Generational Shifts in Fiction / Literature

I had an epiphany that I'm sure many of you have already had.

[DuncanMcCurdie]

I’d argue that the Harlem Renaissance was more of a Generational Shift and had a bigger impact on America than the Lost Generation did. Maybe not necessarily if you are just talking about literature but the whole of the movement with the jazz, blues, and performance arts too. Jazz became the American music culture that found mass appeal both in and outside of the US. Blues eventually evolved into Rock n Roll which was a massive cultural and generational shift. The literature helped pave the way for the civil rights movement that massively changed American society. Great video with a lot to think about.

[BobTheBookerer]

Ooh, this was a fascinating discussion and topic- it’s made me wonder when the shift will happen where I don’t ‘get’ the next wave of books. I’ve already started to see some books where there’s a slight gap for me.

Like you were saying about the post-WW1 generation and the current generation, I’ve been finding some very recent fiction fascinating for its detached irony and sarcasm as a response to the utter anxiety and confusion of being alive in the current moment as someone in their twenties or thirties, and facing financial insecurity, low work satisfaction, and terror around climate collapse.

This was brilliant, thank you!

[janethansen]

This reminds how Patricia Lockwood describes No One Is Talking About This as being a historical novel. It refers to a moment in time that perhaps won't feel relevant in another few years.

[MishelleLexi]

I'm still exploring previous generations and what was defining their style of writing but I can say that as a millenial, the things that effect my world view and art the most are:
1. Climate change is likely to large portions of the earth uninhabitable during my lifetime. I don't think there's any more pressing issue that will require a level of international cooperation that has never been seen before. Sorry to be a pessimist but I do not believe humanity have the insight to actually change in time to prevent mass disruption and extinction. Despite this, I still do everything I can on a personal level to be sustainable and cause the least amount of harm.
2. I have lived my entire life under neoliberal capitalism which I absolutely hate. All capitalism is, is a race to the bottom for the highest output of things for the least amount of money. It destroys any value except for some numbers in a spreadsheet. I can't tell you how much I resent money as a way of organising trade sometimes. Competition for jobs in my country drives down salaries making it hard to afford a normal life. (I am very fortunate and am fine, but I get upset for my fellow citizens, who are in a much worse position) Two full time salaries are needed to survive which brings me to the next point.
3. I can't have/don't want children. There's not a lot of room to have a family for millenials. The cost of childcare is more than my mortgage. With two of us working full time we wouldn't have enough time or energy to look after small children and give them a fullfilling childhood. And who would want to raise kids for a dying earth?
4. The internet. I love the internet and think it's done a net positive for society but it has fundamentally changed the human experience. Bo Burnham comes to mind "Can I interest you in everything, all of the time?". There's so much information that it's hard to discern what is valuable and what isn't. It's amazing to find communities like booktube, and important (for me) to stay off places like Twitter where I can't chose whether the next thing I see is going to be a cute dog or a video of someone being assaulted by a police officer. The internet truly operated as a kind of Pandora's box - once you open it, you are exposed to daily atrocities all over the world, and I have has to disengage from this, as I can't take on the emotional weight, it genuinely immobilises me.
I could genuinely go on forever here and I could also include the following: minimalism vs consumerism, relearning history in the context of white settler colonialism, etc but I have to go to work now haha.

[alldbooks]

“My opinions is the same.” There’s our Brian! 😂🤣

[ramblingraconteur]

I always enjoy the videos where you share your own reflection, Brian. Thanks for this one. The relationships an individual has with society and close friends or family is absolutely a concern for each generation, and I agree that those shift across generations and allow for a comparison.

I think we can sometimes be too reductive in the sense of generational authors because they also so often represent a very particular background within their generations. I think of Faulkner or Nella Larsen in comparison with Fitzgerald and wonder who gives voice to those different experiences within the generation of millennials.

Great point in the dialogue in The Great Gatsby, though could we bring back the use of “sport”, sport? I did enjoy this reflection from you.

Hope you have a great weekend.
Cheers, Jack

[beatingaroundthebooks]

One of the traits I truly admire in you is your willingness to consider other perspectives. Really interesting discussion! I feel like some millennial fiction truly resonates with me, while I might already be slightly "too old" for others. Have not yet tried Sally Rooney, but I succumbed to the hype a few weeks ago and bought her latest novel.

[attention]

Even though the novel "Normal People" does not interest me as a story, and from what I have heard, I don't think it is something I would like, I would be interested in reading it for these reasons alone. You bring up a lot of good points, and now I am kind of interested in what it is others are reading into.

[myreadinglife]

I’m only here for the rants….so get to it!
Kidding of course. Another great discussion that I will have to ruminate on for awhile.

