What's your damage, Generation-X?

"Generation X is generally defined as those born from 1961 to 1981, which means – I can scarcely bring myself to type these words – that the first Gen-Xers turn 50 this year." -- Darragh McManus from Comment is free

Though I fall squarely in the middle of it, I've always hated the phrase "Generation-X." And up until now I've been avoid the deluge of articles about our entering middle-age and how we're not aging "gracefully."

(Given that the only real option is death, I'll take aging.)

But my contemporaries' unease with "turning into our parents" isn't what's bothering me; it's the entire generation-x zeitgeist and the nostalgia culture that come s with it.

I read a lot of nostalgia blogs, and even write for one in addition to this blog which I hope doesn't smack of too much "back in my day." I don't need to write yet another post about how nostalgia isn't universal, but gen-x nostalgia seems to be particularly limited to white, middle-class culture -- even when it's a sort of dropout culture of indie bands, over-education/underemployment, and a job that pays just enough to allow enough leisure time to read the hippest underground novel or lounge around in pajamas watching a marathon of Saved By the Bell. (Think every character Ethan Hawk has played as channeled by Chuck Klosterman.) It simply wasn't the reality for a lot of people, and its  nostalgia doesn't want to reflect that.