Time Magazine Identifies Jonathan Lethem '86 and Bret Easton Ellis '86 as Voices of Their Generation

What do Jonathan Lethem '86, Bret Easton Ellis '86, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, and Kurt Vonnegut have in common? All were recognized in the July 10, 2006, issue of Time magazine as "voices of their generation."

The feature-length article explores a question that has nagged contemporary literary critics for some time now: Who will be the voice of this generation?

Time writes, "The process by which the Voice is anointed is a mysterious one. 'I think youth has a lot to do with it,' says Ellis… 'Being the first—and not necessarily the best, just the first—to capture what it feels like to be a member of your generation catapults you forward in a direction that doesn’t happen to Jonathan Safran Foer or Zadie Smith." He continues, "Let’s not forget that the voice of a generation does not equal the best writer of a generation. And the best novels of my generation are not generational novels," with Ellis citing such novels as The Fortress of Solitude, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and The Corrections among them.

"I guess I got lucky, because the way I wrote about us was something that a large number of people connected and agreed with. It wasn't orchestrated. There wasn’t a plan," concludes Ellis who completed his first novel, Less than Zero, while studying at Bennington.

The article continues, "Now there's an attractive trend toward hybridizing high and low, grafting the brilliant verbal intelligence of high literature onto the sturdy narrative roots of genre fiction. ‘That used to be a real novelty act, or something that was done with kid gloves or with heavy irony.'" Explains Lethem, who is widely recognized as successfully writing within multiple genres "'Now, a lot of writing has a very natural degree of engagement with the vernacular culture.'"

Jonathan Lethem, who was selected as a MacArthur "Genius" in 2005, has written several novels including Motherless Brooklyn, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, Fortress of Solitude, The Disappointment Artist, as well as many others. He recently wrote an article for Rolling Stone titled "Being James Brown."

Bret Easton Ellis is a prolific fiction novelist whose work includes, Less than Zero, American Psycho, and his most recent novel, Lunar Park.

To access the full transcripts of the July 10, 2006, Time article described above please follow the corresponding link.

To read the full transcript of Lethem’s 2005-commencement speech at Bennington please click here.