Thomas de Zengotita - Y: The Next Generation

Meet Gen-Y, the first generation to come of age in the new millennium. Some of the ingredients in their mix: one part over-romanticized-yet-still-revered 60s, one part cynicism due to repeated betrayal of public trust by public figures, one part innate urge to make a significant contribution anyway. Blend into a world containing more knowledge than it's possible to absorb and bake.

It might sound hard to swallow but that's how it is for this postmodern generation. They are bound by conflicting forces: wanting to believe yet fearful of being misled or betrayed; craving some kind of social upheaval through which they might play a part in history but frustrated by the lack of circumstances to exploit.

In this fresh, spontaneous, and genuine conversation, twenty-something EnlightenNext editor Maura O'Connor and NYU professor Thomas de Zengotita unravel some of the causes behind the affects. As their inquiry deepens, new pathways to meaning and maturity for a whole generation begin to emerge.

BIO

Thomas de Zengotita is a contributing editor at Harper's magazine. His work has been acclaimed for turning irony—the postmodern posture of apathy and disengagement—into a powerful call for us to engage more deeply with the human dilemmas of our globalizing yet fragmented world. He teaches at The Dalton School and at the Draper Graduate Program at New York University. He holds a B.A., M.A, and Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University.

His essays include “The Romance of Empire” in Harper's, July 2003; “Common Ground” in Harper's, December 2002; a profile of Hell's Angel Sonny Barger in Shout, April 2002; “The Numbing of the American Mind” in Harper's, April 2002; “World World; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blob” in Harper's, July 2000; “Geometry” in John Brockman (ed.), The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2,000 Years, (Simon and Schuster, 2000); “The Gunfire Dialogues” in Harper's, July 1999; “Irony, Celebrity and You” in The Nation, December 2, 1996; and “On Wittgenstein's 'Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough'” in Cultural Anthropology (April 1993).

Zengotita's most recent book is Mediated: The Hidden Effects of Media on People, Places, and Things (Bloomsbury, 2005). His fiction includes “Hannah's Birthday,” which is forthcoming in Fiction, and “The Other Side,” which appeared in Logos, Summer 2003.