jPod

OK - so a little more explanation on why I didn't like jPod all that much...

The main flavour of this book, to me, was one of total amorality... I suppose you could argue that this, in and of itself, would not necessarily make for a bad book. And, after checking out the website for the book, and downloading the available interview with the author, it turns out that this lack of morals was entirely intentional. Which makes sense... Coupland generally seems pretty intentional about the thematic content of his writing.

I guess you could argue that I am prejudicial in my tastes; I happen to believe in truth, and morality... and it turns out that most of my friends do too. I hope that Coupland DOESN'T have his finger on the pulse of society this time... but what if he does??!

In related news... I have found in some recent movies I have watched an equally disturbing amorality. I can't remember any examples other than Marie Antoinette (I seem to remember that there was a much better example in something else I watched first... Scoop? Volver??) The way in which her affair was handled in the film bugged me in that it was not even framed in moral terms. I think this is different from immorality, and is in a lot of ways much scarier.


Check out this clip from the Coupland interview... (or go to the jPod site and hear the whole thing) :

God has been kind of present in most of your other novels in one way, shape or form; people thinking about religion, thinking about meaning, maybe, more than anything. And, where did God go in this book? I mean, has He got part of this jPod universe? (or she, or it, or the overpowering...)

Well, hard-core Christians have this thing called the rapture, where all the people who are true believers vanish, and everyone else is left on the planet, and God himself has sort of become absent. And I think this book takes place in sort of a post-rapture environment, where everything holy has been removed from the world, and you just have to work with what remains, and have to get yourself through it. So, you know, I don't know, I mean, God, if you're up there and you're looking at jPod... um... Be merciful. Oh dear.

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I do agree with the part about asking God for mercy on our world!!