The Return of the Lost Generation
Written By: jonny.gotham
Date: April 11, 2009
Comments: 0
”One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits… All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again.“
- Ecclesiastes 1:5
What is it to be a Lost Generation? Part victory, part defeat, and an expectation to achieve without outlet for inner passion. After the first World War, a group of notable expatriate writers and poets collected themselves in Europe, disenchanted by what the States had become in its post-war manifestation. In a way, they fled. They fled to foreign soil with notions of cosmopolitan culture to experience that “joie de vivre,” escaping a life void of art and meaning, and searching for something greater.
Among these Lost, we found the likes of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, two of American Literature’s finest writers who would present us with characters that would stand the test of eternity. Characters that stood paramount among their peers, and while others were full with jealousy and envy, they starved for far simpler human needs that life would fail to provide them.
While life today is far less whirling and divine in image than those of the 1920’s, I cannot help but wonder if we are on a brink again. Ancestors have past on the greatest of inventions and opportunity to us, however our compasses seem off, while our priorities and aims appear to lack their greatest need, passion. We find our verve was left back in the 80’s and 90’s — a distant memory by now, and in the face of our future there is a want for purpose that we can neither quantify nor describe. Even with economic crisis — it is a problem to be fixed, but not the entire war of our lifetime. The greater picture of meaning remains unpainted, and while the need for a generational purpose still exists, one can’t help but ask, “Why?”
In the absence of such calling, one might venture to flee as they had. Foreign countries, solemn woods, the skies or the seas. The problem though, is that while we have distinctly unique societies and cultures anthropologically, the divide of distance, language, and understanding narrows more and more with each generation, and with that, we come to recognize the fact that we have, in a way, shared a global consciousness all along. If we can see that, then there remains nowhere to run off to — no cosmopolitan Paris to get lost in or festivals in Spain to gain further life insight from. We merely have a world that we all share space in, and no one truly knows any more or better than anyone else.
Inescapably now, that still leaves us lost. We are however, part of a much greater entourage this time around. I like to think that by talking, creating, and sharing, we slowly find the spirit to place our marks on the canvas, and draw purpose from our collective experience.
With this new volume of GOTHAM.BLACK, I’ve decided to try recruiting talented writers and creatives to share their outbursts of knowledge and opinion. You’ll see a greater variety of projects and styles (hopefully), and it is my sincere hope that while entertaining your, the BLACK will also incite you to join the discussion and participate in its mini community.
With that, I am happy to present you with GOTHAM.BLACK, Volume 4, and here’s to a new Lost Generation…