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'''Douglas Coupland''' (born December 30, 1961) is a Canadian (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling to come to terms with the conditions of post-modern life, whereas later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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Irony on his status as the voice of Gen X: He himself isn't a member by most definitions.
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Canadian (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling to come to terms with the conditions of post-modern life, whereas later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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'''Douglas Coupland''' (born December 30, 1961) is a Canadian (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling to come to terms with the conditions of post-modern life, whereas later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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* TheVoiceOfAGeneration: Coupland was described as being the voice of a generation with his first work, ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture''; Coupland noted that this made him a tough act to follow, as all of his subsequent works would be measured against a book that was said to define a generation.
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* TheVoiceOfAGeneration: Coupland was described as being the voice of a generation with his first work, ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture''; Coupland noted that this made him a tough act to follow, as all of his subsequent works would be measured against a book that was said to define a generation. Ironically, the generation it came to define was one that he wasn't a part of—he was born a few years before the most frequent starting point for "Generation X" (although the American side of his birth cohort would later be lumped with early-born [=Xers=] as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones Generation Jones]]).
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[[folder:Girlfriend In A Coma]]
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[[folder:Girlfriend In A in a Coma]]
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Canadian (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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Canadian (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, struggling to come to terms with the conditions of post-modern life, whereas later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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# ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'' (1991)
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# ''Generation ''[[TheVoiceOfAGeneration Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'' Culture]]'' (1991)
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* TheVoiceOfAGeneration: Coupland was described as being the voice of a generation with his first work, ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture''; Coupland noted that this made him a tough act to follow, as all of his subsequent works would be measured against a book that was said to define a generation.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/douglas_coupland.png]]
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# ''{{jPod}}'' (2006)
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# ''{{jPod}}'' ''Literature/{{jPod}}'' (2006)
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Canadian ([[StargateCity Vancouver]]) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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Canadian ([[StargateCity Vancouver]]) (UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
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Useful Notes/ pages are not tropes
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* AspergersSyndrome: Rachel. Or high-functioning autism, anyway. She's very forthright, has trouble recognising patterns and faces, has to attend social skills classes, and takes an obsessive interest in breeding white mice.
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* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: Why Stephanie appeals to Tyler despite her unattractive personality.
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* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's ageing hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in British Columbia before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil, his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil, his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
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* BettyAndVeronica: Anna-Louise is Betty and Stephanie is Veronica.
* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler'sageing aging hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in British Columbia before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acidcasulaties, casualties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil, his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid
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# ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Worst. Person. Ever.]]'' (2013)
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# ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis ''[[Literature/WorstPersonEver Worst. Person. Ever.]]'' (2013)
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# ''Bit Rot'' (2015; collection of essays and short fiction published in conjunction with Coupland art exhibit in Rotterdam)
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* RecurringElement: Coupland often recycles names and themes across different books. Backpacking across Europe for example is a central theme to ShampooPlanet and TheGumThief, and is made fun of by characters in other books.
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* RecurringElement: Coupland often recycles names and themes across different books. Backpacking across Europe for example is a central theme to ShampooPlanet ''Shampoo Planet'' and TheGumThief, ''The Gum Thief'', and is made fun of by characters in other books.books. The personal lives of high-tech workers are the subject of both ''Microserfs'' and ''jPod''.
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Typo, fact correction.
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* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's ageing hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in California before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil. his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil. his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
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* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's ageing hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in California British Columbia before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up withNeil. Neil, his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with
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* ShoutOut: spot the numerous [[TheSmiths Smiths]] song titles scattered throughout the book. 'Oscillate Wildly', 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' and 'The Queen Is Dead', to name but three.
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* ShoutOut: spot Spot the numerous [[TheSmiths Smiths]] Music/TheSmiths song titles scattered throughout the book. 'Oscillate Wildly', 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' and 'The Queen Is Dead', to name but three.
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# ''Worst. Person. Ever.'' (2013)
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# ''Worst.''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Worst. Person. Ever.'' ]]'' (2013)
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Nonfiction:
# ''Polaroids From the Dead'' (1996)
# ''City of Glass'' (2000)
# ''Souvenir of Canada'' (volume 1, 2002; volume 2, 2004)
# ''Extraordinary Canadians: [=Marshall McLuhan=]'' (2009; released in the U.S. as ''[=Marshall McLuhan=]: You Know Nothing Of My Work!'')
# ''Polaroids From the Dead'' (1996)
# ''City of Glass'' (2000)
# ''Souvenir of Canada'' (volume 1, 2002; volume 2, 2004)
# ''Extraordinary Canadians: [=Marshall McLuhan=]'' (2009; released in the U.S. as ''[=Marshall McLuhan=]: You Know Nothing Of My Work!'')
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# ''Hey Nostradamus!'' (2003)
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# ''Hey Nostradamus!'' UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}!'' (2003)
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# ''{{Jpod}}'' (2006)
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# ''{{Jpod}}'' ''{{jPod}}'' (2006)
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Canadian ([[StargateCity Vancouver]]) author, designer and visual artist. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, later works tend to be comic and use RefugeInAudacity plot twists.
