13
Apr
2009
JPod by Douglas Coupland
What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said about Afghanistan? It’s all bombed out and depleted. O.K., I had to start this review with my own pop culture reference because, because pop cultural references are what Coupland is all about. And just like Afghanistan has its goods point despite being bombed out and depleted (I assume), so does this book.
Eventually I had to get past one irksome thing: Despite supposedly being about Gen Y, this book is still solidly about Gen X. Once I accepted that, I moved on and was cool with it. I enjoyed it, in fact. I mean, how can the man who (willingly or not) became the zeitgeist of Gen X conceivably write about the next generation without being influenced by his own. Can anyone, for that matter? Because we’ve read so much, and grown up influenced by, previous generations, I think the ability to write about previous generations is almost rote.
But the next one? No one who didn’t go through D.A.R.E, was not in college or high school on Sept. 11, 2001, and didn’t learn about law in government classes using the O.J. Simpson trial and Bill Clinton impeachment trial as examples probably won’t be able to accurately portray Millenials. Except perhaps for the marketing gurus behind most Hollywood films. And, O.K., JPod is set in Canada, so those references might not be applicable anyways, but still.
On the other hand, these characters are so weird that they might not resemble anyone or anything that has not spent significant time hanging around Coupland’s head.
Now, let me say that ever since I read Chuck Klosterman’s essay on Saved by the Bell, in which he tried to say that it was a show for college/high school kids, and basically hijacked it for Gen X, I’ve been particularly pissed at that entire generation (more to come on that book of essays at a later date, I promise). I’ve said before on this site, I think, that I am a millennial, and my two older sisters are Gen Xers. I have a fair amount of knowledge of both the good and bad of both generations, and despite my annoyance at Gen Xers for trying to claim the glories of my childhood for themselves, and for ruining the economy (w/ the baby boomers, of course) for the rest of us, I still have a liking for many things of theirs: a lot of the music, a lot of the writers, a lot of their movies and TV shows, and even, to some extent, their angst and depression which, made it easier for my generation to get therapy covered by our parents’ health insurance.
Since I’ve gotten that out of the way, and also because I am not exactly sure where I was going with that line of thought, let’s just talk about the book, and in so, assume that the characters are Gen X-ers, or at the very least, people born before, say, 1980. I’ve heard a lot of companies tossed around that Neotronic Arts, the company the JPodders all work for, is based on. Most people say that just as Microserfs alludes to Microsoft, Jpod alludes to Apple. Obviously those people haven’t read it yet, because Neotronic Arts makes video games.
And what video games they make! Upper management continuously fucks with the hard work they (sometimes) put into their game by changing the skateboarding game to a weird turtle game, to a prince with a magic carpet. Yes, yes, ‘BoardX becomes SpriteQuest. So, the JPodders fuck right back and sabotage the game with an evil Ronald McDonald Easter Egg. But that’s just one plot.
Other plots involve, what else? Sex, drugs, and interior design.
Throughout the book you also get pages filled with things like, the words “ramen noodles” over and over again. It’s as if you locked E.E. Cummings in a room for a couple of days with nothing but a computer with Microsoft Word and a TV playing a Real World/Road Rules marathon. These pages are easy to gloss over if you want to. They don’t really add anything, but they don’t really take anything away, either. The closest meaning I can think is that it’s a way to kill the drudgery of work (either the characters’ or Coupland’s).
As aforesaid, these are weird characters. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t elements that are totally unidentifiable. Each of these programmers is a little bit Autistic. So is Bill Gates, I’ve heard, as are most people who can stand to look at lines and lines of code. One chick invents a hugging-machine so that similarly afflicted people from all over their office can enjoy the feel of a caress without dealing with actual people or having their personal bubbles invaded. Another character wears a cowboy hat and is addicted to cough syrup. Another character had such a fucked up upbringing that he switches his name to John Doe and tries at all times to do what a statistically average person would do. For real, I can’t make this up. But apparently Coupland can.
The best character though, by far, is Coupland himself. His name is dropped on the first page (of the story) of the book, and he actually appears in some key places, like on an airplane and later in China. And he’s kinda a jerk.
Makes me wonder what Coupland is actually like.
Buy JPod on Amazon
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
Fight Club by Chuck Pahlaniuk
Sex Drugs & Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
Saving Fish From Drowing by Amy Tan
Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilman
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Company by Max Barry
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Nibble & Kuhn by David Schmahmann
Other works by Douglas Coupland:
City of Glass
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Generation A
Girlfriend in a Coma
Lara’s Book–Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider Phenomenon
Life After God
Eleanor Rigby
The Gum Thief
Souvenir of Canada
Souvenir of Canada 2
Hey Nostradamus!
Microserfs
Miss Wyoming
Polaroids from the Dead
All Families are Psychotic
Terry
School Spirit
Shampoo Planet
