The Nineties: A Book

“Almost every meaningful moment of the nineties was captured on videotape, along with thousands upon thousands of trivial moments that meant nothing at all. The record is relatively complete. But that deluge of data remained, at the time, ephemeral and unavailable. It was still a present-tense existence.”

Klosterman employs juxtaposition to highlight the contrast between the comprehensive nature of video recordings and their practical unavailability. The phrase “present-tense existence” underscores the theme of temporal isolation, suggesting that despite the wealth of recorded information, people in the ’90s remained firmly rooted in the immediate present, unable to easily access or revisit past moments.

“That, more than any person or event, informed the experience of nineties life: an adversarial relationship with the unseemliness of trying too hard. Every generation melodramatically assumes it will somehow be the last, and there was some of that in the nineties, too—but not as much as in the decade that came before and far less than in the decades that would come after. It was perhaps the last period in American history when personal and political engagement was still viewed as optional.”

Klosterman identifies a defining characteristic of ’90s culture: the aversion to earnestness. The author uses comparative analysis to situate the ’90s between more politically engaged eras, emphasizing its unique position in recent history. This quote introduces the theme of generational apathy, suggesting that the ’90s represented a fleeting moment when disengagement was not just acceptable but even fashionable.

“And yet: The texture is what mattered. The feeling of the era, and what that feeling supposedly signified, isolates the nineties from both its distant past and its immediate future. It was a period of ambivalence, defined by an overwhelming assumption that life, and particularly American life, was underwhelming. That was the thinking at the time. It is not the thinking now.”

This quote emphasizes the intangible aspects that defined the ’90s. Klosterman uses sensory language (“texture,” “feeling”) to convey the importance of the decade’s atmosphere over specific events. The author contrasts past and present perceptions of the era, highlighting the theme of shifting historical perspectives. This quote also introduces the concept of cultural ambivalence as a defining feature of the ’90s, setting the stage for a deeper exploration of this theme throughout the book.