JPod is a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by
Douglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognised works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularised terms such as McJob and...
published by Random House of Canada in 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter “J”.
JPod also became a
CBC televisionCBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Overview:CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming, in most cases feeding the same programming at the same local times...
series (
jPod) co-written by
Douglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognised works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularised terms such as McJob and...
. It premiered on January 8, 2008, and ran until its cancellation on March 7, 2008, leaving the series with a permanent
cliffhangerA cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation...
. The first thirteen episodes of the series aired in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on
The CW Television NetworkThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
.
Plot
JPod is an
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
novel of six young adults assigned to the same cubicle pod at Neotronic Arts, a fictional Burnaby-based video game company, by someone in
Human ResourcesHuman resources is a term used to refer to how people are managed by organizations. The field has moved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged people and organizational success. The field draws upon concepts developed in...
through a computer
glitchA glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, and in circuit bending, as well as among players of video games, although it is applied to all types of systems including human organizations and nature...
. Ethan Jarlewski is the novel’s main character and
narratorA narrator is, within any story , the entity that conveys the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind...
, who spends more time involved with his work than with his dysfunctional family. His stay-at-home mother runs a successful marijuana grow-op which allows his father to abandon his career and work as a futile movie extra. Ethan's realtor brother Greg involves himself with Asian crime lord Kam Fong who serves as the plot's crux of character connection.
The JPod staff are required to insert a turtle character based on
Jeff ProbstJeffrey Lee "Jeff" Probst is an American game show host, executive producer and a reporter. He is best known for his role as the host of the U.S. version of the reality show Survivor.-Biography:...
into the
skateboardA skateboard is typically a specially designed plywood board combined with a quad wheeled, dual "truck" and quad bearing system designed for both movement and stunts, used primarily for the activity of skateboarding. The modern skateboard originated in California in the late 1950s...
game that they are developing as 'BoardX. The Marketing Manager, Steven Lefkowitz, mandates the turtle's addition to the game because, we learn, he is trying to please his son during a custody battle.
JPod is then drastically challenged and changed when Steve goes missing and the new executive replacement declares that the game will be changed yet again. Upper management decides to change Jeff the turtle for an adventurous prince who rides a magic carpet. The game is then renamed “SpriteQuest”. The JPodders, upset that they would not be able to finish their game, decide to sabotage SpriteQuest by inserting a deranged
Ronald McDonaldRonald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and...
. They do this by creating a secret level where Ronald works malevolence, thus creating, in their opinion, a culturally-suitable game for the target market.
Ethan begins to date the newest addition to JPod, Kaitlin, and their relationship grows as she discovers that most of the members of the team, including herself, are mildly autistic. Kaitlin develops a
hugging machineA hug machine — also known as hug box, squeeze machine, or squeeze box — is a deep pressure device designed to calm hypersensitive persons, usually individuals with autism spectrum disorders...
after researching how autistic people enjoy the sensation of pressure from non-living things on their skin.
Douglas Coupland, as a character, is inserted into the novel when Ethan visits
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
to bring a
heroinHeroin, or diacetylmorphine , also known as diamorphine , is a semi-synthetic opioid drug synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine...
-addicted Steve back to
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. This
GoogleGoogle Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...
-version of Douglas Coupland consistently bumps into Ethan and manages to weave himself into the narrator's life.
JPod finds itself in a digital world where technology is everything and the human mind is incapable of focusing on just one task.
Characters
Ethan Harrison Jarlewski (Ethan)
Ethan is the main character and narrator of the story. He is almost thirty years old, slightly autistic, and works as a video game programmer. Ethan is a pushover and has a tendency to involuntarily get himself into uncomfortable situations. These uncomfortable situations, are for the most part, generated by his parents. Factors such as his mom’s grow-op, his parents' various affairs, and Kam Fong’s criminal endeavours all contribute to Ethan's awkward personality. Ethan can be described as simplistic, but he is occasionally
sociopathicPsychopathy is a psychological construct that describes chronic disregard for ethical principles and antisocial behavior.The term is often used interchangeably with sociopathy. This is a commonly made mistake. Sociopathy is no longer a correct term to use, and when it is used it actually refers to...
in his thinking. In the latter half of the book, he begins a relationship with Kaitlin.
Casper Jesperson (Cowboy)
Casper Jesperson (aka “Cowboy”) is Ethan’s co-worker. He grew up in an agricultural area where his mom convinced him that all cowboys had
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
and were dying because they smoked. Despite her word of warning, he continues to smoke. Cowboy is a sex addict and is always searching for more "conquests", even if that means lowering his standards. He is also addicted to cough syrup, specifically
RobitussinRobitussin is a line of cold and cough medicines produced by Wyeth Consumer Healthcare. Robitussin has various formulations. Robitussin CF is a cold formula; Robitussin DM contains the cough suppressant; there is a nighttime relief formula and there is a formula with codeine, available by...
