Unities Aristotle s Poetics (335 BCE) on tragedy: three unities unity of place unity of time unity of story Player One: place = airport bar time =

Transcription

1 Player One Douglas Coupland (1961-), b. Germany Raised in West Vancouver McGill U, Emily Carr Studied design in Italy and Japan Journalist in Vancouver Generation X (1991) Series of novels, non-fiction books, articles, art projects Very contemporary; neologisms Honorary PhD from SFU Massey Lecture series week-long lectures series 5 hours Player One 5 hours represented

2

3 Unities Aristotle s Poetics (335 BCE) on tragedy: three unities unity of place unity of time unity of story Player One: place = airport bar time = five hours story? Peak oil: rate of oil production declines 33 of 48 oil producers peaked demand increasing: 85m barrels a day Results? collapse of transportation death of suburbs huge escalation in commodity prices collapse of industry collapse of industrial economies Cue the flaming zeppelin Loss of confidence in transportation

4 Narrative structure 5 main characters 4 have limited 3 rd person narratives Player One - 1 st person omniscient has view of future Rotation between characters backgrounds filled in Overlapping time frames narratives of same moment Rashomon effect Creates a time loop; events unfold slower Setting: airports as non-spaces between places, blank absence of centre loss of space in postmodern world airport bar? Opening: Karen on airplane Rendezvous with internet date internet as non-space

5 Karen & opening Opening sentences: time Subjectivity of experience (1) Deadlines: salad dressing, middle age Vs. memories (2) And apocalypse (3) Modern knowledge vs. apocalypse Anti-religious? 4 Lack of romance, sentimentality: 5 So, time passes without end, religion, romance 6 all perception Events without narrative/plot/cause 5 - humans curse Disconnection & desperation prediction zeppelin ref. = cab Bathos Rick Ex-alcoholic bartender expecting secular salvation choric figure

6 Others Luke the minister money = time & free will (22) theft inspired by apocalypse joke Loss of faith and wisdom (24) Internet as leveler Generational gap (27) Revelation: loss of faith 32, 65FF Rachel neuro-atypical High-functioning autistic Prosopagnosia inability to assess/understand what defines individual? Martian school of writing Attempt to be human through procreation Introduces Player One: digital avatar (35) Has complete overview and control Only possible in digital version of reality?

7 Minor characters Leslie Freemont self- help guru Illusion of technique Bertis Christian evangelical faith to hide personal relationship Two salvations, both with ulterior purposes Motivations: Major characters bound by sex Karen & Warren Luke & Rachel Rachel & Rick Boy & Karen Karen & Luke Anticipated apocalypses 3, 47 Economic apocalypse, chemical explosion, sniper (79ff) Characters searching for future, ending

8 Failure of narrative Postmodern theory: death of metanarratives progress racial superiority Individual level: disjointed, uncertain lives Lack of coherence; lack of closure Luke rejects religion s story Rick grasps at Freemont s story Karen planning to have a story (5) Rachel I m going to have a story (212) Player One s implied digital narrative, control Humans weren t built to handle a structureless life (98) But it is the contemporary condition: 211 Information & possibility vs. coherence Bertis 136 Personality as potato salad (123) Novel s epigraph Definitions at end; list, not narrative

9 How to create meaning? Procreation / romance family narrative Caleb (109ff) God Rachel (162) Bertis saved and damned Sub-culture Karen s daughter Fame (141) Extreme act assassination Art (187) provides narrative forms can be omniscient structures memory Failure of memory (129); memory drugs (174-5) Alzheimer s (196) Memory defines us as human Search for meaning in time Time is the fire in which we all burn (142) Ending of novel structured virtual memory: arbitrary, but provides closure

10 Defining the new human Extremism, terrorism - Bertis Rachel / Player One: computer-like unable to understand music, metaphor information repository wants to be human Luke: searching for a life (198) abandonment of faith Rick: passivity Karen: compromise Pull back -- apocalypse: compromise (212) Apocalypse without closure Endings of novel recognition of historical change (213) desire for sentience

11 Words of Leslie Freemont (213) Ironic? night-time light of your real world? Second ending: Future Legend legend an explanatory table attack-moderates alterity chronocanine envy future inevitable, therefore ending inevitable invariant memory vs. Plato s cave