Talk:Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

McJob
This article says that McJob is a neologism created by this book and later fell into popular cuture. However, the McJob article says the term was created by Amitai Etzioni and only popularized by this novel. Someone with more information, please fix this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.157.213.174 (talk) 21:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC) The Oxford English Dictionary states that the first time the word McJob was used was in the Washington Post on Aug. 24, 1986--which was five years before Generation X was published. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.42.97.27 (talk) 00:00, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

The "McJob" and later "Wal-Work" (Wal-Mart) became a joke by conservative critical commentators and working-class/blue-collar comedians in the 1990's about how sheltered or "spoiled" the (sub)urban white upper-income level kids were esp. from the East and West Coasts raised not to take in any hard and dirty job they can find. 71.102.26.168 (talk) 21:29, 12 June 2011 (UTC)


 * McJobs are temporarily low-pay work in unskilled fast food/service employers. First-time workers have to start out somewhere. I agree we should never start out low and end up stuck in a dead end job. The novel's theme is on young adults try to establish themselves when the odds are against them during a recession. 68.190.254.86 (talk) 20:25, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Origin of term
Over at the Generation X article, it's suggested that the term pre-dates Coupland's novel by some margin, but that the novel popularised the term. The article for the novel suggests otherwise. Would anyone more knowledgeable care to comment? --Plumbago 17:23, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for updating the page to answer my question LGagnon. Cheers, --Plumbago 08:44, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

To use the terms "X" to mean nothing, actually came from pessimists' idea of a worthless generation of the future they inherited, and the 1970's cynicism produced a 1980s-90's terminology for young adults at the time. Now then comes "Y" to mean youthful born since 1975 to 1979, but those born after 1993 are "Z"s or the final letter of our Roman alphabet stood for the end of western civilization as well. The 21st century isn't like the last (20th) and the 3rd millennia is predicted on the novel of how harder it will be for young adults to "grow up" and matured in a faster rate due to being depressed and turned realistic, if not fatalistic, and the novel's characters seem to be early 20s, except now in 2010-11 there are late 20's or 30-somethings still never became independent adults. The mid 20s or 25-27 year olds are thought to be the majority of the US population 30 or 40 years ago, and now the baby boomers (ages 50-70) and those over 40 became the median age in the turn of the decade (1990s/2000?) thus the issue of ageism not against the "old" but the under 30 or 35 crowd, as well class division against the declining middle-class and white American-born males felt of being held back in a society they no longer are the "norm" or mainstream group. The novel Generation "X"  is about how the world ends and is replaced by a sober reality. 71.102.26.168 (talk) 21:21, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Seattle and Vancouver
I've reintroduced the fact that Nirvana was Seattle based. Without mentioning the connection between the city and the band, reference to the proximity of Vancouver and Seattle makes no sense. Victoriagirl 03:04, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

No references to the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego either, but the novel is dedicated to US West Coast pop culture in the 1980's, already abandoned the socially liberal 1970's and entered the 1990's to rethink of their materialism and fake optimism they learned from the Baby Boomers' peak of youth, and post WWII-eras American exceptionalism mixed in the "California Dream" scenario, also foretalls of a new age of boom-to-bust 2000's.

The grunge or alternative rock scene of (1980s?) 1990 Seattle was a descendant of the hippy-acid rock of 1965-70 San Francisco and up and down the West Coast. Rock music was originally from the South or Southeast US introduced north, east and west by African-Americans whose music styles like blues, jazz, soul and R&B were moving into other regions in the Depression 1930's and Wartime 1940's economic eras. But during the 1950s and 60s, liberal-minded rebellious white Anglo children in the urbanized states, esp. suburban communities picked up Black music and readapted it to their own, but alternative was in the literal sense to their parents' corporate-owned rock music styles. Same happened to the origin of Punk introduced from British-adapted Left-wing movement rock exposed to the (North) American Counterculture in the 1970s first arrived in Los Angeles around 1975 to 1980. 71.102.26.168 (talk) 21:09, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

American publisher
Although the book was written by a Canadian, St. Martin's Press is an American publisher. In fact, it has no Canadian offices. Victoriagirl 03:04, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

United States? Why?
I'm wondering if this (above)is why it says Douglas Coupland and American in the 'summary box', whatever it is called. He has spent time in the US, and Generation X was set there, but he lives in North Vancouver to my knowledge and it a Canadian. If some of Karl Marx's titles have been republished by say U Berkeley, I doubt that makes Marx a Californian, so what is the rationale? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.52.184.74 (talk) 23:56, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

In 1990, the US merged as the world's lone superpower in political, economical and cultural power not seen in the world since the peak of the British empires in which Canada is a part of the Commonwealth of Nations, so to be an American young adult (and Californian as well) was a paradox of when paradise was paved into a parking lot. Also we witnessed the decline of our adversary the Soviet Union (and their parents feared of being drafted to serve in Vietnam or Korea) with the parents and grandparents' fears of nuclear war. Meanwhile the East Asian economies rose and peaked at the time starting off with Japan and South Korea, and now China and India. All the novel characters are white, no minorities to be found in a more tolerant and more diverse society in Southern California USA. 71.102.26.168 (talk) 21:13, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Followed by
Isn't the "followed by" section for sequels? Just because Coupland wroter SP next doesn't mean it's supposed to be listed there. -- LGagnon 21:17, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * My understanding is that "followed by", as found in the infobox, is intended to indicate the author's next published book. Of course, in the case of those who pen series, there is usually no difference.Victoriagirl 21:54, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Generationzxthgde.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 21:52, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Chaucer and Boccaccio?
I don't understand at all the reference to Chaucer and Boccaccio in the synopsis? Who's point of view is that? It is not sourced therefore it looks like the person who wrote the page feels that way and it's not relevant on a wikipedia page, is it? How odd... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.70.92.62 (talk) 15:12, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

The term is from the late 1970s
The article states that the 1991 book popularized the term "Generation X", which to the British is a bit shocking, since everyone (young and many elderly) knew who Generation-X was and we knew exactly what it meant. The band Generation-X (Billy Idol) was on everyone's TV, every Thursday night on UK's "Top of the Pops". Young, and many elderly, sat around the TV watching the show (elderly mostly just waiting for the next TV show to start, reading a magazine). The late 1970s were Generation-X in UK. ie. The kids who grew up with punk rock in the teenage years and we all knew what generation-x meant. It was us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X_(band)#1977%E2%80%931978