An Open Letter to the

Concerned Student from Last

Week’s Letters Page

Hey there, Concerned Student. I couldn’t help but notice your unhappy letter in last week’s Generation. It would seem that you have been less than amused by recent issues of this here student magazine, and I was wondering if maybe you and I could have a little chat about that.

First off, you argue that Generation has, “morphed into a typical college magazine talking about boring and obvious issues that everyone is aware of, or boring topics no one cares about.” Interesting angle, as far as critiques go—but I’m going to have to take issue with some of the examples you cite. For instance: Women’s film festivals. Now, I’m no longer a UB student, but back in my day (i.e. last year) roughly half of the student body was composed of females. I mean, maybe I’m being a bit presumptuous here, but to me when you say no one cares about stuff like that, what you really mean is “I’m a nerdy asshole and my inability to get laid has resulted in a hatred of women that makes me completely uninterested in anything that remotely pertains to them.” So maybe, like, it’s not that you find Generation boring, but that its broad appeal offends your depressingly-virginal sensibilities? Just a thought.

But anyway, that’s kind of a moot point when we consider the next argument in your letter: “Its [sic] not that the topics are boring, its [sic] just that they contain no humor what so ever [sic].” Horrifying use of the English language notwithstanding, I’m not so sure I really understand what you’re saying. I mean, at first your gripe was that Generation is boring, but now—a whopping three sentences later—you’re specifically not taking issue with the subject matter, but with its humorless delivery. So which one is it? Are you saying that you don’t really care what the stories are about so long as they’re liberally peppered with lewd jokes and not-so-subtle sexual innuendo, or that you want more substantive articles?

Regardless, I’m baffled as to how you think Generation has changed in recent years. When was it that you first came to Buffalo and enjoyed the magazine for its “raw offensive humor?” Because, even assuming that you’re a senior, a lot of the staff was already working for the magazine by the time you started reading it. In fact, I was working for it at the time. And I’ve got to tell you, the format hasn’t changed.

Which brings me to the point of this whole pow-wow we’re having right now: Are you sure you were actually reading the features and literary sections before? Or, in your Bud Light and cannabis-induced haze, were you just confusing the personals for the rest of the magazine?

Generation has always offered UB a venue for insightful and critical commentary on student life and the world at large. Despite the conspicuous lack of dick and fart jokes that you so obviously desire, articles like Caitlin Tremblay’s couch surfing piece, and Editor in Chief Peter Scheck’s moving Edit Note about the Bike Path Rapist manage to cut through the run-of-the-mill, dry reporting that The Spectrum spoon-feeds to you thrice weekly. It offers students fresh perspectives on current events and glimpses into topics with which many students are not familiar.

So, yes, it’s not always possible for Generation to get the words “cunt” and “fuck” into print on every article. But perhaps that’s part of what the ideal college magazine that you seem so fond of is all about—elevating the discourse while maintaining an ironically bemused distance from pop culture normativity. And after all, if you’re still not satisfied with the content of your student magazine, maybe you should stop being a whiny bitch writing ineloquent, anonymous letters to it, and start submitting your own examples of the kind of stuff you want to see. Dick.

Cheers,

Christopher Ahearn

Concerned Former Editor in Chief