12-01-2021, 02:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2021, 02:44 PM by RELFantastic.)
(11-14-2021, 10:41 PM)galaxy Wrote:(10-16-2021, 09:27 AM)RELFantastic Wrote: A fictional character that is Gen Katniss is Gregg Heffley (b.1998) from Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Where are you getting that 1998 date? I've actually thought about this book (it was mentioned on another forum I post on, and I began wondering what the exact setting was meant to portray), and here's my subjective impression:
Time and place: East Coast USA, late 1990s. Which makes sense, as the author began writing it in 1998. I've also heard that the fictional setting of the book is loosely based on a small town somewhere along the MA/RI border.
Characters and generational analysis:
Rodrick (in high school, can drive, guessing 17 for age) is clearly Generation X (mostly ignored by parents, "juvenile delinquent" sort of vibe)
Greg (in middle school, guessing 12-13 for age) seems like a bit X/Millennial borderline
Manny (is 3, the only character with an explicitly stated age) doesn't have much characterization beyond a generic "obnoxious little kid" personality, but is very protected and pampered by the parents, fitting with the dramatic tightening in child nurture characteristic of a 3T.
So we can guess their birth dates as roughly 1994-95, 1985-86, and 1980-81.
The parents have no clear age indicators, but if we assume they're about 40, that puts them in 1958, Boomer/X borderline, which feels about right.
You know, after writing this...is there anyone who would be interested in a thread where people can post generational analyses of literature and film? I've become interested in doing it lately, because I just keep seeing the saeculum in everything. I think I posted a few months ago about Voyagers, a movie that has an extremely cliche and unoriginal story (basically "Lord of the Flies in space, and also sexy") and countless plotholes, but that also shows an extremely clear progression through a saeculum, traversing five turnings from High to High. It's so clear and obvious that if I didn't know better I would wonder if the director was basing it on T4T.
I also read Genesis for a college class I'm in (it's not a religious class, it's about "new beginnings" in stories), and saw it there too. Adam and Eve start off living in a 1T (life is very easy, there is a lot of doing and very little thinking or feeling), enter a 2T after eating the fruit (they become "awakened" after eating it), then enter a 3T (a great deal of thinking and feeling, but physical life becomes hard) after they are expelled from the garden. I actually wrote an essay on this progression (though obviously I didn't use any obvious T4T language in it).
S+H weren't kidding when they talked about how deeply embedded it is into human society.
The actor who plays Gregg Hefley in the 2010 Diary of a Wimpy Kid film, Zachary Gordon, was born in 1998.
Though a thread based on generational analysis of film and literature could be interesting. I have also thought about that before with how generational archetypes can work with film, literature, and even gaming.