Player One
Encyclopedia
Player One: What Is to Become of Us is a book written by Douglas Coupland
for the 2010 Massey Lectures
. Each of the book's five chapters was delivered as a one hour lecture in a different Canadian city: Vancouver
on October 12, Regina
on October 14, Charlottetown
on October 19, Ottawa
on October 25 and ending in Toronto
on October 29. The lectures were broadcast on CBC Radio One
's Ideas
November 8–12. The book was published by House of Anansi Press
.
The plot follows four characters, Karen, Rick, Luke, and Rachel, as they arrive in the lounge of an airport bar, as they interact with one another, and as they cope with chaos that erupts as cataclysmic events occur. The story addresses their motivations and perceptions, as well as their thoughts on certain themes. There are several minor characters and a fifth main character, Player One, who retells the events that the four main characters experience but from the perspective of an outside observer, like someone exploring a video game environment.
In "Hour Three: God's little Dumpsters" Karen's daughter tells them, over the phone, of rioting and general chaos that is occurring. Rick and Luke crawl through the ventilation shafts to the roof to overpower the sniper but fail and retreat to the lounge. As chemical fall-out starts to land on the airport the sniper seeks shelter in the lounge and is taken prisoner by the other characters. In "Hour Four: Hello, My Name Is: Monster" Rick and Rachel have sex, the sniper explains his motivations, and a teenager suffering from chemical burns seeks their help. In the final chapter "Hour Five: The View From Inside Daffy Duck's Hole" Karen and Luke tend to the teenager’s wounds. Rachel discovers that the sniper is actually Leslie Freemont's son, and upon stating this, the sniper panics, manages to get his gun back and shoots Rachel. The final part of the final chapter is told from the combined point-of-view of Rachel and Player One, who exist in what is labeled as Eternity, and provide an epilogue revealing the fates of the characters.
Rick
Luke
Rachel
Player One
Warren
Leslie Freemont
Bertis
Max
.
The story's themes reflect many of the themes Coupland has addressed in his other works, including themes on time, religion, an afterlife, and communication. One reviewer mentioned that the book has "quintessential Coupland themes, chiefly, how the speed of change, both technologically and socially driven, is altering the world, our own sense of self and our souls". In relation to the Future Legend glossary at the end of the book Coupland said "The future is happening so fast and furious right now, there's no language to describe all these new sensations, so we have to begin inventing one".
and released in October 2010 as Coupland began the Massey lecture series
in Vancouver
on October 12. Each lecture consisted of Coupland reading aloud one chapter, followed by questions from the audience and a book signing. The second lecture took place in Regina
on the 14th, followed by Charlottetown
on the 19th, Ottawa
on the 25th, and ending on October 29 in Toronto
. The series was recorded then aired on CBC Radio One
's Ideas
between November 8 and 12. The book was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
.
The review in the Library Journal
wrote that the book is "eminently readable, humorous, and philosophical if at times slightly lightweight" and that it "is a worthwhile novel that may also appeal to younger readers". By selecting Coupland, the Massey Lecture selection committee did intend to appeal to "a slightly younger demographic than previous Massey Lectures". In the Booklist
review, Jonathan Fullmer writes, "A taut and scintillating exploration of time, Coupland's tale is both smart and suspenseful while simultaneously questioning the meaning of narration."
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized 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, popularized terms such as McJob and...
for the 2010 Massey Lectures
Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures are an annual week-long series of lectures on a political, cultural or philosophical topic given in Canada by a noted scholar. They were created in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada...
. Each of the book's five chapters was delivered as a one hour lecture in a different Canadian city: Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
on October 12, Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
on October 14, Charlottetown
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
on October 19, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
on October 25 and ending in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
on October 29. The lectures were broadcast on CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
's Ideas
Ideas (radio show)
Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...
November 8–12. The book was published by House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction....
.
The plot follows four characters, Karen, Rick, Luke, and Rachel, as they arrive in the lounge of an airport bar, as they interact with one another, and as they cope with chaos that erupts as cataclysmic events occur. The story addresses their motivations and perceptions, as well as their thoughts on certain themes. There are several minor characters and a fifth main character, Player One, who retells the events that the four main characters experience but from the perspective of an outside observer, like someone exploring a video game environment.
