Andy, Dag and Claire are in their twenties. Dissatisfied with society’s structures and expectations, they move to the Californian desert looking for new beginnings and more meaningful lives. To survive, the three get McJobs – “low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future jobs in the service sector” – only finding solace in each other’s company and storytelling.
This is the plot of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, the first novel by Canadian writer and artist Douglas Coupland. Published 30 years ago, Generation X went on to become a cult text and helped to popularise the term “X” for those born between the mid-1960s and the early-1980s.
Tales for an Accelerated Culture from Douglas Coupland – Novelist, Visual Artist and Graphic Designer
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian author who is credited with popularising the terms ‘Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture’ and ‘McJob’ in his 1991 novel, Generation X. He grew up in a Canadian military family and went on to study science at university before finally studying art at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, then at the Design Institute in Italy and the Hokkaido College of Art and Design in Japan.
He became a writer ‘accidentally’ when a skin condition forced him to leave Tokyo. A friends husband offered him a writing position at a magazine and Coupland took up the work to pay his bills. In 1991, after two years of living in the Mojave Desert, Coupland published Generation X. The novel struck a chord and became a genuine phenomenon.