“It was in retrospect, a remarkably easy time to be alive. There were still nuclear weapons, but there was not going to be a nuclear war. The internet was coming, but reluctantly, and there was no reason to believe that it would be anything but awesome.”
―
Chuck Klosterman
The Nineties
//
This book was awesome to read. A child of the nineties now has a book that accurately captures the feeling of that era. I found myself nodding at various sections, and then I laughed at having taken this book a little too seriously. But well, it is really nice to chuckle at the caricature of a person who absorbed too much of the 90s vibe – progressive but not too much; hopeful but not too optimistic. And oh, the days of being a nobody, with no pressure to be on brand, to even have a personal brand…
//
“The enforced ennui and alienation of Gen X had one social upside: Self-righteous outrage was not considered cool…. If you weren’t happy, the preferred stance was to simply shrug and accept that you were unhappy. Ambiguous disappointment wasn’t that bad.”
“No stories were viral. No celebrity was trending. The world was still big. The country was still vast. You could just be a little person, with your own little life and your own little thoughts. You didn’t have to have an opinion, and nobody cared if you did or did not. You could be alone on purpose, even in a crowd.”