This book was written for me. Generation A. Generation Allison? I think not, but it resonated with me like none of his other books have before.
For those of you who follow my principal blog, My Quarter-life Crisis, you'd know that I've been anticipating this novel all summer. I even made it a goal that I would complete the first four books in the Coupland canon of fiction before this came out on September 1. In fact, since the beginning of spring I've been reading a lot. I've immersed myself into literature this summer and I think Generation A has helped me realize why. I'll explain later.
This novel takes place in the near future and human carelessness and selfishness has wiped out the world's bee population. No bees equals widespread plant failure. The world has been reduced to synthetic replicas and hand-pollination. The story begins with five people from all over the world each being stung by lone bees.
Zack: A young corn farmer from Mahaska County, Iowa, who hates corn. He was left this farm after his father died of flesh eating disease. He was harvesting corn naked while driving a combine with satellite cameras filming him for a paying observer.
Samantha: A young trainer at a gym from Palmerston North, Wanganui, New Zealand was stung while making an Earth sandwich with a girl from Spain.
Julien: A Worlds of Warcraft addict from Paris, France. He had just been kicked out of a gaming centre and was sitting outdoors (not his usual style) when he was stung.
Diana: An ex-church lady with tourettes from North Bay, Ontario. She was stung when she was arguing with her crazy neighbour after she caught him abusing his dog. Her ex-lover (her pastor) and his wife arrived at the scene as well. They all witnessed the sting.
Harj: A call-centre employee from Tricomalee, Sri Lanka. He was being interviewed by the New York Times regarding his website where he sells celebrity room tones when he was strung.
The five are each isolated in clean, empty rooms - save for a bed and a few minor Ikea furnishings. They spend weeks there answering questions and submitting to blood tests. They are each released back into the worlds from whence they came and are left to deal with their new found fame.
Before they could get accustomed to their new lives they are scooped up by the same people who tested them before and sent to a remote island north of British Columbia, Canada - the site of the last known bee hive.
What are they asked to do here? Tell stories. Yep, each member of the B5 (the name they are given in the media) is asked to tell several made-up stories to the others. Serge, the scientist in charge, sits and keenly observes.
Without giving away the ending I'll address the part that made me realize why I bury myself in an endless stream of books. The topic of reading comes up a lot in this novel. Particularly the feeling one gets when one reads: peaceful solitude. It's just you and the world that exists inside those pages. There is no future, no past, just you and the book, the words. One is okay with loneliness when one is reading a book. Books are an individual experience - one of the few left in this modern world.
Technology has turned us into a tribe - we have X number of Facebook friends, X number of MSN contacts. We live in a world where we share our experiences so openly. Reading is the last refuge away from the tribe - away from the hive. In one of the B5 member's stories (I can't remember whose) the main character is left behind after the rapture because he refused to accept text-message speak as a form of language. He was isolated from the herd.
I recently watched Douglas Coupland's documentary, Souvenirs of Canada. In the film they show him putting together an art exhibit about things he finds distinctly Canadian. Towards the end of the film he says he did it because he's nostalgic for something that isn't even gone yet; pre-nostalgia.
That is how I feel about language and reading. I feel like I'm so primitive - like us book readers will soon be extinct. I like my alone time with my books. I think I would have been the sixth person stung. If you want to know why, read the book.
