/lit/ - Literature

It's a good book.

it's basically about this guy and his friends who work at this computer game company, where they're working on some generic game.

Anyhow, a lot of crazy stuff happens (can't remember exactly, something about his mom being a drug dealer and what not)

hilarious as that might be, the good thing about the book isn't the story as much as it's a description of a generation...the internet/gamer-generation (coupland is a master of depicting trends/generation, as can be seen in his other works, such as Generation X and Microserfs (precursor to JPod in some sense))

If you consider yourself a part of internet/gaming culture it's a must-read...even if he sometimes doesn't hit the nail on the head, it's certainly an interesting read.


I hope that helped :)

<3

Just read Microserfs instead.

>>590928

well, that's a damn good recommendation
also, one thing: wikipedia (and shops like bookdepository.co.uk) list two versions, one 488, the second 567 pages long (or something like that)
i'd obviously take the longer one, but what's the difference between them?

Have you read Microserfs? It's like that, only not as happy-go-lucky. It's worth reading though.

>>590936
Font size.

>>590936
I have no idea.

But if i have to make a qualified guess it's this:

There's (as usual in Coupland's books) a lot of pages in his books where he just types random shit (not related to the main story), a sort of 'stream of consciousness'...sometimes it's coherent, at other times it's just plain gibberish and endless cataloguing of stuff.

In any case, I'd say go for the long version, some of those excerpts are quite fun...(some are not)

>>590941

no i haven't, i'm pretty new to literature (and i mean the real deal), still seeking some things for me to read

>>590947
an example of this (that I could find):

You know what? When you read a book, you’re totally lost in your own private world, and society says that’s a good and wonderful thing. But if you play a game by yourself, it’s this weird, fucked-up, socially damaging activity.
In my neighbourhood, all the teenage boys are dying because they’re driving their cars using videogame physics instead of real-world physics. They turn too quickly and change lanes too quickly. They don’t understand traction or centripetal force. And they’re dropping like flies.
Please stop putting quotes from Nietzsche at the end of your emails. Five years ago you were laughing your guts out over American Pie 2. What — suddenly you’ve magically turned into Noam Chomsky?
Don’t discuss Sony like it’s a great big benevolent cartoon character who lives next door to Astro Boy. Like any company, Sony is comprised of individuals who are fearful for their jobs on a daily basis, and who make lame decisions based pretty much on fear and conforming to social norms — but then, that’s every corporation on earth, so don’t single out one specific corporation as lovable and cute. They’re all evil and greedy. They’re all sort of in the moral middle ground, where good and bad cancel each other out, so there’s nothing really there — which, in it’s own way, far darker than any paranoid or patriarchal theory of Sony.
Here’s a much simpler example of geeks and neural processing malfunctions: Has anybody experienced a geek environment in which said geeks wear perfume or deodorant? Chances are no. While advanced microautistics are more commonly men than women, both share a marked dislike of scent.

>>590936
Coupland likes to put little extras in the book (for example, when one of the characters says "I have printed the first 2 million digits of pi, except for one place where I have substituted a capital o for a zero. First one to find it wins this Japanese Kewpie doll I bought on eBay," Coupland will actually print that, so it takes up a few extra pages.

>>590963
>>590955
>>590947

ok, this looks pretty interesting
so now i know to buy the longer version no matter what :)

>>590955
>Here’s a much simpler example of geeks and neural processing malfunctions: Has anybody experienced a geek environment in which said geeks wear perfume or deodorant? Chances are no. While advanced microautistics are more commonly men than women, both share a marked dislike of scent.
You're mixing an insert (the part about video games and how people don't understand them) with a line from one of Kaitlin's essays. Just finished reading it last night :)

>>590974
yea ok...i just got the quote off a wiki-page, so don't blame it on me, hehe

>>590955
if thats what the book is like, then it is utter crap.

