First off, it's been seven weeks since the beginning of this column — thanks so much for following! For this week's lucky number seven, our destination is Lancaster, WA, where consumerism reigns. Just Google Maps it, there's nothing else there, and if you're from there, I'm sorry and ready to be proven wrong.
Author: Douglas Coupland
Title: "Shampoo Planet" (1992)
Number of Pages: 304 in the 2002 Scribner Edition
Referenced by: The band Panic! At The Disco
My parents are, on average, younger than most. So growing up with them, I was indoctrinated into the Generation X youth culture. Grungy plaid was in, Smashing Pumpkins was on the radio, MTV reigned as a legitimate news source and Brandon Lee's death was only eclipsed by Kurt Cobain's. At the same time, there was the Generation Y's coming of age. These individuals worshipped money, business, capitalism and Ronald Reagan. In a relative period of peace in America's history, both groups clashed and had time to philosophize on the state of the culture and youth itself. "Shampoo Planet" brings us back to this time, to our relative doppelgangers in Generations Y and X and their struggles against their '60s hippie parents.
The fiction centers around Tyler, a middle-class young adult who longs to work in the kinds of corporations his mother loathed. He uses hair products avidly to keep a perfect coif, and he just got back from a typical wanderjahr to Europe. Tyler's prime aspiration is to be a yuppie, and he's well on his way — his family is the only thing that could stop him.
Coupland's talent shows when he writes about Tyler's relationships with his family and girlfriends. There's Jasmine, his hippie, divorcee mother who he calls by her first name. There are his rich grandparents who are involved in a pyramid scheme. There are girls he met in Europe, who live fast and hard. These unique characters are the true spirit of the story even within the larger sociopolitical critique. It is a spirit with which we can still empathize today. In addition, Coupland captures the tension between young and old perfectly. From parents' and children's inability to understand one another to a child's eventual realization that his parents really are always right, every one of these nuanced emotions is caught in the text. Have you experienced these moments? There have been too many for me to count.
If all that doesn't sound intriguing, I swear that the writing in "Shampoo Planet" is top notch. One of my favorite lines of all time is in this book. Near the end of the novel, Coupland writes, "but no matter what happens — no matter how wide the gulf between us becomes — we will each be the last people we forget in each other's memories. Because we were each the first to be there." Beautiful, isn't it?
Hailing from Canada, Coupland is best known for "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" (1991). But whereas the former offers beautiful, short vignettes, I chose "Shampoo Planet" because it captures the same sort of feeling in a more coherent story.
Coupland has published 13 novels, seven non-fiction books and seven drama screenplays. In addition, he's an artist and has produced numerous sculptures, many of which deal specifically with pop art or the military. Last year, he released a clothing and accessory collection with "Roots Canada."
Pop culturally, Panic! At The Disco references Coupland in their album, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (2005). The songs "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" are both variations of lines by Coupland. If he wasn't chic enough before, I hope this last bit encourages you to check out "Shampoo Planet." A band like Panic! At The Disco, which flawlessly pulled off a vaudeville circus-themed music video, probably knows what's posh.
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Alexandria Chu is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Alexandria.Chu@tufts.edu.
