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reading (microserfs)
Jun. 12th, 2007 08:39 pmSunday night I finished "microserfs". This is obviously a book about geekdom. When it was written it was probably a safari into geekdom for many of its readers, please keep your hands inside the landrover and don't try to feed the animals. Now it reads as nostalgic, especially with its many references to 70's and 80's pop culture. For me it was an odd combination because I lived through all this in a different east coast reality based version.
I guess the piece that makes geek culture hard to represent in a book is that it's based on micro-bits of shared culture. Not the overall culture, but things the individuals have shared personally. In my experience young geeks are naturally forward looking creatures, they are acquiring new knowledge, working in new (to them at least) technology. They may fetish over old technology, but for their shared culture they're looking at whatever is their newest discovery (even if it's a punk band that was popular when they were two). Of course, if you actually wrote a book like that none of your readers would understand the references.
I knew in my heart of hearts how the main obvious plotline had to end, not the way it ends most often in reality, but the way it had to end in a book that wants to sell more than ten copies. I was surprised by how the various minor plots conspired together toward the end to make the theme.
Overall, a funny, sweet, romantic book.
36. Douglas Coupland "microserfs"
I guess the piece that makes geek culture hard to represent in a book is that it's based on micro-bits of shared culture. Not the overall culture, but things the individuals have shared personally. In my experience young geeks are naturally forward looking creatures, they are acquiring new knowledge, working in new (to them at least) technology. They may fetish over old technology, but for their shared culture they're looking at whatever is their newest discovery (even if it's a punk band that was popular when they were two). Of course, if you actually wrote a book like that none of your readers would understand the references.
I knew in my heart of hearts how the main obvious plotline had to end, not the way it ends most often in reality, but the way it had to end in a book that wants to sell more than ten copies. I was surprised by how the various minor plots conspired together toward the end to make the theme.
Overall, a funny, sweet, romantic book.
36. Douglas Coupland "microserfs"
