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librarimans's review against another edition
4.0
A mix of essays and short stories (which mostly appeared in Generation A, one of Coupland's most forgettable novels), this has more hits than misses. It's always interesting when Coupland writes about the intersection of technology and society, and those bits were the strongest parts of the book. There were a few headscratchers here, but that is usually the case in collections like this. If you like Coupland you will enjoy this, if you're looking for an introduction to his work I'd look to Microserfs, Generation X, Shampoo Planet, or Ready Player One first.
fraggle's review against another edition
challenging
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
mynameiskate's review against another edition
5.0
I love Douglas Coupland's work. Well, I love some of his work. On the fiction side: Microserfs (best), Jpod, Life After God .. I guess that's it (the rest of it is generally a little too angsty and melancholic). But where Coupland really shines for me is his non-fiction, his essays and musings and revelations and bon mot about technology and our lives - or, in some ways, just our lives. I thought Shopping in Jail: Ideas, Essays and Stories for an Increasingly Real Twenty-First Century was fantastic.
This is why I was so delighted when I received an advance review copy from Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Blue Rider Press & Plume (thank you!) of bit rot. bit rot contains a collection of both fiction and non-fiction from Coupland. He talks about his art, his childhood, technology (of course), money, fear .. all the good stuff. His non-fiction continues to be my favourite aspect of his work, and I can't wait to go back and reread these pieces. Coupland is not only a deep-thinker but a startlingly clear writer. This is one of my favourite things about his work - his concepts and ideas are rich and complex, but to access them, via language, you don't have to have a PhD in semiotics. I like that is writings are so accessible (even if the underlying concepts require an extra think or two - as it should be!).
I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed most of his fiction as well. There were a couple of pieces that were more interesting in the concept rather than the execution ("George Washington's Extreme Makeover" in particular) - but for the most part, I enjoyed them - and they made me think in the same way his non-fiction does. And also occasionally made me a little sad and melancholy (typical Coupland :) ).
bit rot is excellent. I know it's been said many times but Coupland is the McLuhan of our age - bit rot ensures his place on that pedestal. If you're a Coupland fan, you'll enjoy this - and if you've only ever read his fiction or his non-fiction - bit rot is the perfect collection to introduce you to his other side.
This is why I was so delighted when I received an advance review copy from Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Blue Rider Press & Plume (thank you!) of bit rot. bit rot contains a collection of both fiction and non-fiction from Coupland. He talks about his art, his childhood, technology (of course), money, fear .. all the good stuff. His non-fiction continues to be my favourite aspect of his work, and I can't wait to go back and reread these pieces. Coupland is not only a deep-thinker but a startlingly clear writer. This is one of my favourite things about his work - his concepts and ideas are rich and complex, but to access them, via language, you don't have to have a PhD in semiotics. I like that is writings are so accessible (even if the underlying concepts require an extra think or two - as it should be!).
I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed most of his fiction as well. There were a couple of pieces that were more interesting in the concept rather than the execution ("George Washington's Extreme Makeover" in particular) - but for the most part, I enjoyed them - and they made me think in the same way his non-fiction does. And also occasionally made me a little sad and melancholy (typical Coupland :) ).
bit rot is excellent. I know it's been said many times but Coupland is the McLuhan of our age - bit rot ensures his place on that pedestal. If you're a Coupland fan, you'll enjoy this - and if you've only ever read his fiction or his non-fiction - bit rot is the perfect collection to introduce you to his other side.
xanderbernhard's review against another edition
5.0
Coupland still has funny, interesting stuff to say. I really enjoyed this collection of essays and stories.
narwhal's review against another edition
4.0
Short stories and tech-sistential essays from D. Coupland. Thoroughly entertaining and addictive. Out of the 30 or 40 stories within, I enjoyed almost all of them. Especially great if you live in Vancouver, because he tells some local tales as well. And some weird ones. But that's what I signed up for.
bibliocyclist's review against another edition
4.0
"Boringness is the superpower of communism. Globalization kills you, but first it puts you to sleep."
