My Generation
I started out having this brilliant idea involving some simple plot or other, but I�ve forgotten it altogether. This is the bane of a writer who cannot remember what he imagines, and who forgets to carry a notepad around so he can record it. And so this is the story of something else instead. The story of my generation, or what I take to be my generation and how I perceived it, and still perceive it to be.
Before I will begin to set myself upon this slippery path and before those who will believe themselves to be part of my generation beat me to death I would like to assert that I have impeccable powers of observation. What I perceive is rarely glorified and never so far from the truth that it becomes different. If you see things differently from me it is not because I see it wrong, it is more likely because you do.
Naturally I acknowledge the fact that all observations are subjective, but how many can you say are moving, or disturbing? How many sketch such a view of something so normal that it becomes almost frightening? Indeed, there aren�t many of them around, and those who are around are usually alluded to as being Great Writers. I rest my case.
I�ll try to relate to you my generation by telling you a rather plain story, by which I mean that it really isn�t something major. There are no great twists in plot or anything like that. Remember, this is an observation of Real Life and as you know, Real Life if rarely very exciting or fast, and even more rarely has any great twists in the plot. That is, if there is a plot at all. No, this is just a story of a bunch of people huddled together in a strange country and trying to survive, exposing themselves more than they have ever done before. You see, my generation has merely one ideology and that is individuality. Before anything they want to assert their being and therefore rarely belong to large groups and even if they do they prefer to inhabit some obscure sub-corner within that group rather than going up in it. Individuality is the keyword here, as I will show you.
This individuality manifests itself in many forms, but the most clear form of all is the rather visible, constant struggle to make it clear to anyone that they indeed are an individual. Let me explain this a little more by telling you a little of the story I�m going to relate to you. First of all let me introduce the characters in this story. If there is one thing that I dislike in many stories it is that many characters don�t have a name until the story is well underway. You always have to wait until you find out who�s who. Well, not here. In order of appearance the characters are:
Simon Flexible � the Main Character, so to speak. He is also the one who is not a typical example of my generation. Oh, he�s an individual alright, but that�s not the point. The point is that he does not try to make sure people see him as an individual, unlike the bulk of my generation, which henceforth I�ll label �Generation C� in honour of the one who inspired me to write about my generation, namely Douglas Coupland. Not that the C stands for Coupland, but I�m afraid that is one of the things that you�ll have to make out for yourself (hey, I�m not going to tell everything!).
Sebastian Faught � another of what might be called the �main cast of characters�. Sebastian is in many ways a typical example of my generation in that he is an egotist � he thinks of himself before thinking of others. Complacent might be a good word to use here, which also describes my generation quite well, next to individualistic. He is also a good example because he refuses to be a part of a larger whole, also because he needs to be �himself� (and thus fears that by being part of something bigger his individuality would be lost forever, a topic which I�ll also raise in a little while). Again, I will come back to these things in a little while.
Daphne Flypaper � third in the �main cast of characters� and all too typical in the sense of her being the epitome of self-preservational individualism. Rather than being an individual she tries to convince everyone she is an individual not through her actions, but through saying she is one. This might sound like an easy cop-out for me to illustrate my point, but all these characters, as well as all these events have really happened, which is also why I started about my powers of observation (you see, it isn�t so hard, really).
Yes indeed, despite all the odds this is basically a �true� story, insofar as any story can be true � this is my remarkable representation of that truth. A view of that truth which, by the end of this story I�m sure you�ll find agreeable, since, after all, as I have already stated, I am a good observer of other people and, moreover, I�m not bothered about generalisations as much as Generation C. It�s perfectly possible to generalise without doing any harm to the individual. If we can really speak of something like the individual in the first place. I mean, what is an individual? Someone who is a person, or rather, a Person. But aren�t we all? Then why does Generation C see such a need to express their individuality? Why do they need so much to make clear that they are an individual? Why is the need to be Someone so great? Is it the fin-de-siècle feeling, or rather, the end-of-the-millennium feeling that we have? Or is it purely the end result of the culmination of the multimedia flow of information we�ve been receiving over the past decade? Is the inundation in information so great that we keep having to assert ourselves as well as others that we are in fact existing as well? "Hello planet Earth, we�re also here! See us!!"
Lunacy, of course, but the popular feeling of this time appears to be that you are not alive until you�re Known to �the people�. When they see you and think: "Oh, that�s so-and-so," and not: "Oh, that�s a mod/rocker/ skinhead/student/housewife/etc." I have no doubt that the largest part of Generation C fantasise about them being the pinnacle of human civilisation, rubbing shoulders with the Great People of the Earth. In other words: that They Are Famous. That they can switch on the television and see themselves and say: "Look, I exist. I�m here. I�m an in-di-vi-du-al!" Or that they can pick up a book which has their name on the cover and say: "See, I�m being read. I exist. People know I�m alive."
Naturally, in the story to come, nobody will see themselves on television and nobody will see their name on the cover of any book. Neither will anyone be heard on the radio. No, they all have to struggle with their individuality on a much smaller, though by no means less significant, and certainly more arduous, scale. TV and radio and books make it easy to assert your individuality, but if you have none of these things to back you up, and nobody visits your oh-so-carefully-made homepage on the internet, and you don�t really stand out in any other way either, you have to make sure people see you as an individual simply by stating that you are one: "I am an individual." Hmm, perhaps a little less direct, like: "I don�t wish to be put in a bracket," or something like that.