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Nathan Rabin: Why Gen X Is Super Media-Literate

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Nathan Rabin wrote, “I am a professional forgetter.” Trash Joy. It is my responsibility to keep this in mind, not only for myself but also for the sake of society.

Rabin really is taking a win for this team, particularly since his book correctly calls itself the “definitive Guide to the Very Worst of Everything.” He also explains the bizarre and false 1971 lifestyle guide of Joan Crawford, Academy Award winner actress. My Way of LifeThe misbegotten Brady Bunch Variety HourThis improbably featured many “water ballet” routines as well as endless dad jokes. Robert Evans was a drug-addicted film producer who produced the 1981 anti-drug TV Special. Take a high view of yourselfThe entire billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign for 2020.

Rabin was head writer It A.V. Club for two decades and the inventor of the popular-but-controversial term “Manic Pixie Dreamgirl” to describe a recurring film character who “exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” Now he runs his website. Nathan Rabin’s Happy PlaceHe also hosts the podcast “World of Culture”, in which he sorts through all kinds cultural detritus with endless energy and wit. He co-hosts Travolta/CagePodcast about the “greatest actors of history”

Rabin, 45 years old talks to Nick Gillespie on how Gen X influences his love for consumer culture and his criticisms of it. He explains that his generation learned early through D.A.R.E. It is clear from the TV that many adults, as well as other authorities, were lying. He says Gen X was born in 1990, a period when technology believed it would solve all problems. This optimism was severely tested by 9/11 and the bursting tech bubble. “IHe says that satire, rony, and comedy can bring light to very dark situations. It is also very therapeutic to be able laugh at something you shouldn’t laugh at or to have a good time laughing about dark things.

Rabin also discusses how musician Grimes, who had a widely covered relationship and two children with billionaire Elon Musk, is reclaiming—or perhaps satirizing—the manic pixie dream girl trope and why Weird Al Yankovic, the subject of a good deal of his writing, has had a career far longer than most of the people he parodies.

You can watch the video of this interview by clicking here.

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Reason.com first published the post Nathan Rabin – Why Gen X is Super Media Literate