The Liminal Generation?

As someone who tends to become infatuated with words, I recently developed something of an obsession with the word "liminal," which means on the border, threshold or emerging. Liminal was first used by anthropologists to describe rituals where someone was in between different stages, as in a ceremony initiating a child into adulthood. During the ceremony, the person was in a liminal state, no longer a child, not yet an adult. The word has since taken on a more general appeal.

It has even more recently occurred to me that I, along with quite a few other people, belong to a liminal generation. I have doubts if this will catch on, but I actually think that it's a pretty good description of people born at the end of the Baby Boom generation or very early in so-called Generation X. The Baby Boom Generation usually refers to those born 1946-1964, while Generation X is a bit hazier, but the years I've seen most often are 1965-1982.

In this context, liminal is similar to the astrological term "cusp," as in someone born on the cusp of Pisces and the next sign, Aquarius. Given this rather vague definition, anyone born near the cusp of two generations could claim this liminal status. Yet, there are several factors that make me think this particular cusp is unique in its liminality. For one thing, how many generations have actually been named? The Baby Boom is by far the most widely known name for a generation. Perhaps this is due to a quality often attributed to the members of this generation -narcissism. Actually, the term was originally just a literal description of a time period when lots of babies were born. The cultural connotations, both positive and negative, came later.

Once the Baby Boomers became a discrete group of people with a whole set of alleged values, preferences, virtues and vices , other generations suddenly needed to be identified. The first name that was proposed was Baby Bust, to identify the decline in births around the mid-60s.

But when author Doug Coupland came out with his quirky novel, Generation X, the post-Baby Boom generation suddenly had, not only a name, but a distinct identity all its own. I recall reading that Coupland got the idea for the name from another book, called Class, by Paul Fussell (quite an insightful and entertaining study), who was not talking about generations but socio-economic classes. Fussell spoke of an elusive Class X, somewhat akin to bohemians, who defied ordinary classifications (such as middle class, upper class, etc.). Coupland's Generation X, however, was destined to become far more widely known than Fussell's Class X.

The characteristics of Generation X (one again, allegedly), are in many ways a reaction against the Baby Boomers. This is, after all, the normal state of things. The rebellious Boomers launched the Counterculture of the 1960s, reacting against their conservative parents. Gen Xers did not atavistically return to 1950s conservatism, but adopted a more ironic, detached approach to life than their more idealistic and naive Boomer elders. The Simpsons television show is probably the epitome of Generation X attitudes, at least if we go by the stereotype.

On another side note, the parents of the Boomers have also gotten a name of sorts, an almost absurdly flattering one,"The Greatest Generation," based on Tom Brokaw's book by the same name, which pays homage to the generation that survived the depression and fought the Second World War. While hardly used with the same frequency as Boomer or Gen X, this virtually impossible to live up to title has caught on.

This brings us to the main topic, the Liminal Generation. True to the vagueness inherent in anything liminal, I will not try to put precise dates on this non-generation. However, it refers to people who may be technically Boomers, but too young to have really participated in the requisite formative experiences of that generation; or Gen Xers, but a little too old to fit neatly into that category.

I was in elementary school in the late 60s. So, yes, I'm a Boomer, but as a seven-year-old, I wasn't quite ready for Woodstock. The Moon landings are a similarly dim memory. To go back even further, I was alive -just barely- when Kennedy was shot, but, unlike older Boomers, I have no recollection of that event. I lived through the Vietnam War, but I had no worries about being drafted.

I was a teenager when disco was the biggest musical craze. Though I cannot remember anyone who admitted to liking disco, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and John Travolta filled the airwaves in the mid to late 70s. And this was when people still listened to the radio, even AM.

I just missed being brought up around personal computers. I used my first PC in college, in the 80s. This is a rather significant dividing line between Liminals like myself and bona fide Xers. Younger members of Gen X were still in their teens when the internet became widespread, around the the mid-90s. You have to be Generation Y (named for obvious reasons; I won't even get into them much here) or younger to have grown up around cell phone culture.

Even though 70s nostalgia is ubiquitous now, the actual mid-70s to around the mid 80s was in many ways a murky and pessimistic era. After Watergate we had high inflation, rising crime rates in the big cities and an ever-present Cold War. The idealism of the 60s had faded away and the prosperity (if only apparent and short-lived) of the 90s had not yet arrived.

To really generalize now (generationalize?), if the decade most associated with the Boomers is the 60s, and the 80s belongs to Gen X, that leaves the 70s for the Liminals. It's interesting how this decade gets so much attention in contemporary culture, from oldies radio stations to movies, especially since the generation it belongs to most has not even been named -till now, that is!

In many ways, the Liminal Generation I am proposing is most notable for qualities it does not possess and experiences it missed. Would this make Limbo Generation a more apt moniker? (alas, that sounds too close to the Lost Generation, which has already been used).

More than any specific event or trend from which I feel estranged compared with Boomers or Xers is an overall sense of not belonging to either (or perhaps any) group. While I share some of the ideals of the more stereotypical Boomers, I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes when I hear one of them speaking reverently about this or that protest or concert. Get over it, the world did not end in 1970! On the other hand, I've always felt a little behind the curve when faced with the rapid-fire pace of MTV and rave culture and beyond. A mere glance at Wired Magazine gives me eyestrain.

One of the things I am indirectly trying to get across here is the fundamental silliness of the whole generation-labeling gimmick. Let's be honest here. Many Baby Boomers were quite conservative, not even close to being 60s radicals; lots of Xers are irony-challenged; and, sad as it may be, not everyone who came of age in the 40s was great. Or maybe it's just that, being a Liminal, I have a problem with labels and definitions.