WOULDN'T IT BE SCARY IF OUR INTERNAL CLOCKS WEREN'T SET TO RHYTHMS OF WAVES AND SUNRISE OR EVEN THE INDUSTRIAL WHISTLE TOOT BUT TO PRODUCT CYCLES INSTEAD?
"Funny how all those things you thought would never end turned out to be the first to vanish-IBM, the Reagans, Eastern bloc Communism. As you get older, the bottom line becomes to survive as best you can." -"It's your world now... it's yours."
Douglas Coupland is popular with my generation, most likely because he makes keen observations about life from a perspective people of the X Generation can understand and relate to. Heck he must be the expert since he coined the term "Generation X". However, he also must appeal to the ME ME ME IT'S ALL ABOUT ME self-centredness that is a part of the nature of most people of this generation. Also it must appeal to their short attention spans and complete irreverence toward just about everything. I recognise that this is a generalisation, and I am not condemning Coupland nor his fans. I am simply saying that Coupland's writing style is idiosyncratic and definitely has one target audience. I read his earlier works, and I enjoyed them more or less, but there is a quality to Coupland's writing that seems very surface and artificial despite his astute and timely observations about people and things. Coupland is genuinely witty in his writing, but most of the time I find that he tries too hard. What I mean by this is that he overreaches for authenticity. For example, in Microserfs, he writes about how he went shopping at the Uwajimaya on 156th in Bellevue. Locals will be impressed that he knows his stuff and people from outside of the greater Bellevue/Redmond/Eastside area will be impressed with his knowledge, or maybe his imagination if they don't know that Uwajimaya is really on 156th in Bellevue. The problem for me, though, is that these little things just go too far by a tiny amount that just push these references right over the thin line of what is clever and what is trying too hard. Maybe just Uwajimaya in Bellevue OR Uwajimaya on 156th. Either/or but not both! Just too many offhand refences to places, landmarks (like the now-imploded Kingdome) and local "things" to prove he had actually done his homework or something. I know some people were very impressed by that level of detail, but I found it, once again, artificial.
Coupland writes Microserfs like a journal and brings up many interesting points, like how Gen X parents expected their company to take care of them forever and in exchange the employees gave unwavering loyalty. Gen Xers think of almost all jobs as temporary stepping stones to something else. Interestingly, most of what technical talk Coupland included is all pretty out of date considering that the software industry moves like lightning. Most of the interesting observations come in the beginning of the book when the main character is still working for Microsoft. Most of Coupland's references are so dead-on with regard to Microsoft culture and life, which is probably why most Microsofties read it and like it. However, when all the employees move to the Bay Area to work at a start-up, the book completely loses direction and all sense of coherence.
The narrator, Dan, discusses his co-workers and their quirks, discusses how he does not understand what exactly the "Information Superhighway" is supposed to be and goes off on a tangent about how major freeway construction died around 1975. He notes that only foreign employees at Microsoft seem to smoke, and it is not a surprise that user-friendliness is a West Coast American concept. Later in the book, the observations deteriorate to Dan reporting what his friends have said, such as the reasons why breakfast cereals are "decadent" or Karla and other characters discussing how their Barbie dolls had sex lives.
Yes the book explores the ever-searching nature of people born in this generation, yes the book examines the culture of Microsoft and can be painstakingly funny in doing so, and yes the book is readable. Is it great? Is it a classic? No. It can be read in a half day for fun, and that should be all you read it for.
WOULDN'T IT BE SCARY IF OUR INTERNAL CLOCKS WEREN'T SET TO RHYTHMS OF WAVES AND SUNRISE OR EVEN THE INDUSTRIAL WHISTLE TOOT BUT TO PRODUCT CYCLES INSTEAD? "Funny how all those things you thought would never end turned out to be the first to vanish-IBM, the Reagans, Eastern bloc Communism. As you get older, the bottom line becomes to survive as best you can. " -"It's your world now... it's yours. "
Douglas Coupland is popular with my generation, most likely because he makes keen observations about life from a perspective people of the X Generation can understand and relate to. Heck he must be the expert since he coined the term "Generation X". However, he also must appeal to the ME ME ME IT'S ALL ABOUT ME self-centredness that is a part of the nature of most people of this generation. Also it must appeal to their short attention spans and complete irreverence toward just about everything. I recognise that this is a generalisation, and I am not condemning Coupland nor his fans. I am simply saying that Coupland's writing style is idiosyncratic and definitely has one target audience. I read his earlier works, and I enjoyed them more or less, but there is a quality to Coupland's writing that seems very surface and artificial despite his astute and timely observations about people and things. Coupland is genuinely witty in his writing, but most of the time I find that he tries too hard. What I mean by this is that he overreaches for authenticity. For example, in Microserfs, he writes about how he went shopping at the Uwajimaya on 156th in Bellevue. Locals will be impressed that he knows his stuff and people from outside of the greater Bellevue/Redmond/Eastside area will be impressed with his knowledge, or maybe his imagination if they don't know that Uwajimaya is really on 156th in Bellevue. The problem for me, though, is that these little things just go too far by a tiny amount that just push these references right over the thin line of what is clever and what is trying too hard. Maybe just Uwajimaya in Bellevue OR Uwajimaya on 156th. Either/or but not both! Just too many offhand refences to places, landmarks (like the now-imploded Kingdome) and local "things" to prove he had actually done his homework or something. I know some people were very impressed by that level of detail, but I found it, once again, artificial. Coupland writes Microserfs like a journal and brings up many interesting points, like how Gen X parents expected their company to take care of them forever and in exchange the employees gave unwavering loyalty. Gen Xers think of almost all jobs as temporary stepping stones to something else. Interestingly, most of what technical talk Coupland included is all pretty out of date considering that the software industry moves like lightning. Most of the interesting observations come in the beginning of the book when the main character is still working for Microsoft. Most of Coupland's references are so dead-on with regard to Microsoft culture and life, which is probably why most Microsofties read it and like it. However, when all the employees move to the Bay Area to work at a start-up, the book completely loses direction and all sense of coherence. The narrator, Dan, discusses his co-workers and their quirks, discusses how he does not understand what exactly the "Information Superhighway" is supposed to be and goes off on a tangent about how major freeway construction died around 1975. He notes that only foreign employees at Microsoft seem to smoke, and it is not a surprise that user-friendliness is a West Coast American concept. Later in the book, the observations deteriorate to Dan reporting what his friends have said, such as the reasons why breakfast cereals are "decadent" or Karla and other characters discussing how their Barbie dolls had sex lives. Yes the book explores the ever-searching nature of people born in this generation, yes the book examines the culture of Microsoft and can be painstakingly funny in doing so, and yes the book is readable. Is it great? Is it a classic? No. It can be read in a half day for fun, and that should be all you read it for.