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JPod

December 15, 2023

For other uses, see JPod (disambiguation).

JPod is a 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
AuthorDouglas Coupland
Cover artistWill Webb
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
GenreEpistolary, satire
Publisher
Publication date
9 May 2006
Media typePrint (Hardback & paperback)
Pages528 (Canadian Hardback), 448 (USA hardback)
ISBN0-679-31424-5 (first edition, Canadian hardback)
ISBN 1-59691-233-2 (first edition, USA hardback)
OCLC61864559
Preceded byEleanor Rigby 
Followed byThe Gum Thief 

JPod was adapted into a CBC television series of the same name co-created by Douglas Coupland and Michael MacLennan. It premiered on January 8, 2008, and ran until its cancellation on March 7, 2008, leaving the series with a permanent cliffhanger. The first thirteen episodes of the series aired in the United States on The CW.

Plot edit

JPod is an avant-garde novel of six young adults, whose last names all begin with the letter 'J' and who are assigned to the same cubicle pod by someone in human resources through a computer glitch, working at Neotronic Arts, a fictional Burnaby-based video game company. 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, much to the team's chagrin, 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 further deeply unpopular changes to the game, including changing Jeff the turtle into an adventurous prince who rides a magic carpet, and renaming it "SpriteQuest". The JPodders, upset that they would not be able to finish their game, decide to sabotage SpriteQuest by inserting a deranged Ronald McDonald-inspired character into a secret level where Ronald works malevolence, thus creating 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.

Related works and influences edit

  • BookShorts; a short video film depicting characters of JPod was filmed in 2006 by BookShorts.com project with support from Random House Canada.[1]
  • Microserfs; JPod has been described frequently as an updating of Coupland's 1995 novel Microserfs for the 2000s. Publishers Weekly even called JPod "Microserfs 2.0".[2] 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 every day. 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, a condition Coupland has himself.[3][4] 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.[5]
  • Sitcoms; JPod was called by one reviewer "a 448 page sitcom".[6] The style of humor is very similar to that of sitcoms, and especially of Arrested Development. The humor mostly originates from character flaws. The characters themselves do not have much depth, and their flaws 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."[7] This helps to explain the malicious version of Douglas Coupland (Anti-Doug) who appears in the novel.
  • 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.
  • 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 CBC for the cancellation, saying that they had not done enough to promote the show.[8]

Reception edit

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 edit

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 a technology saturated generation, illustrating the stereotype of current generations being unable to concentrate on one item or task 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."[9] 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".[10]

Another review of JPod describes how the fragmentation of the book relates to the autistic characteristics of the characters. The book is about employees in technology and video game generation, who "paradoxically have superhuman powers on concentration, yet can't seem to focus on anything".[6] 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 edit

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".[11] 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",[9] and his characters were also called "hollowed-out cartoons".[11]

Coupland was further criticized by critics like David Daley of USA Today, who wrote that "subtlety still eludes Coupland" and that his "relentless riffing can be exhausting".[12] The 41 pages spent listing digits of pi, for example, were found by many to be pointless and, as Patrick Ness noted, "lazily assembled".[13] 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".[6] Other critics wondered if Coupland simply inserted himself because he didn't know how else to end the novel.[12]

References edit

  1. ^ "Watch BookShorts - moving stories". Bookshorts.com. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
  2. ^ Publishers Weekly. "JPod". Reed Business Information, 2006. Amazon.com 16 Nov. 2008. [1]
  3. ^ Ferguson, Euan (28 May 2006). "Generation next". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  4. ^ Blincoe, Nicholas (17 October 2004). "Feeling frail". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  5. ^ Edell, Dean. "A Hugging Machine To Help Autistic Kids". ABC-7 News. 20 Aug. 2005. 16 Nov. 2008. [2]
  6. ^ a b c Cantrell, Christian. "Review of JPod by Douglas Coupland". Living Digitally. 9 Jan. 2008. 10 Nov. 2008. [3]
  7. ^ "Generation JPod". Jerusalem Post. 7 July 2006.
  8. ^ Andrews, Marke. "Just Cancelled: CBC's JPod". Vancouver Sun. 7 Mar. 2008. 15 Nov. 2008. . Archived from the original on 2009-09-30. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  9. ^ a b Elek, John. "When Ronald McDonald Did Dirty Deeds". The Observer. May 21, 2006. November 9, 2008. [4]
  10. ^ Salinas, E. A. "JPod: a novel." Amazon.com. June 2006. 15 Nov. 2008. JPod-Douglas-Coupland.com
  11. ^ a b Lim, Dennis. "JPod". The Village Voice. June 6, 2006. November 8, 2008. [5]
  12. ^ a b Daley, David. "JPod Toys With Today's Techno Geeks". USA Today. May 22, 2006. November 9, 2008. [6]
  13. ^ Ness, Patrick. "Canada Dry". The Observer. June 3, 2006. November 10, 2008. [7]

External links edit

  • A graphical indication of the content of this book
  • MP3 format interview with Douglas Coupland on JPod
  • List of quotations
  • xPod the online extension of CBC's jPod
  • Short film on JPod at BookShorts.com