"If sophistication is the ability to put a smile on one's existential desperation, then the fear of a glossy sheen is actually the fear that the surface is the content."
"Minimalists are actually extreme hoarders: they hoard space, and they're just as odd as those people with seven rooms filled with newspapers, dead cats and margarine tubs."
"It's really boring to listen to two people channeling their inner professors. Inside their heads they're getting an A+ on a nonexistent essay."
"I think Valhalla for the Mensa set was group sex with Xavier Hollander on a houseboat with walls covered in macramé wall-hangings and fencing swords."
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."
"Right now I like these new hipster stores that each sell exactly four and a half things and feel like the Great Depression when you walk in. A painted rock, a really good notepad made in Antarctica, a knitted cozy for displaying heirloom tomatoes, vintage aspirin holders and a sock. I'm never sure if it's a pop-up conceptual art gallery or if it's for real, which is actually the very best retail confusion there is."
"If sophistication is the ability to put a smile on one's existential desperation, then the fear of a glossy sheen is actually the fear that the surface is the content."
"Minimalists are actually extreme hoarders: they hoard space, and they're just as odd as those people with seven rooms filled with newspapers, dead cats and margarine tubs."
"It's really boring to listen to two people channeling their inner professors. Inside their heads they're getting an A+ on a nonexistent essay."
"I think Valhalla for the Mensa set was group sex with Xavier Hollander on a houseboat with walls covered in macramé wall-hangings and fencing swords."
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."
"Right now I like these new hipster stores that each sell exactly four and a half things and feel like the Great Depression when you walk in. A painted rock, a really good notepad made in Antarctica, a knitted cozy for displaying heirloom tomatoes, vintage aspirin holders and a sock. I'm never sure if it's a pop-up conceptual art gallery or if it's for real, which is actually the very best retail confusion there is."
snooty1's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure how to review this book. This isn't my genre, I'm going to go ahead and say I'm not sure what this genre is.
Some editorial/opinion pieces and some fiction stories...essays and short stories. If that's a genre, that's what this was.
Some I liked, some I didn't. There was a lot of repeated story components, so much so, that I often thought I accidentally was re-reading something.
I really enjoyed his pace and sense of humor. Frequently, I would laugh out loud as his "voice" is quite humorous and so relate-able.
All in all, happy I read it.
Some editorial/opinion pieces and some fiction stories...essays and short stories. If that's a genre, that's what this was.
Some I liked, some I didn't. There was a lot of repeated story components, so much so, that I often thought I accidentally was re-reading something.
I really enjoyed his pace and sense of humor. Frequently, I would laugh out loud as his "voice" is quite humorous and so relate-able.
All in all, happy I read it.
tachyondecay's review against another edition
3.0
Here Douglas Coupland goes again, trying to break our brains and our library cataloguing systems. Is Bit Rot fiction or non-fiction? It’s a collection of both! Oh noes! It contains short stories, including some previously published in Generation A (which I read almost 7 years ago, so I have zero recollection of any of it), and essays and assorted musings. In general, this is Coupland’s most up-to-date published writing on how we’re dealing with the rapid pace of technological progress.
I’m not going to talk about many of the specific entries in this collection, because there are so many. And, to be honest, they tend to blur together. As anyone who is familiar with Coupland’s work knows, his writing has a smooth quality to it: a little bit of prognostication, a little bit of paranoia, a little sideways weirdness. His voice and his ideas are always compelling. I think where he and I part ways, and where I often find myself disappointed, especially in his fiction, is our viewpoints on what constitutes a story or a novel. Coupland has a much looser, much more experimental attitude towards narrative—and that’s fine and valid if that’s what he likes. But it means that when his stories depart from the more conventional modes of storytelling that I enjoy, my brain has to work harder. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
Before I talk about a few of the high points, I’ll take issue with one particular contention. This is quoted on the back of the Random House hardcover I read and comes from the essay “3 1/2 Fingers” (read it here). Coupland describes his feelings and sensations around having to rewire a handwritten-trained brain to first type on keyboards and then use touchscreen, smartphone keyboards:
Although I understand the sensation he’s identify, I have to disagree with the assertion that exchanging handwriting for Comic Sans is in any way a “bad deal”. Yes, I know it is cool to hate on Comic Sans, and I used to be one of those people. But I’ve learned that a lot of people anecdotally like Comic Sans for its readability. And more broadly, what we have gained is not just Comic Sans per se but the ability, with the touch of a button, to alter the display of any piece of writing on our screen—to change its typeface, its size, its line-, letter-, and word-spacing, etc. That’s a superpower! And to do that, all we had to exchange was handwriting? My handwriting sucks! I’m down with that.
