Douglas Coupland’s Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture: an alternative voice :: Essays Papers

Douglas Couplands genesis X Tales for an Accelerated Culture an alternative functionOn production of his first novel, Coupland was labelled by critics spokes mankind for a in the raw lost generation - Generation X - those individuals aged between mid-twenties and mid-thirties who have come of age in an increasingly scientific and materialistic bureaucratic society. As a consequence, they are emotionally pit and alienated, reject conformity and search for some kind of meaning to life. When asked close to this label, Coupland stated that he spoke ...for myself, not for a generation. I neer have, arguing that he addresses issues relevant to himself and his peer group who grew up in Vancouver (Hall, Sharon K. Douglas Coupland Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 39, 29). The subsequent success of Generation X both in America and Europe, indicate that the experiences Coupland records are global, appealing to a wide audience who share his fears and expectations.While the debate ab out the omit of a distinctive Canadian voice continues, the critical reaction to Generation X illustrates the problems in here(predicate)nt within Canadian literature. Coupland wrote the novel in America, and it was here rather than his native country that it was actually published. In Malaise of the Mall-Raised, Brian Fawcett inside information the reasons for Couplands initial lack of success in Canada, indicating that it was the book get public rather than the literary establishment who put Coupland on the literary map...the book couldnt find a Canadian publisher, that the terra firma and Mail didnt review Generation X, or that Books in Canada...rejected it for having an post problem (Fawcett, Brian. Malaise of the Mall-Raised Books in Canada, Vol. 21, 44-6).Typical of this critical reaction, Laurel Boone in a Books in Canada review of Generation X, is scathing towards the novel which she describes as shallow, and for the circumstance that its Canadian characters do not trans late the French phrases they uptake (Boone, Laurel. Review of Generation X. Books in Canada. Vol. 20, 50-1). Boone also faults Couplands use of cartoons, definitions and slogans within the work. One of these pop art cartoons shows a young man reading a real estate magazine and telling his engender Hey, Dad, - You can either have a house or a life Im having a life. In contrast to Boones opinion, it was the actual format of the novel as well as the sate which appealed to the reading public.The reason Coupland was overlooked may be due to the fact that his novel was viewed as the antithesis of conventional Canadian writing.