

From Gen X to Microserfs to JPod - pkaler
http://www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/blog/2008/01/from_gen_x_to_jpod.html
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.<p>This interview touches on life in the Google generation.
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aristus
I 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.

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pkaler
_I 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
Yep. 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.

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mooneater
I 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.