Fortunately, there is plenty in this book that doesn’t cause typographical arguments with the reader. One of my favourite stories is the longer entry “Temp”, quite understandably about a temp, Shannon, and her involvement with a company under negotiations to be bought by Chinese investors. I just love Coupland’s portrayal of Shannon, as well as the other characters. It reminded me a lot of his novels like JPod, and it has some great lines in it, such as, “It was a Quentin Tarantino standoff, where everyone holds a gun on everyone else, except there weren’t guns, just words and emotions.” Plus, it has a genuinely upbeat ending. Many of the essays and stories in this collection, while interesting, are not things I’d like to reread. “Temp”, on the other hand, is something I could see myself revisiting.
I also very much enjoyed Coupland’s musings on the economic angle of technology. Some of his writing about paper money and “flushing out” old money is a little absurd. But “World War $”, which you can read in its original form on the Financial Times website, is a succinct summary of how digital capitalism has broken money:
Coupland is talking with reference to the 2008 financial crisis, and he is absolutely right here. Traders have hacked money to make more … well, money … and now this house of cards is crashing down. We shored it up 8 years ago, but that doesn’t mean we made the structure any less fragile.
In at least two instances, Coupland also belies our desire to perceive technology as alien or Other. He reminds us that technology, being by definition a creation of humans, is itself an expression of our humanity—all of it, the good and the bad qualities. So technology is not alien but instead one of the most human things in existence. I really like this perspective and this reminder, since it is very tempting to view technology as a black box or a dehumanizing force.
This is perhaps why I continue to return to Coupland as a writer despite occasionally finding his novels bizarre or less than enjoyable. Unlike some technology writers, Coupland does not evangelize, nor does his condemn. Coupland is not sounding the warning bells, but he hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid either. He is just a tourist in the 21st century—like a man woken from cryogenic sleep being introduced to new ideas far ahead of his time. Coupland possesses a refreshing mixture of cynicism and optimism that makes his analysis feel very genuine and thought-provoking.
I received access to a copy of this from NetGalley, because apparently Blue Rider Press is publishing this on March 7. However, it has been out in hardcover already (in Canada, at least) for a while, and I received a physical copy for Christmas (thanks, Dad!). So I actually read the physical copy. But I appreciate the ARC, if that’s what you would call it, as well!
I’m not going to talk about many of the specific entries in this collection, because there are so many. And, to be honest, they tend to blur together. As anyone who is familiar with Coupland’s work knows, his writing has a smooth quality to it: a little bit of prognostication, a little bit of paranoia, a little sideways weirdness. His voice and his ideas are always compelling. I think where he and I part ways, and where I often find myself disappointed, especially in his fiction, is our viewpoints on what constitutes a story or a novel. Coupland has a much looser, much more experimental attitude towards narrative—and that’s fine and valid if that’s what he likes. But it means that when his stories depart from the more conventional modes of storytelling that I enjoy, my brain has to work harder. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
Before I talk about a few of the high points, I’ll take issue with one particular contention. This is quoted on the back of the Random House hardcover I read and comes from the essay “3 1/2 Fingers” (read it here). Coupland describes his feelings and sensations around having to rewire a handwritten-trained brain to first type on keyboards and then use touchscreen, smartphone keyboards:
But I can see that our species’ entire relationship with words, and their mode of construction, is clearly undergoing a massive rewiring. I bridge an era straddling handwriting and heavy smartphone usage. Young people like my friend’s daughter with her emoticons and rampant acronyms are blessed in having no cursive script to unlearn – with the bonus of having no sense of something having been lost. That’s a kind of freedom, and I’m jealous. Part of accepting the future is acknowledging that some things must be forgotten, and it’s always an insult because it’s always the things you love. We lost handwriting and got Comic Sans in return. That’s a very bad deal.
