Comments on: Burying The Lead

By: Joan Kelly

Joan Kelly — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 02:07:43 +0000

I am old enough to have trouble remembering what I wrote a few ‘Squares back, but thank you! And I’m 38.

By: Booksquare

Booksquare — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 04:29:26 +0000

The one white man (and by white, I mean, well, white) in the BS household accepts your presumed apologies. So many things define a generation, and the more I look around me, I find it’s hard to define a peer group, much less a generation. My mother was old when she was my current age — but she was also the coolest person my friends ever knew. Moreso than me. It strikes me as funny that we are clinging to the voice of a generation as a zeitgeist. But I’m old.

Which leads to Lorra’s comment.

None of us (except Susan and me, but that’s because she celebrated the latest b-day with me last week) know how old the other person is. And even if we discover that Joan’s a mere child (I know, I know), does that change her life experience or Lorra’s response to her experience? Generation is like time.

And, yeah, old age makes me all weepy and nostalgic.

PS – Joan, I though I commented, but I only laughed. Your response several ‘Squares ago about, er, self-punishment was right on the mark.

By: Lorra Laven

Lorra Laven — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:25:50 +0000

Adventures or misadvantures that we call “defining life experiences” can happen at any age, although the longer we live, the more likely it is that we will have one or more of these run-ins with fate.

Expressing those experiences in writing is another matter all together. I believe the more years we spend on this earth, the more we understand the interactions, be they good or evil, between human beings. Isn’t that what most books are about?

By: Joan Kelly

Joan Kelly — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:10:55 +0000

Thanks for making the point about how hard it is to define an actual generation, let alone for one white man to speak for it. No hard feelings to one white man.

By: SusanGable

SusanGable — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:53:32 +0000

Yeah, forty is the new thirty, dammit! (g)

Personal favorite youthful author: S.E. Hinton. That was a voice of a generation. And since my 14-year-old son, the non-reader, just read and loved one of her books in school, her stuff also speaks to the new generation.