Synopsis
The book is divided into five chapters. Each chapter is divided into five parts, each describing events from the perspective of one of the five main characters: Karen, Rick, Luke, Rachel, and Player One. The first chapter "Hour One: Cue the Flaming Zeppelin" has Karen arriving at the Toronto airport on a flight from Winnipeg to meet a man she met online. She sits on a stool at the airport hotel bar in which Rick is the bartender, Rachel is at a computer terminal, and Luke is sitting at a table drinking scotch. Rachel is there with the expectation to meet a man who can father her child and approaches Luke. Karen's date goes badly as she finds the man too assertive physically and too distant intellectually. A self-help guru, Leslie Freemont, enters with his assistant Tara to welcome Rick into his empowerment program; Leslie gives a speech to the group, takes Rick's money, and leaves. Meanwhile, oil prices rapidly increase and explosions start to occur outside. With the power unreliable, Karen, Rick, Luke, and Rachel run to Rick's vehicle to listen to the radio. Karen's date, Warren, is killed by a sniper as he runs to the group who quickly return to the bar lounge where they barricade themselves in.In "Hour Three: God's little Dumpsters" Karen's daughter tells them, over the phone, of rioting and general chaos that is occurring. Rick and Luke crawl through the ventilation shafts to the roof to overpower the sniper but fail and retreat to the lounge. As chemical fall-out starts to land on the airport the sniper seeks shelter in the lounge and is taken prisoner by the other characters. In "Hour Four: Hello, My Name Is: Monster" Rick and Rachel have sex, the sniper explains his motivations, and a teenager suffering from chemical burns seeks their help. In the final chapter "Hour Five: The View From Inside Daffy Duck's Hole" Karen and Luke tend to the teenager’s wounds. Rachel discovers that the sniper is actually Leslie Freemont's son, and upon stating this, the sniper panics, manages to get his gun back and shoots Rachel. The final part of the final chapter is told from the combined point-of-view of Rachel and Player One, who exist in what is labeled as Eternity, and provide an epilogue revealing the fates of the characters.
Characters
Karen- A divorced mother of one daughter, and a receptionist at a psychiatrist office, who travels from Winnipeg to Toronto to meet Warren whom she met in an online forum.
Rick
- A divorced father of one son, and a recovering alcoholic, who works as a bartender at the Toronto Airport Camelot Hotel. He has been saving money to enroll in an empowerment program operated by Leslie Freemont.
Luke
- A pastor of a church in Nipissing, OntarioNipissing, OntarioNipissing is a township in central Ontario, Canada, on Lake Nipissing in Parry Sound District. Nipissing was surveyed between 1874 and 1881, and was incorporated in 1888. Among the first settlers in the area were the Chapman and Beatty families. Nipissing village annexed Gurd Township in 1970...
who lost his faith in religion, stole $20,000 from the church and fled to Toronto.
Rachel
- A young woman who operates a business that breeds lab mice and lives with psychological conditions on the Autism spectrumAutism spectrumThe term "autism spectrum" is often used to describe disorders that are currently classified as pervasive developmental disorders. Pervasive developmental disorders include autism, Asperger syndrome, Childhood disintegrative disorder, Rett syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise...
. Among her psychological conditions is prosopagnosiaProsopagnosiaProsopagnosia is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact...
, as well as an inability to understand humour, metaphors, irony, or social cues. She wants to become pregnant to prove to her parents that she can lead what they consider a normal life.
Player One
- A disembodied voice who watches the events and comments on the character's past, present, and future actions and circumstances.
Warren
- The man who Karen is scheduled to meet at the hotel bar.
Leslie Freemont
- A self-help guru who operates the Power Dynamics Seminar System. He arrives with his assistant Tara to accept Rick into the program.
Bertis
- A religious fanatic, the son of Leslie Freemont, and the sniper on the bar's roof.
Max
- A teenager who tries to covertly take photos of Karen during their flight. He stumbles upon the group as he flees the chemical fall-out.
Style and themes
Player One is the first Massey Lecture to be delivered as a work of fiction: a 50,000-word novel. The story is told as a first-person narrative with the perspective rotated between the five main characters: Karen, Luke, Rick, Rachel, and Player One. The narrative voice was described as being the typical "Coupland-esque coolness" with the "same apocalyptic feel" as his previous novel, Generation AGeneration A
Generation A is the thirteenth novel from Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland. It takes place in a near future, in a world in which bees have become extinct. The novel is told with a shifting frame narrative perspective, shifting between the novel's five main protagonists...
.
The story's themes reflect many of the themes Coupland has addressed in his other works, including themes on time, religion, an afterlife, and communication. One reviewer mentioned that the book has "quintessential Coupland themes, chiefly, how the speed of change, both technologically and socially driven, is altering the world, our own sense of self and our souls". In relation to the Future Legend glossary at the end of the book Coupland said "The future is happening so fast and furious right now, there's no language to describe all these new sensations, so we have to begin inventing one".
Publication and reception
The book was published by House of Anansi PressHouse of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction....
and released in October 2010 as Coupland began the Massey lecture series
Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures are an annual week-long series of lectures on a political, cultural or philosophical topic given in Canada by a noted scholar. They were created in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
on October 12. Each lecture consisted of Coupland reading aloud one chapter, followed by questions from the audience and a book signing. The second lecture took place in Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
on the 14th, followed by Charlottetown
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
on the 19th, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
on the 25th, and ending on October 29 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. The series was recorded then aired on CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
's Ideas
Ideas (radio show)
Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...
between November 8 and 12. The book was long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Scotiabank Giller Prize, or Giller Prize, is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries...
.
The review in the Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
wrote that the book is "eminently readable, humorous, and philosophical if at times slightly lightweight" and that it "is a worthwhile novel that may also appeal to younger readers". By selecting Coupland, the Massey Lecture selection committee did intend to appeal to "a slightly younger demographic than previous Massey Lectures". In the Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
review, Jonathan Fullmer writes, "A taut and scintillating exploration of time, Coupland's tale is both smart and suspenseful while simultaneously questioning the meaning of narration."