(
DextromethorphanDextromethorphan is an antitussive drug. It is one of the active ingredients used to prevent coughs in many over-the-counter cold and cough medicines. Dextromethorphan has also found other uses in medicine, ranging from pain relief to psychological applications...
). Because of this, he often has to be bailed out by Ethan at odd times after he gets “tussed up” and ends up having sex with multiple people. Cowboy also has an unhealthy obsession with death.
Brianna Jyang (Bree)
Brianna Jyang, or “Bree” is another member of the
JPod crew. She is promiscuous and sleeps with many of the men she meets, only to find she is lonely again. Bree falls in love with a French man and makes several failed attempts to refine herself and her character in order to seem more appealing. Attempts such as changing the way she dresses, developing an English accent, taking both wine-tasting and other ‘cultured’ classes are prime examples of her state of desperation. Bree has multiple brothers and a sister who are very bright. Her sister works at the
World BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to poorer countries for capital programs, tied to neoliberal market restructurings...
, her older brother is finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, and her younger brother played
violaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
at the
White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
two years prior to when the story takes place.
John Doe (crow well mountain juniper)
John Doe is one of the strangest JPodders. His birth name is crow well mountain juniper (intentionally spelt in lower-case), but he legally changed his name to John Doe. John was born in a
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
commune as the only male member. He grew up without television, radio, pop culture, and other western cultural amenities and commonalities. In order to balance out his radical upbringing, John Doe strives to be as statistically normal as possible.
Brandon Mark Jackson (Evil Mark)
Evil Mark is one of the newest podders, joining just before Kaitlin. Being so much like Ethan in personality, he is nicknamed "Evil Mark" in order to tell them apart. Mark's strange quirk that makes him a JPodder is the need for everything around him to be edible. This quirk came from him being trapped in a U-Store-It space for four days without light or food.
Kaitlin Anna Boyd Joyce (Kaitlin)
Kaitlin is the newest member of JPod. She just joined a day before the beginning of the book. She is a student at both
KwantlenKwantlen may refer to one of the following:*Kwantlen people, an indigenous Coast Salish people in British Columbia*Kwantlen First Nation, the band government of the Kwantlen people...
and Capilano University. Kaitlin believes everyone at JPod is autistic to some extent. As a result of this belief, she develops a hugging machine to help them cope with human contact. She is considered the most ‘normal’ member of JPod, but this conflicts with the fact that she fabricates a complex hoax revolving around her and the Subway diet. The hoax's purpose was to fool her co-workers into believing that she once was overweight. In the latter half of the book she is in a relationship with Ethan.
Kam Fong
Kam Fong is a human and drug trafficker. Although an affluent businessman, Kam Fong is also an avid ballroom dancer much like Ethan's father. He is liked by everybody, but admittedly has no sense of humour. Kam Fong often helps others out in sticky situations but he is also responsible for a significant portion of the chaos in Ethan’s life.
Jim Jarlewski
Jim Jarlewski is Ethan’s dad. He is an enthusiastic, award-winning ballroom dancer. Jim is retired, but also prides himself in being an aspiring actor. Despite his ambition, he rarely manages a speaking role and is only ever cast as a mute extra. Jim suffers from the occasional breakdown and lack of confidence. He has an affair with Ethan’s former high school classmate, Ellen.
Carol Jarlewski
Carol Jarlewski is Ethan’s mom. Carol successfully operates a marijuana grow-op from her basement. She often draws Ethan into complicated situations revolving around her grow-op, including collecting money, and covering up a murder. She accidentally kills 'Tim the Biker' by electrocuting him when he tries to extort fifty percent of her crop. It is suggested that Carol has affairs with various men, and then she eventually switches over to women and moves to a lesbian commune.
Greg Jarlewski
Greg Jarlewski is Ethan’s older brother. Greg is a real estate agent who is involved with Kam Fong in human-trafficking.
Steven Lefkowitz (Steve)
Steve is the head of marketing and is in charge of JPod. He used to work at
TobleroneToblerone is a chocolate bar made by Kraft Foods Switzerland. It is best known for its triangular chunks , its distinctive packaging, its prism shape and its ubiquity in airport duty-free shops.Toblerone was created by Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann in Bern, Switzerland...
chocolate company and turned it around in two years. He attempts to integrate a turtle named Jeff into JPod’s video game BoardX in order to reconnect with his son, also named Jeff. After a brief encounter with Ethan's mom, Steve becomes infatuated with her. His obsession quickly escalates to an uncomfortable level for Carol leading her to ask Kam Fong for help. Kam Fong then abducts Steve and transports him to China to work in a
sweatshopA sweatshop is a working environment with conditions that are considered by many people of industrialised nations to be difficult or dangerous, usually where the workers have few opportunities to address their situation. This can include exposure to harmful materials, hazardous situations, extreme...
