Fri, 30 Jun 2006
JPod
Douglas Coupland, JPod,
Bloomsbury large format paperback
ironic TV
paper CPU
concept rot
cellphone soul
cubicle heaven
note to Douglas Coupland (note to self: pronounced Coop-land):
That's pretty cool that after you saw it reported on
the web that you collected meteorites that you actually
started doing it.
I just read your new book, JPod. It's fun, no doubt, but
the earlier Microserfs is a hard act to follow in many peoples'
eyes and this is quite different in a few ways. It had to be
different of course. Otherwise, what's the point?
I kind of wondered about one of the character's comments
where he talks about that TV show set around the swimming pool
where it was observed that when the writers ran out of ideas,
they just made things very bizarre. Hmmm, we sure get into
big time bizzarity pretty quickly in JPod, Douglas. I mean, you
know, Mom and the dead biker? Dad and the girl? The Chinese
boat people? Are you telling us something here?
Well, maybe the thought of all those cubicles where the
games people hang out drove you to it. I can understand that
although I guess cubicle workers might find this whole thing
about a million times more interesting and cooly-wooly than
_their_ cubicles. Fair enough. Geeks got some affirmation in
Microserfs and now it's Cubicle Worker's time. They deserve it.
Another thing, Douglas, is that these people all seem a
bit dumber. Not morons, but they seem to be fishing around in
the pragmatic undergrowth for thoughts. I kind of miss the
out of left field sweeps and the vision stuff from the right
side of the Bell Curve.
Oh, and what's with the K-girl thing? There was Karla in
Microserfs who was the main love interest (well, OK, for me)
and this time it's Kaitlin. Maybe it's a sign of not having
a life but I don't know one female whose name starts with "K".
Hmmm, I just thought of one where the affectionate diminutive
starts with a "K". And guess what? ... nevermind, the "K" thing
is clearly my problem.
Anyway, I guess this is a different time. Maybe it will get
better soon.
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pre Dec 04 reviews are here