And here's the Boom

The next chapter that came up in The Work of Poetry is a great example of generational exclusivity. Maybe I'm in the minority, reading John Hollander's The Work of Poetry in my twenties, but I can't think of any reason aside from demographic assumptions for him to include a brief reflection on his poetic generation in his book about poetry. Once again, I find little to relate to.

But, reading it was sort of negatively useful. I didn't relate to any of what he wrote in it directly, because I'm not American and not a poet from his generation. However, reading from the perspective of a person who is both of those things really showed me who I am as a poet. Nonetheless, his talking of his generation kind of miffed me in a broader way. For it really smacks to me of the ideology of Baby Boomers.

I have nothing against baby boomers as individuals. My parents are among them, some of the coolest people I know and most of my favourite writers/artists/musicians/game developers are all Boomers. But their collective philosophy as a generation bothers me. It seems too self-congratulatory, as if they're extra eager to hand off the world to the next generation so that they can excuse themselves from the state they've left it in.

Yet, at the same time, it might be more accurate to say that the construction of the Baby Boomers in things like the magazine Zoomer and this rash of movie franchise and theme revivals from the 70s and 80s we're in is what annoys me. 

Though that subject of my agitation is no less related to some of the things that the boomers have done on a society-wide scale since these constructions are reactions to anxieties about my generation - a whole mob of people who refuse or are unable to follow the life-script of the boomers (and those who came before): Move out from your parent's house, get a salaried/sustainable job (with or without a post-secondary education), get a car, start a family, coast.