You have lived a wonderful life.

You settled young and had several children in the suburbs. Maybe you’ve climbed the career ladder or built a thriving small business that’s vital to your community. You are not rich, but you are “comfortable”. Comfortable enough to send their kids to the prestigious private research universities they spent their formative years preparing for. You gave them the world the best way you know how, and there were sacrifices, sure – but when they leave for New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles with their diplomas in hand, you They felt confident of a ticket to a bigger and better life than you ever imagined for yourself, perhaps a little unfortunately.

So why are they so miserable now that they’re in their 20s?

Introducing Ross Muscamp, the protagonist of Matthew Davies’ debut novel let’s try again. Mascamp’s increasingly desperate plans to win back his ex-girlfriend create a unique parable of Gen Z’s self-imposed misery in the 21st century. When his doting parents die in a freak helicopter accident, Ross uses his newfound life insurance wealth to prove to his girlfriend that he’s the “normal adult” he always dreamed of being. (Click here to watch the Daily Caller documentary “Selling Sex”)

Davis paints an all-too-common psychological portrait of today’s disaffected youth for no real reason. Ross could be your son or grandson. He is a 23-year-old everyday person living in a modern, urban, hyper-online world. He knows very well how smart, insightful, and ambitious he is. These are all characteristics of a completely spoiled upbringing that should guarantee him a happy life. If a luxury New York City apartment is anything to go by, it’s exactly what he has in mind on paper. But he is stunted, dissatisfied, narcissistic and miserable, thinking he is special and not realizing that he is a product of a culture he so desperately wants to reject.

loss teeth Exceptional compared to others of his generation. He is meticulously organized, health-conscious, well-read, and has a practical career as a male nurse. He is better than his hard-partying girlfriend Laura, who he breaks up with at the beginning of the book in the hopes that she realizes the error of her ways and is ready to crawl out and accept a “mature” relationship. is also certainly wise. He mocks the aimless dandy she takes up instead. Though handsome and cool by modern standards, Ross correctly perceives him as a timeless “loser.” However, he is disillusioned with his options other than Laura. The slut you sleep with in reaction, the slutty office drone who takes off his pants after a cheesy themed date, the stand-in for today’s ubiquitous young girl boss.

The overall religious composition by generation is also relatively unchanged from the previous year.

For Millennials: 44% have nothing. 42% are Protestant or Catholic.

For Gen Z: 48.5% have nothing. 35% are Protestant or Catholic.

3/6 pic.twitter.com/Cp5Kczikqx

— Ryan Burge📊 (@ryanburge) April 3, 2023

In other words, although Roth does not fit into modern paradigms, he also rejects the bourgeois conventions of his parents’ generation. His beloved late parents had good intentions, but in his mind they were unsophisticated and country bumpkins. They only enjoyed “low culture” and didn’t even know how to invest in ETFs. Meanwhile, Ross is well invested and reads books such as: philosophy. He thinks he will be an exemplary mentor to his younger sister Emily, but is resentful when Emily discovers her own intellectual direction without him.

So who teeth loss? flat he I don’t understand.

Like many young people today, he’s obsessed with feeling like an adult, but he just pretends to know how. he think The answer lies in rejecting all the conventional trends around him and embracing his own neurotic form of histrionic maturity and pseudo-sophistication. However, this self-concept is completely negative. Caught in the idea of ​​being better than those he interacts with, he can only define himself. against something. It continually disappoints him (why can’t everyone realize how stupid they are and how properly “mature” I am?!), but it also means he desperately clings to identity, because what is the alternative? If he admits that his worldview is as unfulfilled, immature, and unsophisticated as everyone else’s, then perhaps he is not as special as he thinks. Probably.

So he pins all his hopes on Laura, thinking that getting her back will prove his sincere belief that he is right about everything. He wants to show her that she is mature enough to take him back, even if he hasn’t shown her that he wants maturity. In the end, all that matters are the lies he tells himself. Rather than actually trying to evolve, he resorts to superficial tricks to win her back. The thematic refrain of “Let Me Try Again” echoes with each failed plan, and he’s still the same nebbish Ross he’s always been, just in a different costume. Maybe his sister is right after all. He mocks her acceptance of Catholic doctrine, but at least she is rooted in Catholicism. something.

Ross’s ideas aren’t so far-fetched in the end. As a 20-year-old me, his diagnosis is correct. Our culture sucks, our contemporaries are stupid, and our parents, as great as they are, created a worldview that is no longer practical for living in the modern world. instilled in us. But there’s no point in swallowing too much. prescription You will go far off course.

Ross’s, and perhaps Davis’s, overall complaint is that we live in a culture of meaninglessness rooted in nothing, on which people act. But that criticism, even if it is real, cannot be fought with the same anymore. Ross is so eager to go against modern culture and the norms of his parents that he doesn’t realize that this is his biggest obstacle. It is equally pointless to say it’s all rubbish and do the opposite in a reactionary knee-jerk move – fighting a nihilistic culture with an ultimately nihilistic counterculture. The only way to understand who you really are is to grab an anchor (perhaps a religion) and shape yourself and your sense of fulfillment around that axis. Ross is smart, but I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if he’s smart enough to figure this out.

Davis’ real triumph is that he conveys all of this through sharp and entertaining prose, witty references, and often laugh-out-loud moments. Although he is an insufferable character, you find yourself rooting for him as you read through the 300 highly readable pages. Once you enter, you’ll be hooked. The end result is ample insight into the hilariously damaged psyche of the most pampered and comfortable generation in history. But while they are nervous and vulnerable, you are left with a glimmer of hope. The kids are not okay, but they will be okay… Hmmprobably.

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