A book delves into the emotional references that marked the generation born between 1965 and 1980

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What is Generation X? Does it have anything to do with the boomers ? Are millennials at the point of their existence? What is left, beyond a few mythical soundtracks, the memories and battles that always appear at every dinner and endless folders lined with photos of idols most desired? The shared imaginary is a sign of identity in the DNA of the generations, and in the case of X this imaginary is more present, more evoked, more longed for than any other. Nostalgia? Why not? A feeling outlawed for those who do not tolerate it, the staunch presentists. For years, Núria Pérez has been diving into the emotional hemispheres that make up the distinctive features of the generation born between 1965 and 1980. First with the successful podcast Gabinete de curiositiesand now with Gabinete X. A journey through the stories and objects that built a generation (Planeta). It is a book of stories that explores visual, audiovisual, musical, aesthetic and conjectural references, clothing, urban iconography, etc. that characterized the youth that formed his consciousness and imagination during the second half of the seventies and all of the eighties, approximately. References? Well, many. The walkman , the portable device for listening to cassettes. The telephone booths, so characteristic and today being demolished by the imperialism of mobile telephony. The music of Nirvana. The video clubs. The first rudimentary video games, from the Atari and Spectrum to the Super Nintendo, or so.


"On the one hand, nostalgia is inevitable because it is linked to childhood, a time full of happy moments and free from worries. It happens in all generations. We've all heard our parents and grandparents talk about their youth. Now it's up to us, and soon it will be up to our children." But he immediately adds: "Remembering youth fondly does not necessarily mean that it is the best time of our lives." "For me, for example, I would have loved to grow up today, with the amount of information available to us, the ease of travel..." For the author, it is not a slab or similar belonging to the last analog generation, quite the opposite, is a privilege. And he gives examples: he started working when things were still slow, when searching for information took his time, when it was still necessary to exercise patience or ingenuity to find solutions. Everything was more tangible than now, and this generated more intense memories. This is wonderful.


Let's see the three keys of Generation X according to Pérez. First of all, the ability to adapt, because they were the first to have to adapt to the digital world. Secondly, the disenchantment, because they saw the periodic death of all the audiovisual widgets and gadgets that were sold as the eighth wonder of the world, such as the Betamax, the Floppy, the CD, the Laser Disc... And finally, creativity. You only have to think of the great number of looks , aesthetics, visual and musical modes experienced by Generation X: grunge , acid , fluoride , punk ... "We were wonderfully creative, I think, alongside others generations much more monothematic".


Do you detect indifference on the part of the so-called millennials? "No, on the contrary! I think we're even a bit trendy now. With series like Stranger things, for example. Or with the musical revival of many bands coming back or new bands reclaiming the music of those years, or the clothing stores you walk into and it feels like you're in Seattle in 1987!” In fact, he celebrates that his teenage daughters look up to themselves in those years and that they want to be " cool " like we tried before.


A very illuminating and eloquent example of how times have changed – for better or for worse, let everyone judge for themselves – that appears in one of the stories is the love story of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before of dawn (1995). Today it would be impossible to conceive as explained in Richard Linklater's legendary film - the first of a very X trilogy -: "We no longer pay the same attention to each other, we have a thousand distractions that distract us. From WhatsApp to social networks. Now we can go on a date knowing everything about the person we're going to meet just by looking at their Instagram.” Smashing right?