After Cyberpunk?

EXCERPT: ‘I stole most of that last paragraph from the internet’ (Coupland, 2009: 4)

“By the way, welcome to Oskaloosa and all the many features that make Oskaloosa a terrific place to visit. There’s something for everyone here, from the historic city square with its bandstand to the George Daily Auditorium, the award-winning Oskaloosa Public Library, William Penn University and three golf courses.

I stole most of that last paragraph from the internet. What the town’s home page forgot to mention was my father’s meth distillery (“lab” makes it sound so Cletus-&-Brandeen), which got busted by the DEA a few years back. Dad and the DEA never got along too well.”

— Douglas Coupland, Generation A (2009), p. 4. (emphasis mine)

2 years ago

WEEKNOTES: Easter 1

NEW QUESTION:

‘I stole most of that last paragraph from the internet’*: Does the representation of digital media in twenty-first century fiction constitute a remediation of the form?

It’s still clumsy, but I think I’m starting to make progress.

(*Douglas Coupland, 2009, Generation A, p. 4)

2 years ago

How might a novellist represent contemporary, globalized reality if that world and its citizens have become plotless?

– Andrew Tate, Douglas Coupland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), p. 38.

2 years ago 2 notes

'Insert: headline / jpod-coupland.rvw '

“To Coupland’s credit, the technologically sophisticated but socially alienated universe that he anticipated in 1995 is an even more tangible and complicated entity in 2006 — a time when people really do speak in regurgitated sound bites from “The Simpsons,” and are labeled autistic simply because they are shy, and are granted preposterous job descriptions like being part of a “world-building team” when they possess little control over the world in which they live…”

— Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, 21/05/2006

2 years ago

'The Couplandization of Douglas Coupland'

“To that end, JPod abounds with odds and ends of contemporary culture. There’s a page that consists entirely of the words “ramen noodles.” Others that reproduce famous spam e-mails for penile enlargement and the Nigerian oil scam. Obscure phrases from video games such as Tony Hawk Pro Skater (“Grind the molten bucket”) appear throughout, as well as Chinese characters representing “Cosmetic Surgery” and “Boredom.”“

— Michael Agger, Slate, 31/05/2006

2 years ago

Douglas Coupland, jPod (2006)

2 years ago

'Review: Generation A'

‘Far too many novelists write about the past in the language of the past, or sprinkle a little contemporary dust over 19th-century protagonists and situations. Coupland is one of the few serious writers who seems to be living entirely in the present moment, or perhaps even a little ahead of it. Even his bad books tell us something about our world.’

— Aravind Adiga, The Financial Times, 30/09/2009

2 years ago

EXCERPT: ‘I stole most of that last paragraph from the internet’ (Coupland, 2009: 4)

WEEKNOTES: Easter 1

'Insert: headline / jpod-coupland.rvw '

'The Couplandization of Douglas Coupland'

'Review: Generation A'

After Cyberpunk?

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