
really good artists are still hidden amid the bright lights big shitty.
> Well, you might be wondering *why* our generation is creative at all. The
> simple answer is we are creative, because we have to be. Jobs are sparse
> to non-existent. Opportunities are diminished to non-existent. The need
> for creativity now, for our generation, is greater than ever. We simply
> cannot conform and move into a suburb, we need to be creative *and*
> lucky (lucky, because there are a hella lot of creative types unaccounted
> for as we have already demonstrated).
>
Oh, poor us. Good thing the stock market didn't crash. Good thing there
aren't Nazis tattooing numbers on our arms. Good thing we aren't fighting
for our right to vote anymore. Good thing we aren't being whipped my our
masters because we looked at a white woman. Yeah, we have it rough all
right. Real fucking rough. We're singing da blues.
>
>
> Malcs, my man, you only mentioned the creative sell outs. What about the
> creative non- sell outs? Fugazi, Branford Marsalis (momentary glitch with
> the Tonight Show), Wynston Marsalis (like Branford, he did sell out to
> Columbia but never compromised his music), Spike Lee, Liz Phair, Bjork,
> Frente, Indigo Girls, and many others.
>
Oh, yeah. Liz Phair. Spike Lee. Please. You could trade in the lot for
one Jimi Hendrix, one Janis Joplin, one Leonard Cohen.
> >
>
> You can't see it? Then you're blind and are also falling right into the
> trap the media and elder generations love for you to fall into: 13
> Gen'ers (Gen X'ers, the deragtory name for us) are dumb, mindless,
> creative beings. Sorry, I don't buy this bullshit.
>
As you've stated. I'm still waiting to be proven wrong. I'm telling you
the closest thing I've seen to genius ain't coming America. It's PJ
Harvey. I'd say she's the most amazing thing to come along in a century
at least. But I wouldn't ever, in a million years, called her a
generation xer. The very idea is absurd. I mean, what the hell is that
anyway?
> >
> No Sasha, *they* wont know the creative impact, with *they* being those
> god damned Yuppie, pretentious baby boomers. I, and *my* generation does
> realize it, and knows it, and the few that don't, I feel bad for.
Yeah, I know. Followed the boomers. Get over it already. Big fucking
deal.
Sasha
-
To remove yourself from the bananafish list, send the command:
unsubscribe bananafish
in the body of a message to "Majordomo@mass-usr.com".
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Mon Oct 09 2000 - 14:59:59 GMT