I'd make jokes about "Logan's Run"...

[sergebroom]

I'm going thru the most recent issue of Locus, which has an interview with writer John Barnes. Talking about the younger generation, he says:

"...They also seem clearly oriented toward the small, tight group of friends; there's much more of the in group/out group difference..."

He then goes on to this:

"...if you're going to sell to people under 30, don't stress 'You are an individual, you are unique' too much, because to a lot of people that registers as, 'You don't have any friends,' which is to say, 'You're a loser'..."

I'd make jokes about "Logan's Run" at this point, except that, if this is true, I'm more glad than ever that I am not that age any more.

Comments

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

It's a generational difference, Serge. My father believed that conformity and keeping your head down were a proper strategy for life (he chided me for having done some work on the radio, saying 'People are listening to you!' (He was deeply disturbed when people mentioned hearing my voice on the air, he felt I was putting myself in danger by being so prominent -- it was doing vox pops for a programme run by a friend of mine).

In Logan's Run, if I recall correctly, the cut-off age was 21.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

It's a generational difference...

That'd seem to confirm that human progress is two steps forward, one step back. I wonder where the source of conformity comes from this time around. For the older generation, it probably was World War Two, but what is it now? Have nearly six years of the post-9/11 world where 'they' kept trying to keep us constantly afraid actually make it into the minds of the younger generation? I'm just speculating, as I don't have to deal with late-teens anymore.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

For my parents' generation, it was the Depression more than the war (I grant you, in my mother's case the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath had something to do with it).

Now, I think, it has something to do with reacting to the assertive individualism of the 60s and 70s.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

(I am speechless.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Why?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Because they make me angry. It's like people who brag about being Conservatives, when they benefit from freedoms achieved thru the work of others.

(So much for my being speechless.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

As for Logan's Run... My understanding, not having read the novel, is that 21 was indeed the cutoff age. I was thinking more of the movie version, with its 'interesting' take on the Sixties's "Don't trust anybody oer thirty". (By the way, Bryan Singer is involved in a remake where they'll go back to the novel's 21-year-old cutoff.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That should be worth seeing.

I haven't seen the film. I read the novel at 17. About the right age for it, I think.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Well, it'd certainly be better than the 1976 movie, one of those things that, in spite of its big budget, managed to come off as cheesy. Then again, one could say that about quite a few movies of the Seventies.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's true.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That is so true.

[(Anonymous)]

76 was a good year, being when I was born. :-)

According to the Chinese calendar, it was the year of the Dragon, although, since the year didn’t start till 1/30/76, I was really born during a Rabbit year (1/28).

Regardless, being in my shoes, it’s damn difficult being near the 30-cutoff. Look at what the media shoves my way: Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise, cars and mortgages I can’t afford, career advancement limitations (regardless of my experience, which is twice that of many people my age), a body that’s starting to develop unfortunate tics and ailments (I’ve had annual a colonoscopies since my 20’s, as previously mentioned, a bilateral laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair last week, et al), too old to date a 25 year old (not that I’d want to), too young to date a 40 year old (which I’d love to)... the list goes on. Look what my parents shove my way: “When I was your age I was on my second kid, my third house, and closing in on a promotion to VP of whateverthehell.”

I’m actually looking forward to 35, when I’ll be taken more seriously in the corporate world; by slightly older professional ‘peers’ who are convinced, due to being a half or full generation older, that I couldn’t possibly relate to them; when 45 year old women would consider dinner and a drink; when more people will address me properly (I’m a little old fashioned that way - I expect to be addressed as ‘Mr. Scorby’ by people that I have yet said “Please, call me ‘Bob’.”), etc.

What’s my point? I don’t know... I read what you write, about people 10 years younger than you saying asinine things like “Oh, yes, I’ve seen punchcards – in a museum” and the like, and I grow more and more frustrated by being at this unfortunate cutoff age. We’ve spoken frankly offline, and I know that you don’t hold my age against me, but the American culture (whatever the American ‘culture’ is) does, and it plain sucks.

That’s all… I’m not getting my point across… maybe I’ll be better able to when I grow up. ;-)

-Scorby

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

The late Herb Caen once said:
"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."

From what my wife diplomatically said to me, I think I'll always be young at heart. That is one thing that I can do something about. Of course that's easy to say when one has a good health.