GENERATION X
Rare first printing of the '60s youth culture guide that named a generation by mistake.
Near fine in very good jacket.
Price: $450.00
GENERATION X
"If there's time you might do a sequel to this book and call it Generation Z — for zero."
GENERATION X, a book published in 1964, owned by Billy Idol's mother, and the consequent inspiration for his first band's name, is not about Generation X. Of course it isn't. Why would it be? Why should the miserablest generation get anything of their own, even a collective label, that hasn't been handed down or worn out by their elders first?
But then again...isn't it? "Today's generation talking about itself" blooms eternal. Selective quotation is the most refined form of cruelty, and this earnest English survey of early '60s youth is cruelly if unintentionally applicable to all those later generations which like least to be reminded of Baby Boomers' erstwhile humanity. One batch of self-involved teens is much like another, if you want to be mean about it. "Where's it all going to end, this business of living?" moans one teen of yesteryear. "Old people accuse us of wallowing in self-pity," notes another, accurately. "Being a juvenile delinquent is normal, but being a middle-aged delinquent is squalid and degrading," claims a third arrogant young whippersnapper who may, or may not, have aged by now into an elderly delinquent with a more sophisticated perspective on such things. Middle-aged delinquency is the special province of the real Generation X, whose members can proudly say that it's not squalid at all and only a little bit degrading.
Some consolations may be found, for those Gen-Xers who enjoy the pleasant sensation of superiority to their parents and older siblings: for one thing, the youth of 1964 lived in a world more pervasively and profoundly sexist than the world of just a decade later, and at least half of them actively enjoyed it. For another, "Being middle class is the most degrading thing in youth," said one Youth who never had nor heard of real problems. Perhaps most outrageously, "I have a good job, good friends, a wonderful family...What more could I want?" Inner contentment, a healthy social circle, and job security — from a 19-year-old. How dared he?
In the end, Deverson and Hamblett come to a conclusion as dreary as it is true, probably: "Every new Generation X has the same problems and they can only be solved by growing up." Sure, whatever.
The Object
First edition. London: Anthony Gibbs & Phillips Ltd, (1964). 7'' x 4.5''. Original textured burgundy paper boards with "33" stamped in gilt to front board. In original unclipped (9/6) dust jacket. Illustrated with four pages of black-and-white photographic images. 192 pages. Light soil, edge scuffing, and small chip to lower edge of front jacket panel.
The Fine Print
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