Hard, Soft and Wet: Digital Generation Comes of Age - Softcover

McGrath, Melanie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006548490 ISBN 13: 9780006548492

Publisher: Flamingo, 1998

Synopsis

Who are the digital generation? They are the millions of youngsters who live with, and love, the technology with which they are growing up. This is their story. Tomorrow belongs to them.

‘This is the book which opens up the electronic frontier to those still left out in the cold, the one McLuhan would have written were he to be still surfing the Nineties’ Arena. ‘At once a romance, a cultural commentary, and a piece of travel writing which adds the virtual world to its itinerary as though it were a new place on the map. ‘ Sadie Plant, The Times

Not another book about youth culture, nor cyberpunks, hackers and VR; not a computing manual; not the history of technology; but a book about the first generation of people to take the information age for granted.

A personal portrait of the Wired Generation, exploring the dreams, ambitions, aesthetics and assumptions of all the kids growing up digital, worldwide.

In these days of video games, PCs, multimedia and personal stereos, it’s all too easy for the sensitive kids to disappear into worlds of their own, and it happens so quickly — one birthday they’re chirpy and sociable, the next they stay home to watch Robocop for the thirty-seventh time or play Mortal Kombat yet again.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

‘'Hard, Soft & Wet' is the story of one woman’s love affair with digital culture, America, Youth, modernity, a computer called Apple and a boy called Mac. McGrath is such a good writer that even a cynical Luddite like me could love her book. She has a sharp ear and eye for dialogue and detail and a nice dry sense of humour...She’s created a travel book that’s all about looking for a faraway place called the future. 'Hard, Soft & Wet' represents a perfect match between form and content.’
COSMO LANDESMAN, 'Independent'

‘From Internet cafés in Iceland to Moscow programmers making computer viruses. (McGrath’s) is as much a journey of self-discovery as an exploration of a new technology and a new culture and is written with her usual grace, panache, and flashes of mordant humour.’
KENAN MALIK, 'Independent on Sunday'

‘In the spirit of participant observation, McGrath necks a pill at Tribal Gathering, buys some tunes and drifts through clubs like the Big Chill and the Electronic Lounge, digital hang-outs like Ambient Soho and Warwick University’s Virtual Futures conference, scenes like Reclaim the Streets where post-rave counterculture meshes with green activism. This is a warm, humorous and charming book, reflecting the author’s own uncertainties about what the future holds. 'Hard, Soft, & Wet' is a snapshot of a moment passing (Californian cyber-idealism) and a moment dawning (European post-rave DIY) and published at a point when corporate robber-barons are running land-grabs on cyberspace while the Net’s utopian dreamers wonder whether to hitch a ride and grab some cash or remain on the fringes. It captures the vital chaos of the digital generation as it prepares to break into the mainstream – and that is an achievement.’
MATTHEW COLLIN, 'i-D'

About the Author:

Melanie McGrath is the author of the highly acclaimed Motel Nirvana, which won the 1996 John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday prize for the best new British writer under 35.
‘A brilliant writer’ — Dervla Murphy
‘McGrath is a cool-eyed chronicler of a dispossessed generation’ — Deborah Bosley, Literary Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0006548490
• ISBN 13: 9780006548492
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320