Although I understand the sensation he’s identify, I have to disagree with the assertion that exchanging handwriting for Comic Sans is in any way a “bad deal”. Yes, I know it is cool to hate on Comic Sans, and I used to be one of those people. But I’ve learned that a lot of people anecdotally like Comic Sans for its readability. And more broadly, what we have gained is not just Comic Sans per se but the ability, with the touch of a button, to alter the display of any piece of writing on our screen—to change its typeface, its size, its line-, letter-, and word-spacing, etc. That’s a superpower! And to do that, all we had to exchange was handwriting? My handwriting sucks! I’m down with that.
Fortunately, there is plenty in this book that doesn’t cause typographical arguments with the reader. One of my favourite stories is the longer entry “Temp”, quite understandably about a temp, Shannon, and her involvement with a company under negotiations to be bought by Chinese investors. I just love Coupland’s portrayal of Shannon, as well as the other characters. It reminded me a lot of his novels like JPod, and it has some great lines in it, such as, “It was a Quentin Tarantino standoff, where everyone holds a gun on everyone else, except there weren’t guns, just words and emotions.” Plus, it has a genuinely upbeat ending. Many of the essays and stories in this collection, while interesting, are not things I’d like to reread. “Temp”, on the other hand, is something I could see myself revisiting.
I also very much enjoyed Coupland’s musings on the economic angle of technology. Some of his writing about paper money and “flushing out” old money is a little absurd. But “World War $”, which you can read in its original form on the Financial Times website, is a succinct summary of how digital capitalism has broken money:
How is money damaged? It is damaged because me having photons faster than yours by a few millionths of a second is enough to make me appallingly rich – again, for doing absolutely nothing except hacking into money itself. It’s hard to have respect for this kind of system. Often the latency issue is presented to the public as a “Wow, isn’t this cool!” moment when, in fact, it’s sickening, and is partially why the world began to feel one-percent-ish five years ago. Reasonably smart people inhabiting the Age of Latency are milking those still stuck in the pre-latent era.
Coupland is talking with reference to the 2008 financial crisis, and he is absolutely right here. Traders have hacked money to make more … well, money … and now this house of cards is crashing down. We shored it up 8 years ago, but that doesn’t mean we made the structure any less fragile.
In at least two instances, Coupland also belies our desire to perceive technology as alien or Other. He reminds us that technology, being by definition a creation of humans, is itself an expression of our humanity—all of it, the good and the bad qualities. So technology is not alien but instead one of the most human things in existence. I really like this perspective and this reminder, since it is very tempting to view technology as a black box or a dehumanizing force.
This is perhaps why I continue to return to Coupland as a writer despite occasionally finding his novels bizarre or less than enjoyable. Unlike some technology writers, Coupland does not evangelize, nor does his condemn. Coupland is not sounding the warning bells, but he hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid either. He is just a tourist in the 21st century—like a man woken from cryogenic sleep being introduced to new ideas far ahead of his time. Coupland possesses a refreshing mixture of cynicism and optimism that makes his analysis feel very genuine and thought-provoking.
I received access to a copy of this from NetGalley, because apparently Blue Rider Press is publishing this on March 7. However, it has been out in hardcover already (in Canada, at least) for a while, and I received a physical copy for Christmas (thanks, Dad!). So I actually read the physical copy. But I appreciate the ARC, if that’s what you would call it, as well!
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