Novels:
# ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'' (1991)
# ''Shampoo Planet'' (1992)
# ''Life After God'' (1994)
# ''Literature/{{Microserfs}}'' (1995) A group of junior Microsoft programmers quit their jobs and move to silicon valley to make their own product and "get a life"
# ''Girlfriend in a Coma'' (1998)
# ''Miss Wyoming'' (2000)
# ''All Families Are Psychotic'' (2001)
# ''God Hates Japan'' (2001) (Published only in Japan, in Japanese with little English. Japanese title is 神は日本を憎んでる (Kami wa Nihon wo Nikunderu ))
# ''Hey Nostradamus!'' (2003)
# ''Eleanor Rigby'' (2004)
# ''{{Jpod}}'' (2006)
# ''The Gum Thief'' (2007)
# ''Generation A'' (2009)
# ''Player One: What is to Become of Us'' (2010)
[[folder:Works as a whole]]
* RecurringElement: Coupland often recycles names and themes across different books. Backpacking across Europe for example is a central theme to ShampooPlanet and TheGumThief, and is made fun of by characters in other books.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Girlfriend In A Coma]]
* ApocalypseHow: somewhere between Classes Two and Three. [[spoiler:Although wild animals still exist, by the third part of the book, all human life has ended, save for the main characters. Heavily implied to be an engineered catastrophe by the same forces that incapacitated Karen; Jared makes it clear that if Richard and his friends don't make the best of their second chance, the world will end for good.]]
* DeadAllAlong: Jared, who died of cancer while in his teens. See PosthumousNarration.
* DepopulationBomb: the Sleep.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: the characters [[spoiler:save for Karen]] get to re-live their lives, with the added bonus of Pam and Hamilton being drug-free and Jane being able to see. However, [[spoiler:they have to experience the world ending and everyone they love dying first.]] YMMV on ''how'' happy their ending is, however - see GoMadFromTheRevelation.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Karen's letter to Richard, in which she describes what is about to take place. Later, Pam and Hamilton experience visions of international death and destruction in tandem while they're unconscious and undergoing detox.
* FromBadToWorse: when Karen comes out of her coma, it signifies the beginning of the end of the world.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Richard, Pam, Hamilton, Linus, Megan and Wendy - at least, to outsiders who aren't aware of the things they experienced [[spoiler:after the world ended.]] Jared is fully aware that they'll all be viewed as crazies while on their quest for the truth.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Karen. She goes back into her coma at the end, so that her friends may have a second chance at life and the world will be restored to normal. Although Richard tries to stop her, she makes it clear that she's always known this will have to happen, and there is no way out.]]
* IWillWaitForYou: Richard continues to visit Karen for ''seventeen years'' after she goes into a coma, never once even considering breaking off the relationship.
* JerkJock: subverted with Jared. While at first glance he may appear to be a womanising jock - which he admits himself - he's actually the wisest character in the novel, thanks to the years of insight he gained after death, and ultimately the one who saves Richard and his friends, with Karen's help. He's also not that jerkish - he [[spoiler:shows Linus what Heaven looks like, stops Wendy feeling lonely, detoxes Pam and Hamilton, gives Jane eyesight and cures her mental disabilities, and restores Karen's legs.]]
* PosthumousNarration: most of the book is from Jared's viewpoint, as he's the one who oversees events and acts a sort of guardian angel to the characters [[spoiler:(and tells them about their Plan B)]]. Richard narrates the first part since, according to Jared, he's 'the best talker'.
* [[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: Karen believes this was why she went into her coma in the first place - she caught a glimpse of the future, and it wasn't pleasant.
* ShoutOut: spot the numerous [[TheSmiths Smiths]] song titles scattered throughout the book. 'Oscillate Wildly', 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' and 'The Queen Is Dead', to name but three.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Player One]]
* AspergersSyndrome: Rachel. Or high-functioning autism, anyway. She's very forthright, has trouble recognising patterns and faces, has to attend social skills classes, and takes an obsessive interest in breeding white mice.
* CallBack: a large amount of dialogue is lifted from Coupland's other works. For example, the fundamentalist's speech in the bar is an almost word-for-word replica of Jared's last speech in ''Girlfriend in a Coma''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Shampoo Planet]]
* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's ageing hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in California before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil. his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Tyler. OK, he's shallow, materialistic and cheats on his girlfriend, but he's genuinely sorry for what he's done to her, and he cares a lot about his mother and siblings.
