Douglas Coupland: www.coupland.com

Douglas Coupland SFU 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 20th Century By Eric Hobsbawm

Slouching Towards BethlehemJoan Didion

Douglas Coupland: Duality

An icon of surrender and prayer: seen on the wall of a non-denominational chapel in an American airport

A sign of Faith

Douglas Coupland: DualityFaith = Doubt

DUALITY: one idea, complementary aspects

Dualism = non-monist = non-absolutist NOT Binary NOT “this is all there is; there is only this.

Non-absolutist: openness to possibility of error balance of opposites harmony of sensibilities dialectical energy & movement possible humility

Douglas Coupland, Vision: Duality & Uncertainty

Absolutism = Certainty

Certainty is closed: closed-mindedness leads to arrogance: a sense of superiority & separation from fellow-human beings. Hey Nostradamus:

Fundamentalism dramatised.

‘Uncertainty principle’

Uncertainty is an openness to the lives and ideas of others:

Inter-connection Harmonisation Unity of difference Inclusiveness

SIDEBAR:Dialectic vs Binary Binary

Us & Them Either-Or Right & Wrong

Us right; you wrong Absolute Final Certainty

Implied Intolerance No middle ground Annihilation….

Dialectic Relative–different

ideas partner yours Progress-Process Doubt

Implied humility: (“two sides to a story”)

Possible unknowns Possible errors

Co-existence Suggests a via media

SIDEBAR: Dialogism

Dialogism is dialectic-within-fiction Heteroglossia—multiplicity of voices Dialogue between points of view Dialogue orbits around a central idea / theme High demand on the reader to engage with a

solution or determinate position Author makes room for the reader to engage

Author is present but not dominant (i.e. a novel is not open-ended / unbounded)

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]

Is that cynical? I hope not.” Hey Nostradamus! 243. “Jason, that’s cynical & simply not true.” Hey

Nostradamus! 178.

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.

Coupland: Cynicism in Irony turned to Pride. Gratuitous animal reference: “cynic” Gr. “dog”

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

Coupland: Destabilisation, con’t

How can uncertainty be brought about?

Destabilisation

A literary technique: defy readers’ expectations shock pieties of the culture invert the expected ‘exalt the lowly’ – look for

depth in the shallows of pop culture

Coupland Accomplishes destabilisation by:

An uncertain narrative stance uncertain identity uncertain unity Uncertain point of view

Coupland: Destabilisation

Symptoms of a destabilised reader:

Disorientation Discomfort Nascent Anger Suspicion

Intended result:

Questioning Seeking Reconfiguring Inclusion Openness

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 NicholsReuters 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]

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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”

What is Hey Nostradamus! About?

An Un-Cool question ;--) A set of alternative interpretations A dialectical arrangement of possible perspectives on

the text

Lower Mainland life & culture? Protestantism in (post-)modern culture? The presence of the Numinous in (post-) modern

culture? 41. 244. Limitations of Materialism (233) Meditation on ways of living—approaches to an

improved modern culture. 241, 181.

The Noumenal

The Phenomenal perceptible by the senses

sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing

sense impressions (‘phenomena,’) in the mind, of external objects. (Nb: not the objects themselves.)

phenomenal words include: ‘bright’ and ‘dark’ ‘aromatic’ and ‘stinky’ ‘bitter’ and ‘tart’ ‘painful’ and ‘pleasurable’ ‘loud’ and ‘quiet’

The Noumenal perception independent of the

senses. sensations and experiences in

the mind (Gr. Nous = noumenon.)

philosophers ancient (Plato) & modern (Kant) and the Romanticism Movement assert the noumenal.

noumenal terms include: Joy Bliss Love Melancholia-Depression Axioms in logic & math

The Noumenal: case of logic & axioms

‘MODUS PONENS’

A=B and B=C: THEREFORE _____? The ‘therefore’ is not a phenomenon:

it is not something found in the world like the height of a tree

it is not something you learn by experience ‘A=C!’ is a sensation ‘in-the-mind: ‘inference’

All axioms (e.g. ‘A=A’) are ‘noumenal’: mind.

Dante Alighieri (1265 –1321): The Divine Comedy

Divine Comedy: quadripartite universe

Christopher Marlowe: 1564-1593The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Faustus.  And what are you that you live with Lucifer?  

Mephistopheles.  Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer, Conspir’d against our God with Lucifer, And are for ever damn’d with Lucifer.

Faust.  Where are you damn’d?

Mephistopheles.  In Hell.  

Faust.  How comes it then that thou art now out of Hell?

Mephistopheles.  Why this is Hell, nor am I out of it.

John Milton, 1608-1674 Paradise Lost

“Farewell, happy fields, Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! Hail! Infernal World! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor—one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where, if I be still the same?”

Coupland’s Literary Quality

p.14: “….being in this new place…the world is pulling away from me, losing its capacity to hurt.”

p.23: “…how distanced from the world I’m feeling now—how quickly the world is pulling away.”

Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Death’s Jest Book. (1850). “Can a man die? Ay, as the sun doth set: it is

the Earth that falls away from the light.” Homage by Canadian poet Margaret Avision.