I was born the same year as McGinley, and don't particularly recognize his fantasy world as representing anything I would want said by some "voice of my generation". I know that media worry-warts like to complain about how today's late-20's, early-30's singles are permanent children (my god, they still play video games, and like being silly just for the heck of it!) but is there supposed to be some transformation, on the way to adulthood, that causes you to take on the idiotic view that people a generation younger than you are inherently a uniform, homogenous mass, rather than a group of diverse individuals with many opinions and ideas?

If so, thank god all us young'uns are stuck in permanent adolescence.

is there supposed to be some transformation, on the way to adulthood, that causes you to take on the idiotic view that people a generation younger than you are inherently a uniform, homogenous mass, rather than a group of diverse individuals with many opinions and ideas?

Lumping everyone in a generation into one large clump and labeling it sure beats the heck out of thinking -- wouldn't you agree?

It's kind of like the way some folks like to lump together all Democrats or evangelicals or poor people --

MaryAnn

If someone puts something together that speaks for any kind of large section of a "generation", then they can and will be called a "voice" of that generation. You will see as time goes by. Your "generation" will have certain themes running through it. You may represent an exception. But if there are enough like you someone will put something out that will speak some for your exceptional aspect. You will enjoy seeing it. Or it may never appear.

The group that comes in for the most abuse on this board (and loumping is generally involved in this abuse) is the Boom. but this nonsense about a "generational voice" was already a nostalgic item back during the peak years of boom culture. The generational voices we turned to were almost all novelists, with a couple poets (Ginsburg, Snyder) in the mix. The big change of the sixties (old poops like Hilton Kramer identify this with both socialism and cultural decay) is the arrival of the popular song as the more immedate, less metaphorical voice of a generation. But FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY?..................­..............................­................... This I do not get. There are plenty of interesting photographers around. This kid is not one of them. He's the photo equivalent of the doodlers and posers who are the current place-holders of art-school product. The point about that stuff is, it's accessory art. You can't make it (in either sense) if you're old or fat or ugly or black. It's cool-for-school art, for the post-burner mini-generation of emo ironists: the right art, the right clothes, the right hair.