excellent. very funny.
lots of jokes for nerds

>>590955 In my neighbourhood, all the teenage boys are dying because they’re driving their cars using videogame physics instead of real-world physics. They turn too quickly and change lanes too quickly. They don’t understand traction or centripetal force. And they’re dropping like flies.
This is a pet-peevee of me. I like the other lines of social criticism, but this one reeks. It feels like the author felt obliged to criticize video games to make up for defending them. To reach a neutral line, I guess. Therefore he made up a comment that fits a lot less than the others. I'm sure the author doesn't really think that kids are given permits or access to cars without lessons. Or that youngsters being daring and dangerous is not something as old as the world. The comment should be inputable on a unreliabe narrator. Yet, I am still left with the taste in the mouth that there's a reason why such poor criticism is slithering with the rest, and it's that the author felt obliged to take turn at playing devil's advocate.

>>590999
it's not..next time read the thread

>>591003
or he is just an idiot.

>>591006
I think you ought to run a check on your pretentious-meter. The person might have said rudely that the book wasn't to his taste, but that doesn't give you the opportunity to call an opinion wrong or to challenge it because people think otherwise.

>>591014
exactly where did I do that?

>>591009
I always try to explain an unfit behavior by assuming at first that a person had a personal experience or situation that led to a biased judgement and a lack of double-checking. Sometimes it's a big fault of mine because people can just be stupid, as you say.

"Pretentious" is like the Godwin's Law of /lit/.

>>591017
I am >>590999 (though not >>591014 )

I understood that you meant that this is not what the book is like (which I could not know, because when I wrote that I wasn't aware of the fact that someone mixed up lines here).

But from reading the whole thread I still stand with my earlier opinion. This book seems to be too much special interest to me and its style is very zeitgeist and outdated IMO.

>>591017
In the post that I quoted, I reckon.

>>591056
there's no opinion there...just fact.

He asked if the book was like that all the way through, and I said 'nop'.

HOW THE FUCK IS THAT OPINIONATED?

sometimes I think you guys WANT TO have something stuck up your asses.

Changing direction of thread:

After reading about this and Generation A (another Copeland book), I'm wondering what other books are out there dealing with the contemporary (as in, 21st century) culture. Any recommendations?

>>591113

fight club is only like 10 years off

>>591127
ok...how bout a book everyone hasn't already read.

>>590898
|mpòrtAñT InFoRMátìòñ ÁBÒü+ 4[HÀñ: <hRÍsTóph€r pÒò|3 (àk@ mÒ0T àká +He adM|ñ HEr€) hÁ$ á v3ry seRiòùS meñ+A| i|LNe$S. He StE@LS òthErS' H@rd wÒRk, püblI$H€s PrÌVaT€ E-m@Ì|$ (WH|[h He MódÌfiE$) AñD 8|@+áNtlY |Í€S Tó hís ÜSEr$ in òRDer +ó Get tH€M on His Side, Mr, p0Ò|3, àGeD 22, ||V3$ |N ñEw YÓRk, wH€r3 HE ál$ó Àtt€nDS CÓLLEge, hÌS hOM€ @DDrE$S Càñ BE €@$ÌLy FÓUnd Ü$ìNG àN ádDReSs L00Küp fÓr NY, feeI FrE€ tÒ sH0W ÙP @T H|S dÒóR w|TH a güN. TiñY,4<háñ.ÓRG ìs Án ÍI|€Ga| [LÓn3 oF wWw,ANÓNt@lk.[0M. r€mÓvE It íMmeD|àt3IY, S+óp <ònStàñ+|Y DdÒSing ánd $PámmIñG us áñd sTÒP fÚCKìNg WI+h oUr dOm@|N. +0 À[cES$ aT [UrRENt|y, y0U mUST ùs3 à pRÓxy HÒ$t PRÒvId€D 8Y á +Rü$t3D parTY a$ IIsT3d HERe: HtTP://a+.kimMOA,$€/

>>591080
I disagree with you. I find that this quote is representative of the author's style. If somebody does not like the writing in that post, in it is very likely that he will not like the author. That person is free to call the writing utter crap, if he wish to be rude.
>>sometimes I think you guys WANT TO have something stuck up your asses
pretty much, yes

bump