Generation X

I first attempted to read it aged thirteen, when my older and much admired older cousin pushed a copy into my hands and told me enthusiastically to read it. I tried. I didn't understand all the cultural references. What were these people doing living in bungalows in the desert? I didn't understand how or why they were sitting around telling each other stories. And why were they so bitter? Why didn’t they just get a job they liked> I felt it was a bit rude. They talked about masturbation for goodness sake. I put it away and hoped she wouldn't ask me about it. At thirteen I wasn’t ready to experience disillusionment.

I'm reading it now and the quiet desperation still sits uncomfortably with me, but only because it resonates so clearly with a feeling that descends on me on quiet days.

"...I should realize that the only reason we all go to work in the morning is because we're terrified of what would happen if we stopped.’We're not built for free time as a species. We think we are, but we aren't.'"

I'm not far into it yet, (page 34) but already I'm attempting to find the positive in it, because 16 years later and the bleak Western world Coupland depicts is frighteningly familiar. I think it's because before the year is out I will be a graduate and I have to find a real job and step on the seemingly endless cycle of working and purchasing and working and buying. Buying things is a substitute for something else.

So anyway, I suppose the positive in all this is that Coupland noticed and cared enough to document it in a novel. He has told the 'Tales for an Accelerated Culture'. I'm yet to see what conclusions or resolutions (if any) he comes to. I hope he does because I don’t have any answers when the suppressed and nagging doubts flood forwards on a quiet Sunday afternoon.