. During this period, Steve becomes addicted to heroin.
freedom
freedom is John Doe’s
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
mother. She is a forceful character who convinces Carol to move into the lesbian commune. To much surprise, she later on becomes involved with Kam Fong (despite her radical lesbian viewpoints), which changes her character dramatically.
Douglas Coupland (Anti-Doug)
Douglas Coupland is a character based on the Google-version of himself. He is the developer of Dglobe. He rescues Ethan in China but is a complete, amoral asshole and constantly frustrates Ethan. He is referred to by the author as “Anti-Doug”, an exaggeration of his negative traits (1).
History of Chinatown
From 1890 to 1920, early Chinese immigrants to Vancouver settled in what was known as Shanghai Alley and Canton Alley. By 1890, Shanghai Alley was home to more than 1,000 Chinese residents. Much of the community's activities and entertainment evolved around a 500 seat Chinese theatre built in 1898. Over time these Alleys grew and spread out, becoming what is known as
ChinatownA Chinatown is a section of an urban area with a large number of Chinese residents, usually outside of Greater China. Chinatowns are present throughout the world, including those in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe....
. Today’s Chinatown is a destination for many Chinese and Asians from neighbouring cities and towns, providing a testament to the early Chinese’s struggles and triumphs in Canada. Mandarin and Cantonese are the mother tongues in 30 per cent of Vancouver homes, which makes Chinese the largest "minority" ethnic group.
Vancouver’s Multiculturalism
The city of
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
is made up of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Vancouver is the third largest city in Canada with a high percentage a visible minority and immigrant populations. In 2001, 49% of the city’s total population was of visible minority background, compared to 44.8% in 1996.
In 2001, 45.9% of the total population were immigrants (defined as people who were not born in Canada). Vancouver has 14% of BC’s population, but it has 24.5% of BC’s total immigrants. The three most numerous groups of recent immigrants are of Chinese, Filipino and Indian origin. The classification of “recent immigrants” refers to those who immigrated in the last five years.
The people of Vancouver also speak a multitude of languages. Based on the 2001 Census figures, 49.4% of the city’s population identified English as their mother tongue, while 50.6% identified a language other than English as their mother tongue.
Immigration
The number and proportion of Chinese entrepreneurs from
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
and
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
who have come to Canada under the sponsorship of the Canadian Business Immigration Program have increased substantially over the past decade or so. This migration pattern is likely to continue, based on three interrelated factors. The first is the continuing globalization of the
Asia-PacificAsia-Pacific or Apac is that part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean. The area includes much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Oceania)....
financial markets which leads not only to direct capital investment in Canada and to capital accumulation but also to an associated migration of agents and owners of capital . The second factor is the continuing political and economic uncertainty in both Hong Kong and Taiwan which will contribute to continuing transmigration and trans-nationalism amongst many Chinese entrepreneurs. Finally, current Canadian immigration policy is gradually shifting toward an increased emphasis on economic immigration with a corresponding de-emphasis on family and humanitarian immigration. Chinese entrepreneurs have constituted approximately half of all entrepreneurial business immigrants to Canada since the early 1990s. They have contributed to the ‘Asianization’ of larger cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto, both culturally and economically. Their economic impact includes job creation and direct capital investment.
Illegal Immigration
There are about one million shipping crates that enter Canada through the port of Vancouver each year, and while some of these crates are known to be carrying illegal immigrants, finding one of them is nearly impossible. In January 2000, however,
CustomsCustoms is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country. Depending on local legislation and regulations, the import or export of...
officers found two containers packed with illegal immigrants. The living conditions were dirty and unhealthy, with buckets substituting for toilets and little water and food to survive on. Since then, Canadian authorities have been targeting containers suspected of holding immigrants. Investors estimate that international Chinese smuggling is a $10 billion business run by organized gangs who manage to stay well hidden from the international law enforcement.
Related Works and Influences
BookShorts
A short video film depicturing characters of
JPod was filmed in 2006 by BookShorts.com project with support from Random House Canada.
Microserfs
JPod has been described frequently as an updating of Coupland’s 1995 novel
MicroserfsMicroserfs, published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length...
for the 2000s. Publisher’s Weekly even called
JPod “Microserfs 2.0”.
