Here's my first ecto post... we'll see how this goes. I have been trying to find an offline editor for ages since I got the Mac.
Well I read another interesting thing in The Fourth Turning: apparently what our vision of the future can define our generation. The book goes back over the kinds of futuristic movies that were made at the turn of the century all the way up to now. Sometimes these movies present a marvelous space-age world, and sometimes a dystopic post-apocalyptic wasteland. I think it's fascinating that our vision of the future hundreds of years from now actually reflects the way we feel about our present world. Till I thought about things this way I did not really see the literary value in science fiction. Now it makes science fiction seem really important to me.
The Age of the Confessional Self.
This is our present literary age which began in the early 60's when the first Gen-X'er's were born. I have been reflecting in my reading, that even as there's a terrific tension between Gen X and Baby Boomers, in reality, the two generations have so very much in common. For both, it is about the self, personal feelings and emotions. If you look at the progression from the 60's until now, it's gotten more and more intense. Additionally Gen-X doesn't really rebel against the Baby Boom generation per se. They may instead harbor resentment about the world and the mentalities they were brought into. I'm amazed by how much popular culture and what people are drawn to really precisely reflect these generational and cultural ideals.
This weekend I realized as I was reading Eclipse that perhaps the whole reason this series is so popular is because it so perfectly reflects the present mentality-- the Emo as it were-- the very very end of Generation X, which if you consider the "confessional self" mood that has progressed in our culture since the 1960's-- Emo is the ultimate expression. I was really noticing this when I read the book this weekend because it's not really about vampires or even vampiric-type behavior, i.e. sexual. It's more about, emoting.
Well I read another interesting thing in The Fourth Turning: apparently what our vision of the future can define our generation. The book goes back over the kinds of futuristic movies that were made at the turn of the century all the way up to now. Sometimes these movies present a marvelous space-age world, and sometimes a dystopic post-apocalyptic wasteland. I think it's fascinating that our vision of the future hundreds of years from now actually reflects the way we feel about our present world. Till I thought about things this way I did not really see the literary value in science fiction. Now it makes science fiction seem really important to me.
The Age of the Confessional Self.
This is our present literary age which began in the early 60's when the first Gen-X'er's were born. I have been reflecting in my reading, that even as there's a terrific tension between Gen X and Baby Boomers, in reality, the two generations have so very much in common. For both, it is about the self, personal feelings and emotions. If you look at the progression from the 60's until now, it's gotten more and more intense. Additionally Gen-X doesn't really rebel against the Baby Boom generation per se. They may instead harbor resentment about the world and the mentalities they were brought into. I'm amazed by how much popular culture and what people are drawn to really precisely reflect these generational and cultural ideals.
This weekend I realized as I was reading Eclipse that perhaps the whole reason this series is so popular is because it so perfectly reflects the present mentality-- the Emo as it were-- the very very end of Generation X, which if you consider the "confessional self" mood that has progressed in our culture since the 1960's-- Emo is the ultimate expression. I was really noticing this when I read the book this weekend because it's not really about vampires or even vampiric-type behavior, i.e. sexual. It's more about, emoting.