Douglas Coupland www coupland com Douglas Coupland Art

Douglas Coupland: www. coupland. com

Douglas Coupland Art / Literature Display Telling Examples of his “Books Read Twice” God & Man: Can a modern man believe? By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Karen Ann: the Quinlan’s Tell Their Story. Age of Extremes: the Short 20 th Century By Eric Hobsbawm Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion

Coupland Pop Culture Coupland’s milieu – in literature, visual art, film – is pop culture: ◦ Shallow, plastic, hollow: a realm of simulacra. Purpose? ◦ Search for meaning, the deep-in-the shallow; the meaning -in-the-emptiness

Pop Culture icon: Paris Hilton Polemicist Christopher Hitchens “And now here I go, clearing my throat…. before deciding to do something I would have never believed I would do, and choosing to write about Paris Hilton. Choosing to write about her, furthermore, not just as if she were some metaphor or signifier, but as a subject in herself. Coupland’s insight precisely: find worth and humanity in the mere icon or symbol. Paris Hilton says God has given her a new chance By Michelle Nichols Reuters Monday, June 11, 2007; 12: 39 PM NEW YORK (Reuters) Imprisoned hotel heiress Paris Hilton has said she believes God has given her a new chance and she plans to stop acting dumb and put her influence to good use.

Destabilisation: Tension of Opposites “Belief in God is something that's innate in people, " he says. “Even if you took a group of babies and raised them on a desert island without ever once indoctrinating them about religion, they would probably arrive at monotheism anyway. " [Douglas Coupland, 2000] ------------------- God is Nowhere / God is Now Here ------------------- Life After God Life now God is Nowhere? Life chasing God? (i. e. “the cat is after that mouse again”

Coupland & Technology: j. Pod = Microserfs 2. 0 A serf is someone who works with a technology, but has only operational knowledge of the technology by which he makes his living. Coupland transfers this onto present-day technology workers; most of whom have no humanities or philosophy education or experience— therefore no tools to frame the technology in the full picture. ◦ Cf. Bree’s remark that the staff at j. Pod are workers on a cubicle farm….

“Post-Modernism”: first, ‘Modernism’ ‘Modernity’ is the condition of life in Western civilisation when the Enlightenment reached the point of Industrial Revolution Modernity is a time of confidence in human, technological, scientific, and imperial expansion a confidence founded in a comprehensive and cohesive unifying view of the world ◦ a legacy of the Enlightenment’s Greek-Roman-Christian past. Modernity is an underlying confidence in the future. Modernism is term that applyies to: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ fine arts architecture philosophy music literature religion Industry

Modernist Examples

Modernism: The Futurist Manifesto � � � � We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath. . . a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit. Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man. We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed. We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman. We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice. We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; … factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers: adventurous steamers sniffing the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, puffing on the rails like enormous steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds.

Synonyms for Modernism The over-arching structure of society is the organising template for all society’s component systems. Each component systems is understood by its relationship with other components and the master-system. STRUCTURALISM In mathematics, fine art, literature, religion, jurisprudence, architecture, an organising focus on the system of rules, symbols, and assumptions behind the discipline. These ‘formal systems’ create the meaning. Content is secondary FORMALISM

Post-Modernism is unbelief in (or rejection of ) Modernity Historically, Modernism died (for the same reason that gods’ and magic dragons die: no-one has faith in them) with the First World War. Everything that Modernism proudly affirmed took place in the War 1914 -1918 The ‘structures’ were all smashed or shaken

Post-Modernism: aspects � Modernism had replaced the socially-default belief in Christianity’s ‘Holy Trinity’ (Faith. Hope-Love) with a socially-default belief in Humanity, Technology, & Science. � When the ‘Modernist Trinity’ had its apotheosis in WWI, Post-Modernism reacted by denying the validity of any socially-default belief. � Loss of belief in formal structures

Post-Modernism: Deconstructionism � No ‘meta-narrative’ behinds society: all component narratives have equal status—the most attractive or he most powerful will (temporarily) predominate. � Artists & Intellectuals are to look for the rules and blueprints behind the structures of society and its components, and then de-con-struct them � A negative view of society: i. e. the default position is to negate structure and meaning

Post-Modern Conditions Fragmented Individualist Cynical Self-Referential Doubting Kitchy Ironic

Douglas Coupland: ‘Uncertainty principle’ � Certainty & absolutism promotes cynicism � "I am the most uncynical person on Earth, " he says, earnestly. "I'm ironic. I admit that. I'm Joe Irony. But people confuse irony with cynicism, which is like battery acid. It just wrecks everything. " [2000 interview] that cynical? I hope not. ” Hey Nostradamus! 243. � “Jason, that’s cynical & simply not true. ” Hey Nostradamus! 178. � Is

Cynicism & Irony: definition � Cynicism: OED: ◦ person disposed to rail or find fault; now usually: One who shows a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions, and is wont to express this by sneers and sarcasms; a sneering fault-finder. Cynicism in Irony turned to Pride. � Gratuitous animal reference: “cynic” Gr. “dog” � Coupland:

Cynicism & Irony: definition � Irony: Difference between what is said, or shown, and what is meant. ◦ Distance between: �Statement & Intention �Promise & Action �Appearance & Reality � � � Irony = Insincerity Antonym—or cure is sincerity or authenticity ◦ Literary mode is Confession Hey Nostradamus! is a work of art designed to heal (c. f. book’s conclusion) cynical aspect to Gen X culture: �Cynicism a legacy of Cool – Coupland made his name (Generation X) as the prophet of Cool. �Cool = Ironic = Insincere