Both novels centre around a group of eccentric young programming professionals. Both books are narrated by a young male (Ethan Jarlewski in
JPod, Daniel Underwood in Microserfs). Both of these characters write the novel manuscript on a laptop, and both novels feature random product names, slogans, and messages in varying font size. In Microserfs, Daniel types in these random messages in an attempt to tap into his computer’s subconscious, while in
JPod, the messages reflect the stream of messages, and consciousness, that computer users experience everyday. The narrator in both novels also begins and maintains a relationship with a female co-worker; Daniel dates Karla and Ethan dates Kaitlin. Both novels also deal heavily with lifestyle in the modern age of technology.
In addition, the characters in both novels are introduced by the narrator through a piece of pop culture: in Microserfs, Daniel lists his co-workers’ dream categories in a game of
Jeopardy!Jeopardy! is an American quiz show featuring trivia in topics such as history, literature, the arts, pop culture, and science. The show has a unique answer-and-question format in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.The...
and in
JPod, Ethan asks his co-workers to design an
eBayeBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include...
page for themselves.
Finally, both novels touch on
autismAutism is a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism involves many parts of the brain; how this occurs is not well understood...
. In Microserfs, Daniel says that he thinks that all tech people are autistic, and in
JPod, Kaitlin describes all of her co-workers and her boss as mildly autistic. On an interesting side note, hugging machines as described in the novel have actually been developed to help those with autism.
Sitcoms
JPod was called by one reviewer “a 448 page sitcom”. The style of humour is very similar to that of sitcoms, and especially of
Arrested DevelopmentArrested Development is an American television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show is centered around the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, habitually dysfunctional family and is presented in a pseudo-documentary format, incorporating hand-held camera work,...
. The humour mainly comes from character flaws. The characters themselves do not have much depth them, and the flaws that they have are exaggerated for comic effect. For example, John Doe is obsessed with being an average person and many of his actions result from this singular character trait.
Terry
TerryTerry is a pictorial biography of Terry Fox written by Canadian author Douglas Coupland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Fox's death in 1981.-Overview:...
is Douglas Coupland’s pictorial biography of
Terry FoxTerrance Stanley "Terry" Fox, CC was a Canadian humanitarian, athlete, and cancer treatment activist. He became famous for the Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research, which Fox ran with one prosthetic leg...
, written to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Terry’s 1981 death and published in 2005. Coupland was writing both
Terry and
JPod simultaneously, and Coupland was quoted in the Jerusalem Post saying that all of his “more noble character traits went into [Terry]. There was a tar-pit of ooze left over that wanted to go somewhere.
JPod was it." This helps to explain the malicious version of Douglas Coupland (Anti-Doug) who appears in the novel.
e
JPod has many similarities to
ee is a comic novel by Matt Beaumont first published in 2000. Written in the epistolary tradition, it consists entirely of e-mails written between the employees of an advertising agency and some of their business partners...
, which is a 2000 comic novel by British author
Matt BeaumontMatthew Beaumont is a British novelist and former copywriter.Beaumont made his debut in 2000 with the comic novel, e. The Novel of Liars, Lunch and Lost Knickers, which consists entirely of e-mails composed by the staff of one advertising office...
. e is made entirely of e-mails between employees at an ad agency (something which the workers at JPod also do).
e mocks corporate culture much like
JPod, and its plot is also similarly fragmented, and events (such as suicide) are hardly taken seriously.
Epistolary Novels
Parts of the text of
JPod are written as e-mails, text messages, and other messages written by the characters themselves. Therefore,
JPod can be considered partly an
epistolary novelAn epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs and e-mails have also come into use...
, although much of the novel is also standard narrative format.
Self-insertion
JPod makes extensive use of the literary device of
self-insertionSelf-insertion is a literary device in which an author character who is the real author of a work of fiction appears as a character within that fiction, either overtly or in disguise....
, in which the author himself appears as a character. Other examples of this technique appear in
The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century . The tales are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral...
,
The Divine ComedyThe Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a...
, and numerous other fictional works.
Video Gaming
JPod draws similarities to several real-life elements of the video gaming world. For example, the company that the characters work at is called Neotronic Arts, which is extremely similar to the real company
Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts is an international developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible...
. Besides the similarity in the name, both video game companies have their main office in Burnaby, close to the freeway, and both deal heavily in sports games.
Also, the video game that the company is working on initially, BoardX, is very similar to EA's
SkateSkate is a skateboarding video game developed by EA Black Box for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in North America on September 17, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and September 24, 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and in Europe on September 28, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and October 5, 2007 for the...
series of video games. In addition to the fact that both are skateboarding games, both games feature expansive real world environments. Both games have a gritty, underworld feel to them as well, giving the game an edge, obviously appearing to a more mature audience. Both games also rely heavily on the main skater character's accidents.