[KierTheScrivener]

I would agree with your accessment. I'm a few years younger and on a different continent but the way the characters have conversations and discuss seems very familar. I would say one of my favourite of the year is also an epitome of this. Luster by Raven Leilani. I was never drawn to books that involved any kind of adultery. But I've found in Luster and other books it can actually be an interesting dialogue between generations. The wife is aware in this and our narrator ends up having more of a relationship with her (the man is more of symbol than a character). The best thing it illustrates is the way in which trauma is weaved through women's lives and not necessarily spoken.

[mame-musing]

Your comments prompted me to travel through the misty memories of what was popular when I was a younger reader. What came to mind as similar to your description of “Normal People” (I haven’t yet read it) was Erich Segal’s “Love Story”. (Love means never having to say your sorry 😝?!?). During that pre-Internet time the book caught fire and sold millions of copies. The Ali McGraw/Ryan O’Neal movie was also super successful. Rich boy falls for poor girl, toss in terminal disease and there you go.
Younger readers who have not yet read broadly may not be so quick to recognize cliches and disparage a book as less worthy of their time because of that.

[MargaretPinard]

This is the first time I've felt myself moved marginally closer to reading Sally Rooney. They hype--it's too much! But good thoughts to consider, Brian <3

[bookofdust]

Funny you should mention generational shift for writers as I just started wondering something based on essays I read in Ann Patchett’s new collection “These Precious Days.” She talks about being approached to have her papers archived and responding to them that she has nothing at all to archive, as she writes all her works on computers and directly edits as she goes and never prints out different drafts. And I began to wonder if there is a noticeable generational shift from writers who worked on typewriters versus those that wrote on computers and if it is something that is reflected in the work. There may also be a whole generation of writers whose work is divided into a before after for that as well and I wonder if it’s noticeable to see it in their work? At the same time I feel that recently I read about a prominent writer who still writes in longhand on yellow legal pads, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a few outliers who still use a typewriter as well? How’s has this shaped literature if at all?

[CourtneyFerriter]

Great video, Brian! And I must say, I'm now very tempted to read Sally Rooney, as I have enjoyed a millennial fiction novel on occasion.

[SpringboardThought]

What a great video to see today. I don’t know if I was one of the people you’re referring to but I was very happy to see this rumination. I do think there’s codified trends in lit that capture generational thinking. And it’s fascinating to examine those along with the cyclical nature of humanity via history. Because it’s easy to dismiss them as just that generations disillusionment, when I think it does have a lot more to communicate than a very macro viewpoint.

I think it’s great you solidified your own thinking about your reading but remain open to what other people feel about it. Sometimes it’s hard for people to not be dismissive.

[MarilynMayaMendoza]

Hi Brian, as a bicultural woman, I feel generational shifts are more dependent on culture and social economic status.
I'll have to read Sally Rooney to have an opinion about her writing though. Aloha

[GunpowderFictionPlot]

Love this video, you've made a really satisfying observation. As somebody who loves Rooney much more than Fitzgerald or the Beats, maybe the same thing is true for me, I'm not making the effort to understand those authors views.

I must say that as a lay person, with no literary training past high school English (which I did poorly), I'm surprised that Rooney's writing comes in for criticism so much; what I judge writing on, the ability to effectively and efficiently communicate without boring, I think she's very talented; although she's clearly not trying to write beautifully.

[anotherbibliophilereads]

Authors are products of their time. There’s a historical prospective that make it easier for me to understand the Lost or Beat Generations than it is to fathom the Rooney Generation. I have a chance to be alive in 30 years and there will probably be another shift by then even more distant from what I know. Maybe as an 87 year old I could read it and understand.

[MarcNash]

If we're talking about generational change and particularly, the upcoming generation challenging what has come before, then we ought perhaps to acknowledge that up until now, this has all taken place within the publishing industry and therefore has relied on a few visionaries and mavericks within the industry who have given a platform to these emerging writers. One thinks of Editions Gallimard and the Beats, Shakespeare & Company fo Joyce's "Ulysses". Are there such visionaries and mavericks in the industry now? I believe far fewer, because the antiquated business model of publishing finally had to get with the times and is now led by sales and marketing departments rather than artistic editors. Therefore I ask myself are these emerging writers really challenging anything, or is seeming rebellion being packaged and sold profitably by publishers, as the Clash sang about in "Man In Hammersmith Palais"

[joreneereads]

It seems undeniable with all of the hype that Sally Rooney has certainly tapped into something that resonates. Not with meeee, but with people 😂 tangentially related, I do generally start to bristle at backlash against the popularity of something *especially* if it’s something that girls/young women like lol. People really hate to see girls liking things (pumpkin spice lattes, leggings, the Beatles, Sally Rooney, K-pop, on and on).