Apologia

Douglas Coupland has contributed a large amount of Canadian postmodern literature, and Jpod is a great example of this. The book is based largely within Canada, and focuses on cultural and social issues commonly reconized in Canadian literature. To have someone such as Coupland contribute so much to the list of postmodern art is a gift to any and all Canadians, even if at first his work was not reconized. (Cheesy? Overglorifing?)

Even as a young child, Douglas Coupland was able to reconize art in many forms. An insident that stands out is "when he read an encyclopedia article for pop art". "It showed a tomato soup can by Andy Warhol and a Roy Lichtenstein exploding jet that said, "Whaam!" My brain just kind of melted. The "TOMATO SOUP" and the "Whaam!" told me that the everyday world and its documentation is just as aesthetic and as important as any other realm.(Douglas Coupland)" After attempting courses in science, he attended Emily Carr College of Art and Design in which he describes "the best four years of [his] life" and emerged with a focus on sculpture. He did not study and forms of literature as his major, and did not start writing until offered a job as a magazine writer.

"Douglas Coupland can be seen as the King of Postmodernism in today's day of age(Nancy Stotts Jones)." His first work, "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" was his first postmodern work. It started as a handbook that outlined the generation, but changed throughout its writing. The Canadian publishing company that had hired Coupland to write this handbook cancled the publication, and so Coupland's first novel was published in the United States. The novel was a "sleeper-hit", as it rose in success far after its release date. However, this was the trigger that started the avalanche of Canadian works from Douglas Coupland.

Coupland is well known for writing about such issues as Web 2.0 technology, human sexuality, and pop culture, but specific to Jpod, are the topics of immigration and drug trafficing in Vancouver. He approaches it with a relaxed tone, almost no seriousness, which can somehow let the issue settle in, yet still show the intensity of what is actually going on in the novel. Ethan, the almost "entirely normal" character can be a representation to how the community in which Coupland lives in would react, whereas the chracters who don't react "normally" (Ethan's Family, Kam Fong) can be seen as how Coupland might react or see the events played out. This style is different in comparason to other forms of literature in Canada, and has been well recieved by a variety of people. Jpod has been criticed both negatively and posatively, however has had many nominations for awards, including the Giller Prize in 2006.


(...Unfinished?)