TV series
A TV series based on the novel was produced by
CBCCBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.-Overview:CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming, in most cases feeding the same programming at the same local times...
and began airing in January 2008. The show starred
David KoppDavid Kopp may refer to:* David Kopp , German professional cyclist* David Kopp , actor in Stargate representing Lt. Grogan* David Kopp , author of Christian books....
,
Emilie UllerupEmilie Ullerup is a Danish-born Canadian actress. She is best known as Ashley Magnus on the Syfy series Sanctuary.-Education:...
, Ben Ayres,
Steph SongSteph Song is a Malaysian-born actress raised in Canada and Australia.- Career :Song acted mostly on a freelance basis in Singapore in her early career, and was the female lead in the second season of Heartlanders, as well as the first season of Achar, which won bronze medal at the New York...
,
Torrance CoombsTorrance is a Canadian-born actor.Torrance was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.Coombs joined the school choir to break out of his shell and was soon cast in the role of Rum Tum Tugger in CATS....
,
Colin CunninghamColin Alexander Cunningham is an American television and film actor, now living in Vancouver, British Columbia.Cunningham was born in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his recurring role on Stargate SG-1 as USAF Major Paul Davis...
,
Sherry MillerSherry Miller is a Canadian actress.Miller began her career as a singer and dancer, gaining attention throughout Canada for her role in television commercials for Spumante Bambino wine...
, and
Alan ThickeAlan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains....
. Six of the episodes were written or co-written by
Douglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognised works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularised terms such as McJob and...
.
The show began airing on Tuesday nights, but because of low ratings it was moved to Friday nights. The continued low ratings resulted in CBC announcing the cancellation of the series in March 2008, despite the fan-based protest that this sparked. A total of 13 episodes were produced. The executive producer of the series, Larry Sugar, blamed CBC for the cancellation, saying that they had not done enough to promote the show.
Reviews of JPod
JPod has been received with mixed reception from literary critics. Some felt it is just an unsuccessful update of Microserfs, with no added substance, while others enjoyed its entertaining style and
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
.
Favourable
Favourable reviews of
JPod largely focus on its entertaining qualities arising from the improbable-probable lives and quirks of the characters. As a Post-Gutenberg novel
JPod is recognized for reflecting the fragmented state of the technology saturated generation, illustrating this generation’s inability to concentrate on one item for more than a few seconds.
John Elk’s review of
JPod comments on the novel being an affirmative updating of Coupland’s previous
MicroserfsMicroserfs, published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length...
, for the "Google generation". Coupland is mentioned as being “possibly the most gifted exegete of North American mass culture writing today”, with
JPod being “his strongest, best-observed novel since Microserfs."
JPod is described as an engaging book, with bizarre characters and devices making it “definitely worth the read” and while it is “not fully satisfying, it is entertaining”.
Another review of
JPod describes how the fragmentation of the book relates to the autistic characteristics of the characters. The book is about the technology and video game generation, who “paradoxically have superhuman powers on concentration, yet can’t seem to focus on anything”. This message is brought up throughout the book, which tends to provoke the reader to really think about the effects of technology on our society.
Unfavourable
On the other hand, many critics were frustrated and irritated by the book. Dennis Lim of
The Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper in New York City, United States featuring investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts reviews and events listings for New York City...
called it “smug, vacuous, easily distracted, and often supremely irritating”. He did note, however, that this “may be purposeful, but it's not in service of a meaningful larger point—unless you count the unmissable observation that too much information is, like, overwhelming”. John Elk said that Coupland “is neither a master of plot nor of characterization”, and his characters were also called “hollowed-out cartoons”.
Coupland was further criticized by critics like David Daley of
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth...
, who wrote that “subtlety still eludes Coupland” and that his “relentless riffing can be exhausting”. The 41 pages spent listing digits of
piPi or π is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. The symbol π was first proposed by the Welsh mathematician William Jones in 1706...
, for example, were found by many to be pointless and, as
Patrick NessPatrick Ness is an American author, journalist and lecturer who lives in London.-Biography:Ness was born on Fort Belvoir army base, near Alexandria, Virginia in the United States where his father was a drill sergeant in the US Army...
noted, “lazily assembled”. As well, many critics found that Coupland’s appearance as a character was annoying, “narcissistic” and “an obvious and sort of sad attempt to turn [himself] into a cultural icon”. Other critics wondered if Coupland simply inserted himself because he didn’t know how else to end it.
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