JPod
 | |
| Author | Douglas Coupland |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Will Webb |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Epistolary, Satire |
| Publisher | Random House of Canada (first edition), Bloomsbury USA (first edition) |
Publication date | 9 May 2006 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| 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) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | Eleanor Rigby |
| Followed by | The Gum Thief |
jPod is a fictional, coming-of-age novel by Douglas Coupland published by Random House of Canadain 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of main character Ethan Jarlewski and his team of video game programmers whose last name all begin with the letter “J”.
jPod also became a CBC television series premiering on January 8, 2008, and ran until its cancellation on March 7, 2008, leaving the series with a permanent cliffhanger ending.
Plot
jPod is a fictional novel about six 20-something year old co-workers whose last names all start with the letter “J” and were assigned to the same undesirable cubicle pod in a Burnaby-based video game company after being alphabetically placed 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 mother runs a successful marijuana co-op, his father would do anything to get a speaking role in a movie, and his realtor brother involves himself with shady people, including a Chinese gangster-business man named Kam Fong. Fong connects to all of the major characters – Ethan’s brother in real estate, Ethan’s dad through ballroom dancing, and even deals with Steve, the marketing executive at the company Ethan works at, when he becomes obsessed with Ethan’s mother. The team is required to insert a turtle character based on Jeff Probst into their skateboard game called BoardX when Steve decides to win over his son, who loves turtles. jPod is then drastically challenged and changed when Steve goes missing and the new executive replacement declares a new game development of an inspiring prince character 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 in a hidden room who destroys the game – creating a suitable game in their opinion. 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 that 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, and routinely bumps into Ethan and manages to weave himself into Ethan’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
The Plot of JPod is, essentially, a series of smaller plotlines meshed together. These plotlines (in a somewhat chronological order) include:
- Development of a game, first named "BoardX". The game is later radically changed and renamed "SpriteQuest".
- John Doe's pursuit of a statistically normal lifestyle.
- Ethan's relationship with Kaitlin.
- Ethan's mother's marijuana grow-op including its eventual destruction.
- An elaborate hoax by Kaitlin to fool her co-workers into thinking she was involved in a scandal for a diet involving Subway sandwiches.
- Kam Fong's various businesses in human trafficking.
- Steve's abduction, and JPod trying to find him.
- Cowboy's paranoia of signs pointing to his unavoidable death.
- Various characters being sent away to China at different intervals in the plot.
- Ethan's mother moving to a lesbian commune and Jim's attempt to win her back.
Influences
Electronic Arts
The company in JPod, Neotronic Arts, appears to be loosely based on Electronic Arts (EA),[1] which is one of the world's largest video game publishing companies and has one of its largest development offices in the Vancouver area. Mention is made of the reliance of the company's game on sports and other media intellectual properties, as well as a sister office in Orlando, Florida, both of which are characteristic of EA. Furthermore, multiple references are made to characteristic features of the EA Canada (EAC) complex including multi-level layered walkways. It is stated that the offices are in the suburb of Burnaby, near the freeway, which would also be accurate.
Autism
The novel’s heavy shift in focus to that of autism in the last section is inspired and influenced by Coupland’s own admitted autism. [2]
Title
The title is undoubtedly also a reference to the iPod, It may also be a reference to J-Pop, in which Coupland has showed interest in his other books.
References to Popculture
- "Grind the molten bucket" is a reference to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.[3]
- "THUG2" is a shortening of Tony Hawk Underground 2.
- "chunkylover53"[@aol.com] is Homer Simpson's e-mail address as seen in "The Dad Who Knew Too Little".
- Lot 49 is also the lot in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49
- The appearance and role of Ronald McDonald in the novel is an interesting parallel to the appearance of Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore
History of the Novel
Longlisted for the Giller Prize, this novel was one of Coupland's most eccentric yet culturally encompassing novels. Set in and around Vancouver, BC, the novel encompasses many aspects of Vancouver life.
The novel was written at the same time as Terry, a book about Terry Fox, a Canadian who ran 143 consecutive marathons. Coupland has said that "All of my more noble character traits went into that book. There was a tar-pit of ooze left over that wanted to go somewhere. JPod was it."[4]
Coupland exhibited large-scale reproductions of some of the book's pages at a Canadian art gallery.[1] As well, several different "hugging machines" have actually been developed with the aim of overcoming sensory integration issues experienced by persons with Autism-spectrum disorders.[5][6]
References
- ^ a b "A Tale of Two Couplands" from Wired
- ^ Blincoe, Nicholas. “Feeling Frail”. ‘’The Daily Telegraph’’, October 16, 2004.
- ^ "A Million Little InsightsThe Couplandization of Douglas Coupland" from Slate.com
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
JerusalemPostwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Dr. Dean Edell (August 20, 2005). "A Hugging Machine To Help Autistic Kids". ABC-7 News. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
- ^ "A Vest to Hug You". Slashdot. Oct 12, 2006. Retrieved 2008-09-17.