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From Gen X to Microserfs to JPod
JPod is novel set in Vancouver, BC about employees at Electronic Arts. There is a new series based on the novel airing on the CBC.
This interview touches on life in the Google generation.
- aristus 19y agoI found jPod to be lifeless and depressing. In Microserfs the characters were trying to become something else. They may have been stunted nerds but at least they were trying. Jpod is just a bunch of stunted nerds that are shocked by nothing, aspire to nothing, and end up left on the stage in impotent rage they can't even articulate. And as for Coupland writing himself into the story... it's a device with a long history. Dante does it, Cervantes does it, Vonnegut does it, Borges does it. But Coupland is no Cervantes.
- pkaler 19y agoI found jPod to be lifeless and depressing. Hmm, I live in Vancouver and work in the game industry. So, I didn't find it lifeless. And working for a big studio is kind of depressing. So, that's a feature not a bug. I agree that jPod wasn't as good as Microserfs. And as for Coupland writing himself into the story... it's a device with a long history. I think Coupland uses it as a device to answer his critics. For example, in the Gum Thief, the last chapter is written from the point of view of a university professor critiquing a novel written by one of the characters in the book.
- aristus 19y agoYep. The problem is that that literary device, while used by some of the best writers ever, is tricky. You had better be sure you are one of the best before using it, else you come off a fool.
- timr 19y agojPod wasn't meant to be Microserfs 2.0. It's a parody -- of the first book, of pop culture, of the tech industry, and of Douglas Coupland. The characters are supposed to be cartoonish and one-dimensional. I mean, come on...the middle-aged, drug-dealer housewife and mother? The abducted, heroin-addicted Schlumberg boss? The lesbian-hippie-turned-bimbo? How can you possibly take the book seriously, with such silly characters? Anyway, if you follow Coupland's progression as a writer, jPod makes perfect sense (c.f. Girlfriend in a Coma and Miss Wyoming, which were surreal in similar ways). I wasn't very into jPod, either, but not because it wasn't like Microserfs. It just wasn't his best work. For my money, Hey Nostradamus (his last book, I think) was his best recent work. Weird, but still incredibly touching and humane.
- mooneater 19y agoI loved Coupland in college and thought he was so damn smart. Then a few years later I saw him at a reading of JPod, and instantly changed my mind.