Talk:Lost Generation

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What about the Missionary Generation?

The one that came before the Lost Generation? (I called it that because the guy who invented the generation system did, it's also often called the Gay Generation because of the Gay 90s, old usage of the word).

The 1890s (Nifty 90s, Naughty 90s, or Gay 90s) were the first western decade to be noted for having a distinct culture flare and later getting a nostalgia period(1920s-1940s had a lot of theming around 90s Nostalgia you can find in media of the time), the Gay Generation was the one in their adulthood during the Nifty 90s, so them being included makes sense.

They were also the last generation with living members when the modern generaiton system was being created in the 90s. Jeanne Clement and Sarah Knauss were in this generation. So if you don't want to include all the iffier more obscure ones dating back to the revolution in the original version of the system this seems like the most organic starting point,

it was the first one with a distinct cultural decade in the Gay 90s(something used to define several later generations) and it was the oldest one with living members when the system was created.

2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:ACF8:1B60:2E3F:A554 (talk) 19:51, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You raised this once before, and my argument is still that the Missionary Generation is specific to Strauss–Howe generational theory and isn't used by sources other than Strauss and Howe. I would want to see independent sources before adding it. Dan Bloch (talk) 22:10, 10 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't that the one that started it?

Also I swore I saw it mentioned first in a bunch of old Youtube videos, so in my brain it's more common than the ones there, but that's anecdotal.

What isn't anecdotal is the Gay 90s/Nifty 90s being the first decade in modern history to have a noted distinct culture and vibe and a following nostalgia wave in the 20s-40s. That part is true, and coming of age during it is a huge part of the Missionary Generations identity, so that backs it up to some degree. 2604:3D09:1F80:CA00:7932:8A3D:C29E:B6AB (talk) 20:05, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Already in use in 1941

From this 1941 oped by Dorothy Thompson:

the generation which was either young or unborn at the end of the last war. This is as true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans as of Germans. It is the disease of the so-called “lost generation.”

Seems to go by a slightly different definition. Tuvalkin (talk) 13:02, 5 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Origin of Term "Lost Generation"

Neither Gertrude Stein nor Ernest Hemingway coined the term "Lost Generation" to refer to post-World War I young people. Its origin occurred during a trip she took in the French countryside in the early 1920's. Her car needed work, and she stopped at a remote garage. The young mechanic did a poor repair job. His old employer said to him in frustration, "You are all a lost generation." Hemingway took note of the phrase. He later used it as the epigraph for his novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Stein later described this sequence of events in her memoir The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Younggoldchip (talk) 13:52, 10 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]