[[/folder]]
Novels:
# ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'' (1991)
# ''Shampoo Planet'' (1992)
# ''Life After God'' (1994)
# ''Literature/{{Microserfs}}'' (1995) A group of junior Microsoft programmers quit their jobs and move to silicon valley to make their own product and "get a life"
# ''Girlfriend in a Coma'' (1998)
# ''Miss Wyoming'' (2000)
# ''All Families Are Psychotic'' (2001)
# ''God Hates Japan'' (2001) (Published only in Japan, in Japanese with little English. Japanese title is 神は日本を憎んでる (Kami wa Nihon wo Nikunderu ))
# ''Hey Nostradamus!'' (2003)
# ''Eleanor Rigby'' (2004)
# ''{{Jpod}}'' (2006)
# ''The Gum Thief'' (2007)
# ''Generation A'' (2009)
# ''Player One: What is to Become of Us'' (2010)
[[folder:Works as a whole]]
* RecurringElement: Coupland often recycles names and themes across different books. Backpacking across Europe for example is a central theme to ShampooPlanet and TheGumThief, and is made fun of by characters in other books.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Girlfriend In A Coma]]
* ApocalypseHow: somewhere between Classes Two and Three. [[spoiler:Although wild animals still exist, by the third part of the book, all human life has ended, save for the main characters. Heavily implied to be an engineered catastrophe by the same forces that incapacitated Karen; Jared makes it clear that if Richard and his friends don't make the best of their second chance, the world will end for good.]]
* DeadAllAlong: Jared, who died of cancer while in his teens. See PosthumousNarration.
* DepopulationBomb: the Sleep.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: the characters [[spoiler:save for Karen]] get to re-live their lives, with the added bonus of Pam and Hamilton being drug-free and Jane being able to see. However, [[spoiler:they have to experience the world ending and everyone they love dying first.]] YMMV on ''how'' happy their ending is, however - see GoMadFromTheRevelation.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Karen's letter to Richard, in which she describes what is about to take place. Later, Pam and Hamilton experience visions of international death and destruction in tandem while they're unconscious and undergoing detox.
* FromBadToWorse: when Karen comes out of her coma, it signifies the beginning of the end of the world.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Richard, Pam, Hamilton, Linus, Megan and Wendy - at least, to outsiders who aren't aware of the things they experienced [[spoiler:after the world ended.]] Jared is fully aware that they'll all be viewed as crazies while on their quest for the truth.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Karen. She goes back into her coma at the end, so that her friends may have a second chance at life and the world will be restored to normal. Although Richard tries to stop her, she makes it clear that she's always known this will have to happen, and there is no way out.]]
* IWillWaitForYou: Richard continues to visit Karen for ''seventeen years'' after she goes into a coma, never once even considering breaking off the relationship.
* JerkJock: subverted with Jared. While at first glance he may appear to be a womanising jock - which he admits himself - he's actually the wisest character in the novel, thanks to the years of insight he gained after death, and ultimately the one who saves Richard and his friends, with Karen's help. He's also not that jerkish - he [[spoiler:shows Linus what Heaven looks like, stops Wendy feeling lonely, detoxes Pam and Hamilton, gives Jane eyesight and cures her mental disabilities, and restores Karen's legs.]]
* PosthumousNarration: most of the book is from Jared's viewpoint, as he's the one who oversees events and acts a sort of guardian angel to the characters [[spoiler:(and tells them about their Plan B)]]. Richard narrates the first part since, according to Jared, he's 'the best talker'.
* [[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: Karen believes this was why she went into her coma in the first place - she caught a glimpse of the future, and it wasn't pleasant.
* ShoutOut: spot the numerous [[TheSmiths Smiths]] song titles scattered throughout the book. 'Oscillate Wildly', 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' and 'The Queen Is Dead', to name but three.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Player One]]
* AspergersSyndrome: Rachel. Or high-functioning autism, anyway. She's very forthright, has trouble recognising patterns and faces, has to attend social skills classes, and takes an obsessive interest in breeding white mice.
* CallBack: a large amount of dialogue is lifted from Coupland's other works. For example, the fundamentalist's speech in the bar is an almost word-for-word replica of Jared's last speech in ''Girlfriend in a Coma''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Shampoo Planet]]
* GranolaGirl: Daisy, Tyler's little sister, and Jasmine, Tyler's ageing hippy mother, who used to live on a commune in California before splitting up with his father. Both are environmentalists: Jasmine disapproves of Tyler's shallowness and desire to work for Bechtol, while Daisy [[spoiler:spends her honeymoon protesting against logging and gets a job cleaning up toxic waste.]]
* HippieParents: presumably the reason why Tyler is obsessed with technology and hair products; he was born in a commune on an island and spent the first few years of his life surrounded by forest and acid casulaties, although his mother took him and his siblings to live in a more ordinary house after splitting up with Neil. his father. When Tyler later visits Neil, he discovers that Neil has fathered several children with two different women. There is no electricity in the house, and the kids are freaked out by the sight of Tyler's car. Tyler and Stephanie can't get back to the modern world fast enough.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Tyler. OK, he's shallow, materialistic and cheats on his girlfriend, but he's genuinely sorry for what he's done to her, and he cares a lot about his mother and siblings.
[[/folder]]
