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Reviews
Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and Others by China Martens
aemy's review
Had it's lulls, but it was very cool to see how a mother and daughter grew and changed across time and it definitely made me think about my own values and experiences wrt to parenting and family
jone_d's review
4.0
I met China when we were both working on child care supporting the culmination of a campaign for living wages for the workers that clean Camden Yards after Oriels games. I had never heard of The Future Generation before that, I would have been a teen-ager when it first came out and wouldn't have been doing much thinking about parenting or supporting parents at that time. I very much doubt that China mentioned the zine at that time, or that a book of the zine was about to come out. She probably said something about trying to write about supporting children and parents and I know she mentioned that she was talking with some other parents about putting out a zine, which would become Don't Leave Your Friends Behind. She encouraged me to write about my thinking about child development theory and how it related to anti-authoritarian politics. I bought The Future Generation about a year later as soon as it came out.
I’m so glad I finally read it. I think what I liked most was the immediacy, getting to experience China's thinking as a mom through these snap shots in time.
There have been lots of times when I’ve read things that people I really respect wrote long ago and felt kind of an awkward cringe: ‘I’m glad their thinking has changed since then.’ But I never felt that way reading this book; it felt really valuable to read what one parent was thinking and experiencing at different times as her child grew up. By immediacy I mean that it was so clear that what she was writing at that moment really mattered at that moment! It is like it reading her words written without the “benefit” of hindsight made them all the more compelling.
I’m so glad I finally read it. I think what I liked most was the immediacy, getting to experience China's thinking as a mom through these snap shots in time.
There have been lots of times when I’ve read things that people I really respect wrote long ago and felt kind of an awkward cringe: ‘I’m glad their thinking has changed since then.’ But I never felt that way reading this book; it felt really valuable to read what one parent was thinking and experiencing at different times as her child grew up. By immediacy I mean that it was so clear that what she was writing at that moment really mattered at that moment! It is like it reading her words written without the “benefit” of hindsight made them all the more compelling.
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