December 15, 2023
jpod, other, uses, disambiguation, novel, douglas, coupland, published, random, house, canada, 2006, 2005, book, explores, strange, unconventional, everyday, life, main, character, ethan, jarlewski, team, video, game, programmers, whose, last, names, begin, wi. For other uses see JPod disambiguation JPod is a 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 JPodAuthorDouglas CouplandCover artistWill WebbCountryCanadaLanguageEnglishGenreEpistolary satirePublisherRandom House of Canada first edition Bloomsbury USA first edition Publication date9 May 2006Media typePrint Hardback amp paperback Pages528 Canadian Hardback 448 USA hardback ISBN0 679 31424 5 first edition Canadian hardback ISBN 1 59691 233 2 first edition USA hardback OCLC61864559Preceded byEleanor Rigby Followed byThe Gum Thief JPod was adapted into a CBC television series of the same name co created by Douglas Coupland and Michael MacLennan It premiered on January 8 2008 and ran until its cancellation on March 7 2008 leaving the series with a permanent cliffhanger The first thirteen episodes of the series aired in the United States on The CW Contents 1 Plot 2 Related works and influences 3 Reception 3 1 Favourable 3 2 Unfavourable 4 References 5 External linksPlot editJPod is an avant garde novel of six young adults whose last names all begin with the letter J and who are assigned to the same cubicle pod by someone in human resources through a computer glitch working at Neotronic Arts a fictional Burnaby based video game company 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 much to the team s chagrin 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 further deeply unpopular changes to the game including changing Jeff the turtle into an adventurous prince who rides a magic carpet and renaming it SpriteQuest The JPodders upset that they would not be able to finish their game decide to sabotage SpriteQuest by inserting a deranged Ronald McDonald inspired character into a secret level where Ronald works malevolence thus creating 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 Related works and influences editThis section possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed May 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message BookShorts a short video film depicting characters of JPod was filmed in 2006 by BookShorts com project with support from Random House Canada 1 Microserfs JPod has been described frequently as an updating of Coupland s 1995 novel Microserfs for the 2000s Publishers Weekly even called JPod Microserfs 2 0 2 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 every day 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 a condition Coupland has himself 3 4 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 5 Sitcoms JPod was called by one reviewer a 448 page sitcom 6 The style of humor is very similar to that of sitcoms and especially of Arrested Development The humor mostly originates from character flaws The characters themselves do not have much depth and their flaws 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 7 This helps to explain the malicious version of Douglas Coupland Anti Doug who appears in the novel 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 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 CBC for the cancellation saying that they had not done enough to promote the show 8 Reception editJPod 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 edit 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 a technology saturated generation illustrating the stereotype of current generations being unable to concentrate on one item or task 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 9 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 10 Another review of JPod describes how the fragmentation of the book relates to the autistic characteristics of the characters The book is about employees in technology and video game generation who paradoxically have superhuman powers on concentration yet can t seem to focus on anything 6 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 edit 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 11 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 9 and his characters were also called hollowed out cartoons 11 Coupland was further criticized by critics like David Daley of USA Today who wrote that subtlety still eludes Coupland and that his relentless riffing can be exhausting 12 The 41 pages spent listing digits of pi for example were found by many to be pointless and as Patrick Ness noted lazily assembled 13 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 6 Other critics wondered if Coupland simply inserted himself because he didn t know how else to end the novel 12 References edit Watch BookShorts moving stories Bookshorts com Retrieved 2011 11 14 Publishers Weekly JPod Reed Business Information 2006 Amazon com 16 Nov 2008 1 Ferguson Euan 28 May 2006 Generation next The Guardian Retrieved 20 May 2021 Blincoe Nicholas 17 October 2004 Feeling frail Telegraph co uk Retrieved 20 May 2021 Edell Dean A Hugging Machine To Help Autistic Kids ABC 7 News 20 Aug 2005 16 Nov 2008 2 a b c Cantrell Christian Review of JPod by Douglas Coupland Living Digitally 9 Jan 2008 10 Nov 2008 3 Generation JPod Jerusalem Post 7 July 2006 Andrews Marke Just Cancelled CBC s JPod Vancouver Sun 7 Mar 2008 15 Nov 2008 Just cancelled CBC s jPod Archived from the original on 2009 09 30 Retrieved 2010 03 04 a b Elek John When Ronald McDonald Did Dirty Deeds The Observer May 21 2006 November 9 2008 4 Salinas E A JPod a novel Amazon com June 2006 15 Nov 2008 JPod Douglas Coupland com a b Lim Dennis JPod The Village Voice June 6 2006 November 8 2008 5 a b Daley David JPod Toys With Today s Techno Geeks USA Today May 22 2006 November 9 2008 6 Ness Patrick Canada Dry The Observer June 3 2006 November 10 2008 7 External links editA graphical indication of the content of this book MP3 format interview with Douglas Coupland on JPod List of quotations xPod the online extension of CBC s jPod Short film on JPod at BookShorts com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title JPod amp oldid 1157612601, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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