Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction

by Lisa Chamberlain

Overview

Generation X grew up in the 1980s, when Alex P. Keaton was going to be a millionaire by the time he was thirty, greed was good, and social activism was deader than disco. Then globalization and the technological revolution came along, changing everything for a generation faced with bridging the analog and digital worlds. Living in a time of "creative destruction" -- when an old economic order is upended by a new one -- has deeply affected everyday life for this generation; from how they work, where they live, how they play, when they marry and have children to their attitudes about love, humor, happiness, and personal fulfillment. Through a sharp and entertaining mix of pop and alt-culture, personal narrative, and economic analysis, author Lisa Chamberlain shows how Generation X has survived and even thrived in the era of creative destruction, but will now be faced with solving economic and environmental problems on a global scale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306817601
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/25/2008
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	899 KB

About the Author

Lisa Chamberlain is a regular contributor to the New York Times and the executive director of the Forum for Urban Design. Her writing has also appeared in Salon, New York magazine, and the New York Observer. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of a Village Voice -- owned weekly paper. She lives in the East Village in New York City. Please visit her blog at http://slackonomics.com/

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction: Bridging the Analog and Digital Generations     1
My Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades     9
The Outliers     21
Cunt     33
I'm a Loser, Baby, So Why Don't You Pay Me     43
WhatGoesUp.com     55
Funny Weird or Funny Ha-Ha?... Hey, Why Limit Yourself!     65
Gonna Get Me Some Happy     81
Friends: The Newish New Thing     95
Love: Is It Real or Is It Memorex?     107
The Breeders     131
Suburbia: A Tangent Universe     145
"It's the End of the World as We Know It, and I Feel Fine ..."     161
Convergence     171
Notes     189
Bibliography     199
Index     203

Editorial Reviews

Freelance writer Chamberlain’s exploration of the social and professional choices of Generation X is a knowledgeable and well-written addition to the growing library of books devoted to the “alternative” generation. The author focuses primarily on the way that the young men and women of the 1990s made their money, and does a nice job conveying the tough economic fortunes of the beginning of that decade and the creative and financial boom of the Internet’s early days, as well as the eventual fallout when it went bust. Chamberlain uses each chapter of the book to address a specific aspect of the generation in question, often using a combination of cultural touchstones and sociology books to illustrate her point; a chapter about Gen-X relationships ponders the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise and quotes extensively from Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage, a History. Often, the text is taken over by monologues from Gen-Xers themselves, who narrate their winding paths through the job market, usually ending in creative and relatively fulfilling jobs as a result of their ingenuity. While the book is full of interesting mini-arguments, including an entertaining takedown of Ethan Watters’s Urban Tribes, it doesn’t present a cohesive vision. Rather, it serves to illuminate the many disparate pockets of a group that continues to resist easy categorization.” 

The Yummy List e-newsletter
“Genius. Provocative. Wonderful,” 

Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Studded with insight into pop culture and today's turbulent society.”

BN.com’s Notable Reader
“A Suzy Orman for the Deconstructionist set, Chamberlain is witty, brainy, fabulous. A necessary addition to any collapsing IKEA bookshelf.”
 
Jacob S. Hacker, Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and author, The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream
“Slackonomics provides an engaging, informative, and surprisingly humorous tour through the booming, buzzing confusion of Gen-X economic life. Though a fellow Gen-Xer, I’d never thought of myself as part of a generation, but that’s Chamberlain’s big point: In an era of creative destruction, some of us are riding the up elevator while others are heading down—and the situation might be reversed next week.”
 

Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday and host of the radio show Studio 360
"Despite the fact that I was born during the Eisenhower Administration, I've always felt more a more natural kinship with Generation X than with my own cohort. And now, just as Gen Xers are (ha!) entering middle age, Lisa Chamberlain’s smart, enterprising and entertaining book has helped me understand some of the reasons why—as well as why I tend to be 51% hopeful about America, notwithstanding our current collective confusion.”
 
Zephyr Teachout
“This book is incredibly easy to read, and full of interesting observations and theories. Reading it is like sitting through five courses at a great dinner party—a Gen X dinner party—full of confused and brilliant friends, full of the insights and insecurities of the peculiar demographic of middle class kids who came of age in the 70s and 80s, and can’t stop coming of age. It reflects seriously on the economic challenges faced by a chaotic, and fundamentally romantic, group of Americans.”
 
Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher