jPod

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For the TV series based on the book, see jPod (TV series).
jPod  
Author Douglas Coupland
Cover artist Will Webb
Country Canada
Language English
Genre(s) Epistolary, Satire
Publisher Random House of Canada (first edition), Bloomsbury USA (first edition)
Publication date 9 May 2006
Media type print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 528 (Canadian Hardback), 448 (USA hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0-679-31424-5 (first edition, Canadian hardback), ISBN 1-59691-233-2 (first edition, USA hardback)
Preceded by Eleanor Rigby
Followed by The Gum Thief

jPod is a coming-of-age novel by Douglas Coupland 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 television series co-written by Douglas Coupland. It premiered on January 8 2008, and ran until its cancellation on March 7 2008, leaving the series with a permanent cliffhanger. Episode 1-13 of the series airs in the United States on The WB.

Contents

[edit] Plot

jPod is an avant-garde 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 Resources through a computer glitch. Ethan Jarlewski is the novel’s main character and narrator, 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 Probst into the skateboard 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 McDonald. They do this by creating a secret level where Ronald works maleavolence, 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 machine 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 China to bring a heroin-addicted Steve back to Canada. This Google-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.

[edit] 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 sociopathic 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 cancer 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 Robitussin (Dextromethorphan). 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 Bank, her older brother is finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, and her younger brother played viola at the White House 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 lesbian 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 Kwantlen 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 enthusiatic, 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 Toblerone 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 sweatshop. During this period, Steve becomes addicted to heroin.

freedom
freedom is John Doe’s lesbian 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).

[edit] Major Themes

jPod is essentially a satire of modern youth society. It is heavily weighted on the role of technology in a North American young adult's life. Coupland portrays this idea by presenting jPod as if one is using a laptop computer, which is made apparent by the numerous and random pages of spam.

1) A main theme of Coupland’s jPod is presented through his use of the Post Gutenberg style. Post Gutenberg literature presents the text as it would be seen had it been published on the Internet and creates the same lack of censorship that is exhibited with Internet content. The effect produced by this writing style provides a commentary on the overly censored nature of society today. The overtly sexual scenes and, in some areas of the text, lack of political correctness exhibited in the text connotes to readers that our society has become so “politically correct” that we are afraid to make comments based on our true feelings and beliefs, ultimately leading to, in a sense, our society becoming politically incorrect.

2) jPod also touches on the universal theme of the importance of self acceptance and personal identity. At the beginning of the text, the characters adopt those characteristics that they feel society feels they should have; consequently, they are largely cynical towards the world around them, and are unhappy. However, as each of the subplots unfolds, the characters come to grips with their true personality traits, their various forms of autism, and learn to accept their family situations. Furthermore, they learn to use these things to make themselves stronger, to open up to one another, and to learn to take risks. This ultimately leads to their happiness and sense of personal fulfillment exhibited at the end of the text as made apparent by their courageous and somewhat risky move of taking a new job working with Anti-Doug in which they are all seemingly content.

3) jPod also exhibits elements of the classic literary theme of acceptance of each other’s differences. Each of the characters in the book has some type of proverbial “blemish” on their personality. These “blemishes” range from a vindictive and sadistic nature (Evil Mark), or to having an addiction to cough medications and sex (Cancer Cowboy), to being overtly sexual (Bree), or having strange obsessions as a result of previous trauma or circumstances (John Doe, Evil Mark). However, the members of jPod learn to treat these differences as the best parts of their personality, and learn to look for those things which they have in common to become friends.

4) The last two parts of the book are heavily focused around the prevalence of undiagnosed autism (especially high-functioning autistics). Each member of jPod exhibits some form of mild autism, yet can function nearly normally in their environment and are all extremely gifted gaming programmers. This is perceivably an attempt by Coupland to reduce some of the stigma surrounding the disease. The integration of autism into the text connotes to readers that the current societal view of the illness is incorrect. It is not a mental illness which renders you incapacitated in all cases, that it is possible to live with, and that there are many people who have this illness but remain undiagnosed and may not even be aware that they suffer from autism.

5) The recurring references to elements of pop-culture throughout the novel, including popular television programs (ie. The Simpsons), movies, music, commercials, and video games alludes to the theme that in modern society, people have developed a reliance on today’s different aspects of pop-culture to define themselves. The fact that the characters in jPod also exhibit this reliance, further demonstrates this theme.

6) The references to drug use, marijuana grow-ops, and human trafficking exhibited in jPod allude to the corrupt nature of society and the prevalence of crime in our modern world. Ethan’s mother is a perfect example of this as although she appears to be an innocent house wife and mother, in reality, she is running a grow-op in the family basement and “accidentally” kills a biker. There are also many other characters in the book who participate in illegal activities, strongly alluding to the prevalence of crime in society.

7) Another, less overtly expressed theme exhibited in jPod is the societal belief that we have free will when it comes to consumption, but in reality, we mindlessly submit to the millions of advertisements we encounter on a daily basis. The following passage from the novel in which it is Ethan speaking strongly alludes to this theme:

Ethan is annoyed by the Audi campaign that says, ‘Never Follow.’ Frankly, Ethan is annoyed with all of these dumb campaigns that indoctrinate millions of people into thinking they’re tough guy free spirits when, in fact, there’s probably much to be said for following and, in any event, the food chain isn’t structured to encompass millions of non-followers. So you end up with a population of frustrated, brink-of-bitterness cranks. [1]

8) The final major theme of Douglas Coupland’s jPod is arguably the most important-the commentary on the fragmented nature of the upcoming generations. The novel itself could be deemed as “random”, meaning it lacks a sense of continuity. This characteristic of the novel is what provides the commentary on modern society. Today’s youth live a more fragmented life than ever before, and it is largely due to the influence of the computer that today’s youth cannot focus on one thing for any length of time. [2] The use of “pop-up” adds and, in fact, the lack of concentration exhibited by the jPod characters themselves, as well as the other fragmented aspects of the plot, etc. all imitate the “random” and fragmented nature of the youth of today; thus presenting this important theme.

[edit] External References in jPod

[edit] 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 Chinatown. 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. [3]

[edit] Vancouver’s Multiculturalism

The city of Vancouver 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. [4]

[edit] Immigration

The number and proportion of Chinese entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Taiwan 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-Pacific 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 [5] . 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.

[edit] 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, Customs 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. [6]

[edit] Related Works and Influences

BookShorts

There's a short video film depicturing characters of JPod, filmed in 2006 by BookShorts.com project with support from Random House Canada: http://bookshorts.com/watch_jpod.htm

Microserfs

jPod has been described frequently as an updating of Coupland’s 1995 novel Microserfs for the 2000s. Publisher’s Weekly even called JPod “Microserfs 2.0”. [7]

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!” and in jPod, Ethan asks his co-workers to design an eBay page for themselves.

Finally, both novels touch on autism. 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. [8]

Sitcoms

jPod was called by one reviewer “a 448 page sitcom” [9] . The style of humour is very similar to that of sitcoms, and especially of Arrested Development. 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

Terry is Douglas Coupland’s pictorial biography of Terry Fox, 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." [10] This helps to explain the malicious version of Douglas Coupland (Anti-Doug) who appears in the novel.

e

jPod has many similarities to e, which is a 2000 comic novel by British author Matt Beaumont. 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 novel, although much of the novel is also standard narrative format.

Self-insertion

jPod makes extensive use of the literary device of self-insertion, in which the author himself appears as a character. Other examples of this technique appear in The Canterbury Tales, The Divine Comedy, 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 Arts. 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 the Tony Hawk 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.

TV series

A TV series based on the novel was produced by CBC and began airing in January 2008. The show starred David Kopp, Emilie Ullerup, Ben Ayres, Steph Song, Torrance Coombs, Colin Cunningham, Sherry Miller, and Alan Thicke. Six of the episodes were written or co-written by Douglas Coupland.

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 the CBC for the cancellation, saying that they had not done enough to promote the show.[11]

[edit] 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 satire.


Favourable

Favourable reviews of jPod laregly 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 Microserfs, 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. [12]jPod is described as an engaging book, with bizzare characters and devices making it “definitely worth the read” and while it is “not fully satisfying, it is entertaining” [13] .

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” [14]. 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 Voice called it “smug, vacuous, easily distracted, and often supremely irritating” [15] . 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”. It was also said that Coupland “is neither a master of plot nor of characterization” [12] by John Elek, and his characters were also called “hollowed-out cartoons” [15] .

Coupland was further criticized by critics like David Daley of the USA Today , who wrote that “subtlety still eludes Coupland” and that his “relentless riffing can be exhausting” [16] . The 41 pages spent listing digits of pi , for example, were found by many to be pointless and, as Patrick Ness noted, “lazily assembled” [17]. 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” [14] . Other critics wondered if Coupland simply inserted himself because he didn’t know how else to end it. [16]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Coupland, Douglas. JPod. Vintage Canada Edition. Toronto: Random House of Canada, 2007. p. 170
  2. ^ Ogden, Stephen. Lecture. English 101W-E100: Introduction to Fiction. Simon Fraser U, Burnaby, BC. 10 Nov. 2008.
  3. ^ “History of Vancouver Chinatown.” 2008. Vancouver Chinatown. 15 Nov. 2008. [1].
  4. ^ “Vancouver’s Diverse Population.” Feb. 2006. City of Vancouver Community Services. 15 Nov. 2008. [2]
  5. ^ Wong, Lloyd. “Chinese Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Vancouver”. Canadian Ethics Study Journal. Spring 1998. (1-2). Bnet Business Network. 15 Nov. 2008. [3]
  6. ^ “Smuggling Chinese Immigrants”. Jan. 2000. CNN. 15 Nov. 2008. [4]
  7. ^ Publishers Weekly. “JPod”. Reed Business Information, 2006. Amazon.com 16 Nov. 2008. [5]
  8. ^ Edell, Dean. "A Hugging Machine To Help Autistic Kids". ABC-7 News. 20 Aug. 2005. 16 Nov. 2008. [6]
  9. ^ Cantrell, Christian. “Review of JPod by Douglas Coupland”. Living Digitally. 9 Jan. 2008. 10 Nov. 2008. [7]
  10. ^ “Generation JPod”. Jerusalem Post. 7 July 2006.
  11. ^ Andrews, Marke. “Just Cancelled: CBC’s jPod”. Vancouver Sun. 7 Mar. 2008. 15 Nov. 2008. [8]
  12. ^ a b Elek, John. “When Ronald McDonald Did Dirty Deeds”. The Observer. May 21, 2006. November 9, 2008. [9]
  13. ^ Salinas, E. A. “JPod: a novel.” Amazon.com. June 2006. 15 Nov. 2008. [10]
  14. ^ a b Cantrell, Christian. “Review of JPod by Douglas Coupland”. Living Digitally. January 9, 2008. November 10, 2008. [11]
  15. ^ a b Lim, Dennis. “JPod”. The Village Voice. June 6, 2006. November 8, 2008. [12]
  16. ^ a b Daley, David. “JPod Toys With Today’s Techno Geeks”. USA Today. May 22, 2006. November 9,2008. [13]
  17. ^ Ness, Patrick. “Canada Dry”. The Observer. June 3, 2006. November 10, 2008. [14]
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