Douglas Coupland's flashy pop-culture novels have beckoned me with their promise of hip, irreverent humor and young characters I can relate to. Like MTV's "Best Week Ever" - only nerdier in a very good way - the up-to-the-moment culture references and jokes in JPod were its best feature; great dialogue followed at a close second.
If there are parallel-universe Laurens floating around out there, they would be: a Marine or police officer, a novelist, an actress and a video game designer/writer, so books that let me live vicariously through these kinds of people are off to a great start with me. JPod is a collection of great characters, people I wish I knew. Where I'm embarrassed to "be imaginative" or brainstorm in front of other people, they feed off of each other's bizarre thoughts and come up with great ideas. The book is mainly about finding identity within and in spite of a corporate environment. Each person in the book started their careers thinking what a cool thing it would be to have a job as a game designer, but the reality is getting stuck in a cubicle (pod) (albeit in a Google-type atmosphere), working 20 hours a day and getting beloved projects screwed over by idiot execs.
Where they find meaning is in their fellow JPod-ers [as a side note, I can't stand the word "pod" because my mom says "Gotta go pod" before going to take a pee], and eventually using their work to better ends. I'd like to be one of those office assistants who finds small pleasures and/or humors in her job, but I've found it difficult. (Maybe I should start journaling?) The obligation to find a hundred and one ways to tell people there's no way in hell they're going to get to talk to my boss, not even for three minutes, could be an opportunity to get creative, but it ends up being draining when people have the nerve to get mad when they're refused. My job is made up of a series of moments like those, some less demeaning than others, and I am so grateful that I'll be going to school so soon. Maybe I'll end up in a job that actually encourages me to be a human being.
2 comments:
I almost didn't post this one, but wanted to say something about the book. My posts always end up being about me, in the end. I figure I'll try and get all that stuff out of my system before I go back to school. In the meantime, I'll hope my thoughts get more condensed and less self-centered.
But what if I WANT to read about you?
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