Burned out at 40, he's a cross between a beat-generation philosophe (complete with alcohol dependency) and one of the perpetual adolescents of Generation X (including a brief stint working at a tech startup).
It consists of the intelligences, souls, and bodies of the heavenly spheres, each of which is eternal, and the sublunary sphere, which is also eternal, undergoing a perpetual process of generation and corruption, of the succession of form over matter, very much in the manner described by Aristotle.
Its claim: "A generation's perpetual frown had become a perpetual smirk".
Men of my father's generation were perpetual hustlers, always on the make and always on the move.
The reality is, that while we often tend to think of these new technologies as the sexy, shiny objects of the younger generation, this perpetual marketing fantasy obscures the reality of where these technologies could most productively intervene and how.
They established the reputation of the medium in the eyes of many, and, because they were on film rather than live, they would continue to be seen by successive generations in perpetual reruns.
"Use it or lose it" might seem a fitting phrase for cave animals, who often lose their eyesight after many generations in perpetual darkness.
It covers the economic theories of fertility, mortality and migration and describes the four main frameworks that can be used to study economics and ageing, namely the life cycle, the overlapping generations, the perpetual youth and the dynastic models.
While periodic famine and perpetual turmoil taught older generations to value stability above all else, the children born during China's boom years are inclined to set the bar higher.
But "The Fortunes" is powerful as a chronicle of perpetual frustration, as each new generation grows aware of the arbitrary line between margin and mainstream.
