matthewgruman.com

We’re losing our freedom right now and we’re too numb to care.

Douglas Coupland

As a Vancouverite, I feel a strong urge to like Douglas Coupland’s work. I’ve written about this before and have claimed that I won’t read another Coupland novel–this is a stage adaptation of his short story collection, “Life After God”–because I simply don’t enjoy them.

So why bother reading this one at all? Well I really, really like the jPod TV show. A lot. I watched the first episode because I just wanted a valid opinion, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and have watched most of them. Michael Lewis MacLellan is a writer on that series, so I figured reading his adaptation would be enlightening and maybe I’d find a greater appreciation of Coupland. Not so.

Inauthenticity

I’ve tried really hard to zero in on what is it I dislike about Coupland’s stories and I think it’s a lack of authenticity. The compliments I hear about his work almost exclusively focus on his use of regionalism–this is true; the city of Vancouver is very accurately represented–but never really touch on the rest. I have a hard time believing in any of his characters, and when it’s a story as “deep” as this one, I think you have to.

jPod (the TV show, I haven’t read the book), on the other hand, revels in its inauthenticity. Everyone knows that they work at EA, everyone knows that Alan Thicke’s character would never get a young girl like that, and everyone knows that the average Vancouver pot grower isn’t like the ridiculously-attractive-for-a-mother Sherry Miller. While quotes from “Life After God” like the one above come off as pithy, when Cowboy’s character in jPod says “there’s now a fear that never leaves and people are starting to realize that no one is in charge anymore” in response to “what’s changed in the last seven years?”, it’s actually jarring enough to make an impact.

jPod

So now I want to read jPod. It feels like self-sabotage, but I still want to do it. I’ve always thought that Coupland’s “Souvenir of Canada” books were the best things he produced, so I guess it makes sense that it takes a different medium to enjoy his books.

Posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm in Books.
MLA: Gruman, Matthew. Douglas Coupland and Michael Lewis MacLennan – “Life After God: The Play”. matthewgruman.com. Matthew Gruman, 2 Mar. 2008. Web. 1 Aug. 2010.

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