Published 2006.
It has been a while since I have read a book as casually outrageous as JPod.
Focusing on the daily distractions and philosophies of a seemingly average gaming programmer, Ethan, Douglas Coupland gradually heaps an increasing amount of absurd realities onto Ethan's daily plate. The catch appears to be that because Ethan lives, breathes and works in an 'unreal' world of micro-management and forced, bizarre creativity, he accepts the daily insanity in his 'real' world with the minimum of protest.
Ethan, along with his 'JPod' colleagues - all surviving together in a Microserf purgatory (read: "Microserf", another of Coupland's acclaimed novels) - spend more time using their genuine intelligence to evade the reality of work, then they do in pursuing their mutual potential. This is the great blackhole of productivity that is 'the JPod' work environment, and just in case we don't get it, Coupland writes himself into his own novel as a support character to make a few points 'in person'.
A deliciously written novel, a lot of inane fun is had by author and characters alike as they amble through the very lightweight plot. There is, fortunately, an underlying sinister criticism on the wasted potential of the brighter new generation, all utterly apathetic in the face of a reality governed by their parents' generation - the 70s/80s corporate, selfish, self-empowering generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment