City of Glass

City of Glass: Douglas Coupland's Vancouver. Douglas and McIntyre, 2000.

Douglas Coupland's lovingly self-deprecating visitor's guide to Vancouver. 

I think I've shared in this blog before how I once sat in the same row as Coupland at a Vancouver Museum function and eavesdropped on his chatting to another artist. He sounded just like he does in this book. So artsy-cool. 

I remember once hearing him tell of a reader who actually asked why he had chosen the title he did for this book. I shake my head. Open your eyes. 

At first, I thought that this is a pretty masculine view of the city. I am more aware of the flowers, everywhere, especially hydrangea, along with the spring blossoms he does include. I was surprised at no mention of sports teams--Canucks, Lions, WhiteCaps--or to music, or shopping. And of suburbs other than North. And of course, since 2000, there have been a few memorable additions, such as the Olympics, and the Canada Line, and changes to BC ferries. I'm reaching here. It's still relevant and an amusing enjoyable read. 

Inspired by Emily II - Juxtapositions

On the fourth floor of the Vancouver Art Gallery, In Dialogue with Carr juxtaposes paintings, sketches, and primitive pots by Emily with the work of four local living artists, Evan Lee, Liz Magor, Marianne Nicolson, and Douglas Coupland.


As you enter the gallery, the first painting, of Emily and her sister sitting at tea, echoes the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and drawings on the main floor. The warmth and intimacy of this domestic scene remind us that Emily studied in France and could paint well in that style if she chose to do so.


A series of Evan Lee paintings which began life as found photographs of forest fires evoke the beauty in ugliness and destruction of altered landscapes in Emily's paintings of gravel pits and clear cuts.


Douglas Coupland displays two of his 'button blankets'. These are not so much like blanket capes as they are king-sized bed coverings or wall hangings. The first is a white field, reminiscent of Salish woven wool, with multi-coloured manufactured buttons affixed in even rows. The second on a solid black field displays 1000 loonies. There is irony here, humour, as well as an homage to the ritual making and gifting of blankets, articles of both beauty and utility, valuable hand-made objects which required 'a wealth of relatives working in concert' to produce goods for the giveaway at traditional potlatches. Other blankets and crazy quilts (I'm not sure whether they are all Coupland's) are decorated with other iconic images from aboriginal and Canadian culture which have replaced (or infiltrated) the winter dances. One is aerated with dream-catchers, another is a crazy collage of hockey memorabilia, and one showcases shiny hubcaps.


A large display case holds several of Emily's primitive clay pots decorated with First Nations motifs. The writing on the wall acknowledges the loan of pottery items from the private collection of Bryan Adams. Coupland points out that he and Adams grew up two blocks apart from each other on the North Shore but that he has only seen Bryan once in his life, at the Shell station. The connection, he suggests, is that they are both artists influenced by their relationship with the surrounding forest, as was Emily. The difference is, he suggests, that Emily had friends on the reserve and visited there often while, he, Coupland, has lived there a lifetime within blocks of Indian land, and has never set foot on the reserve. How true this is for most Canadians. As much as we may wish to feel connected, often the only link between our personal cultures is through the work of artists. Is this connection lost forever, irretrievable, or is Emily again the pathfinder, showing us where we all must go before we can feel truly at home in this land?

Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland

One of the good things about belonging to a book club is reading a writer new to me. The prize in this category for last year (2007) goes to Douglas Coupland’s HEY NOSTRADAMUS! It was my first Douglas Coupland, a much-published Vancouver writer and artist. This is the same Douglas Coupland credited with coining the ‘Generation X’ label. His GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA has been waiting in my TO-READ stack for several months, and his JPod is currently a series on CBC. How have I missed Coupland, reading as I have in CanLit for several decades? That fact that he seems somehow to be outside the CanLit sphere is a sad comment on our Left Coast and how disconnected we often feel to life east of the Rockies.

Although you would not guess as much from the title, HEY NOSTRADAMUS! is set very particularly in Canada, specifically in North Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. What is even better is the way Coupland uses place for purposes of plot, character development, and theme. His setting is the “Bible belt” and one of his themes seems to be the connection between religion and evil events in society (in this case, a school shooting in North Van and its effects on the four point-of-view characters). The shooting which initiates the action of the novel reminds us of Columbine but is certainly also alluding to similar shootings in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta. This strikes me as a comment upon how the American-media filter through which we view pop culture and current events distances and separates us from our own Canadian reality.

The crucial role religion plays in the emotional and physical violence of HEY NOSTRADAMUS! is a brave theme for any writer. The title, linking us to a sixteenth century European visionary, forces us to confront the puzzle which many cultures ponder--whether we control our own destiny or whether everything is pre-ordained. The way Coupland has integrated the Sasquatch myth is also masterful. Sasquatch, the local Halkomelem name for the creature known elsewhere as Bigfoot, is part of the culture of the First People of this place and seems to represent, as it does in Eden Robinson’s MONKEY BEACH, the survival of Spirit / Magic / Wonder in a non-believing world.

Reading this book, enjoying it as much as I did, makes me wonder: Why isn’t Douglas Coupland even more celebrated? I did see him once, at a function at the Vancouver Museum, and realized as I listened in on a private conversation that it was the first time I had ever heard him speak. More recently, because of JPod and a new novel release, THE GUN THIEF, I’ve heard him interviewed on Sounds Like Canada and The Hour. It’s about time; we need more of this. We need our own Canadian Charlie Rose, someone not ashamed of “talking heads”, who will invite creative people (more than celebrities), cultural builders, eccentrics, and engage them in intelligent conversation upon which the rest of us can eavesdrop. Hey, Canada!

Check out Amazon.com for a list of titles and Coupland.com for a reveal of what the cover image represents.

Oops! 500 words