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Disappear Here: Violence after Generation X
Generation X, comprised of people born between 1960 and 1980, is a generation with no Great War or Depression to define it. Dismissed as apathetic slackers and detached losers, Xers have a striking disregard for the causes and isms that defined their Boomer parents. In Disappear Violence after Generation X , Naomi Mandel argues that this characterization of Generation X can be traced back to changing experiences and representations of violence in the late twentieth century.
Examining developments in media, philosophy, literature, and politics in the years Xers were coming of age, Mandel demonstrates that Generation X’s unique attitude toward violence was formed by developments in home media, personal computing, and reality TV. This attitude, Mandel contends, is key to understanding our current world of media ubiquity, online activism, simulated sensation, and jihad. With chapters addressing both fictional and filmic representations of violence, Mandel studies the work of Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Claire Messud, Jess Walter, and Jonathan Safran Foer. A critical and conceptual tour de force, Disappear Here sets forth a new, and necessary, approach to violence, the real, and real violence for the twenty-first century.
Examining developments in media, philosophy, literature, and politics in the years Xers were coming of age, Mandel demonstrates that Generation X’s unique attitude toward violence was formed by developments in home media, personal computing, and reality TV. This attitude, Mandel contends, is key to understanding our current world of media ubiquity, online activism, simulated sensation, and jihad. With chapters addressing both fictional and filmic representations of violence, Mandel studies the work of Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Claire Messud, Jess Walter, and Jonathan Safran Foer. A critical and conceptual tour de force, Disappear Here sets forth a new, and necessary, approach to violence, the real, and real violence for the twenty-first century.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published July 28, 2015
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November 30, 2019
This was an incredibly moving book. I write on Generation X. My book - From Revolution to Revelation - is cited by Mandel. It is a precious book for me. Therefore, this revisiting and revisioning of Generation X is potent, unsettling and - strangely - empowering.
I felt refreshed at the conclusion of the book. Mandel has written a theoretically considered book. The argument about Generation X and violence is carefully developed.
But for me what makes this book delicate and memorable is how the spaces of disappointment, disillusionment and despair are filled by some hope that maybe - maybe - this time power can be deployed differently. Maybe - through the catastrophe of mediocrity that has been the trope of Gen Xers - changes can be made. We've seen the horror. We know.
Maybe we can take that next step and be the change we want to see.
I felt refreshed at the conclusion of the book. Mandel has written a theoretically considered book. The argument about Generation X and violence is carefully developed.
But for me what makes this book delicate and memorable is how the spaces of disappointment, disillusionment and despair are filled by some hope that maybe - maybe - this time power can be deployed differently. Maybe - through the catastrophe of mediocrity that has been the trope of Gen Xers - changes can be made. We've seen the horror. We know.
Maybe we can take that next step and be the change we want to see.
Displaying 1 of 1 review