Posted by Skrud at Thursday, January 31st 2008 at 7:32pm
I’ve been watching the jPod TV series since it starting airing on CBC a mere four weeks ago. I remember seeing the ads for it and thinking “I should probably watch that show … it was a great book!” but of course I never bothered to take notice of when it was showing. The first episode caught me off guard since I stumbled home one night and it had just started, and it was actually funny. I was entertained throughout the first 10 minutes, but then I had to leave to meet some friends and just watched the episode later when it was finally “available” for download. Compared to the book as I remember it, the TV show is pretty close adaptation. It’s better by far than any book-to-movie adaptation I’ve seen.
jPod or Microserfs?
I enjoyed jPod a lot, since it felt to me like an updated Microserfs, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I loved Microserfs. Both are written by Douglas Coupland, but Microserfs is easily one of my all time favourite books. I first read it (according to my blog) in January 2004, and I’ve re-read at least 4 times since then. Each time I read Microserfs I get so much more out of it. The book is chock full of references to nerd culture and geekdom, yet all tied together in such a meaningful way. When I read Microserfs, I felt like it was a book that understood me.
jPod was a similar style of novel to Microserfs, but it never resonated with me as strongly. I always felt that jPod was simply too over-the-top and exaggerated for me to relate to the characters. jPod is also full of nerd references, but I think it’s to a fault. At one point it feels like the references are simply there for the sake of paying lip service to something that the readership will recognize, chuckle silently to themselves and shrug. Basically, jPod felt to me kind of how xkcd feels to Nick.
jPod on TV is so much better!
The funny thing is that I’m completely taken by the TV show. I love it! I’ll watch an episode over breakfast with my morning coffee and be in an enlightened mood for the rest of the day. I think part of the reason is that the wackiness and over-the-top-ness work so much better in live action than in prose. The same things that turned me off from the novel make for a lively and entertaining television-viewing experience. It’s as if jPod were meant to be televised. The novel lends itself easily to the kinds of amusing, unlikely scenarios that make sitcoms work, but at the same time it’s infused with the social commentary and searching for meaning that Coupland’s characters do so well.
This is the first TV show that I’ve followed in ages. I’ll keep watching. :)
Tags: books, jpod, microserfs, reading, tv | 5 comments
Posted by Skrud at Friday, July 14th 2006 at 1:26am
I got impatient waiting for my Amazon.ca order. I always have to have something to read or else I start to get withdrawal. So today I stopped in Chapters before my Fantasia movie and picked up Dark Water, which is a collection of short stories from Koji Suzuki (only one of the short stories was made into the movie). I also picked up a Franz Kafka anthology, Metamorphosis and other stories entirely because of The Daily WTF (and the fact that it was $2.25).
Tags: books | 3 comments
Posted by Skrud at Tuesday, July 11th 2006 at 9:22pm
Summertime is great for reading. Especially during Fantasia season when I spend hours waiting in line for movies. I finished Children of the Mind last night, so I figured this would be a good time to write down the list of books currently in my reading queue. In no particular order:
Well, I just got up to go look at my bookshelf and ineed there is nothing more that I haven’t yet read. I want a break from Sci-Fi; I’ve read way too much recently. What I really want is a Banana Yoshimoto book. Amazon, here I come.
While I’m at it, I’ll also pick up JPod by Douglas Coupland and Dark Water by Koji Suzuki. After Ring, Spiral and Loop, and I can’t get enough Koji.
Tags: books, reading | 4 comments
Posted by Skrud at Wednesday, June 14th 2006 at 11:14pm
Since my post about Ring, I’ve seen both Ringu and The Ring, and I finished Spiral last night. Ring is now easily one of my favourite books ever.
Ringu
Ringu was weak. It took so many liberties with the story and the characters that what was left was little more than a cheesy/campy horror flick that took itself too seriously. While differences in adaptation are expected, in this case it was at the cost of good storytelling. The movie was a shallow, tepid puddle compared to the novel’s profound ocean.
But it’s not only closeness to the book that (failed to) set me off about the movie – rather, the movie was just plain boring. It didn’t evoke suspense or excitement, and it kind of drudged along with little references to videotapes thrown in…
The Ring
While The Ring took many of the same liberties as Ringu, even strayed much further from the novel than its Japanese counterpart. But in so doing, I think The Ring was much closer to the ideas and feelings in the original novel. Not only that, but The Ring was extremely well-made and well-executed. It was tense, suspenseful, and even scary at times. Hell, it was great!
Still, if you enjoyed the Ring, I urge you to read Ring. The book isn’t scary, but it is suspenseful. It is also fucking awesome.
Spiral
Spiral is the written sequel to Ring. Before you start thinking that this has something to do with The Ring 2 (which I haven’t seen yet), you should be aware that The Ring 2 is a completely original story and has nothing to do with any book.
Spiral was more than a worth sequel to Ring. It takes the events of Ring and puts a whole new perspective on it. There’s a new set of characters interacting with artifacts from the previous novel, trying to piece together the mystery of The Ring using new information… And it’s a helluva lot creepier than Ring.
One thing I like about Kôji Suzuki’s writing is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he’s able to make seemingly tongue-in-cheek references to his own writing while keeping the story gripping, suspenseful and eerie. I won’t say any more than that for fear of spoiling parts of the book – but you should all read Ring and then Spiral. Everyone should read them – these books are so damn good.
Now it’s time to get started on the third book in the series, Loop, which I ordered from Amazon in hardcover because I couldn’t wait until October for the paperback release. I don’t know anything about Loop other than the fact that in the inside dust-jacket cover is written RING + SPIRAL < LOOP. Sweet.
I have no idea how I’m going to survive the wait for Birthday , the prequel, which comes out in December…
Tags: books, japanese, movies | 1 comment
Posted by Skrud at Tuesday, May 16th 2006 at 12:21am
I’ve been making some serious headway in my backed-up book queue recently. Harley must’ve loaned me Ring ages ago, but I only picked it up last Thursday. I finished it today.
I’ve never seen any of the Ring movies, neither the Japanese movie nor the American blockbuster. I wanted to read the book without any prior knowledge of the story (well, other than what was already revealed in the previews). I burned through Ring in record time. Author Koji Suzuki’s writing is imbued with such a sense of urgency that I couldn’t bear to stop reading until I could physically no longer keep my eyes open and would have to sleep. I’d open the book again at the next available opportunity, reading in midday even, until finally I managed to finish all its glorious pages.
When I finished, I wanted more. The story was so compelling that I needed to read more. Luckily, there are two sequels (Spiral and Loop) as well as one prequel (Birthday) slated to come out in December.
I’ve got to watch the movies now. I’m going to start with the Japanese one, then the American one. I’d like to see how they stack up to the book.
Tags: books, japanese, movies | 6 comments
