Survey of Author and Secondary Sources

Author: Douglas Coupland

Title: Hey Nostradamus!

What initially made me interested in reading a Douglas Coupland novel was that it was a recently written and published book. I assumed that because it was recent, I would be able to relate to the themes more, and that it would have easier language to understand compared to older pieces of work by Margaret Atwood for example. The more I can relate to what I am reading, the more I can fully understand it and get involved in the text. Upon further research, reading Douglas Coupland’s novel also interested me because of the title he used. Nostradamus is the 16^th century scholar who made predictions of the future (Nostradamus), which made me consider reading it to find out how that related to a school massacre in Vancouver.

(Nostradamus)

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian author, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. His book Hey Nostradamus! is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is where he wrote the book and currently lives. (Douglas Coupland)

Douglas Coupland published his first novel, called Generation X in 1991, and has since written 11 other popular novels including Life After God, Hey Nostradamus!, and Eleanor Rigby. Coupland is still alive today and continues to write stories. His most recent work is his 2010 novel Player One. (Douglas Coupland)

The title Hey Nostradamus! could have reference to the scholar Nostradamus who made predictions about what events will take place in the future, which could been an influence to this book. (Nostradamus) I predict that the events of the book will somehow tie into some of Nostradamus’ predictions, but I haven’t read far enough in the book to have reached any of his events. Another event of influence to Hey Nostradamus! is the Columbine High School shooting that took place in 1999. The events of that real life school shooting are an inspiration to the stories that unfold in the fictional school shooting in Vancouver in Hey Nostradamus! (Slater)

Coupland’s novel themes have changed since his first novel publication in 1991. He took a change from humour in his early work, to darker current themes. Coupland is known for his modern takes on pop culture in almost all his novels. Themes such as religion, death, and loneliness are featured in Hey Nostradamus! and other works by Coupland. (Crystal)

Hey Nostradamus! author Douglas Coupland is often compared to authors such as Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Richard Ford because they have similar writing styles, and feature common themes in their literature. (Douglas Coupland TasteKid)

The first secondary source I used in my research was Encyclopedia Brittanica’s articles on author Douglas Coupland. I find this beneficial to the reader because it provides an insight into the author’s life and his common themes and genres. UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography’s articles on Nostradamus are helpful to the reader to connect the title of the book to a possible connection between the school massacre, and something Nostradamus may have predicted in the 16th century. (Nostradamus) Another beneficial secondary source would be Coupland’s official website, which offers a biography, as well as hobbies of the author and other books written by him.

Work Cited

Crystal, Garry. "Who Is Douglas Coupland?." Wisegeek. Wisegeek, N.d.. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.wisegeek.com/who-is-douglas-coupland.htm>.

N.a. "Douglas Coupland." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1289754/Douglas-Coupland>.

N.a. "Nostradamus." UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 25 Feb. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nostradamus.aspx#2>.

N.a. "Douglas Coupland." TasteKid. Tastekid, N.d.. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.tastekid.com/like/Douglas+Coupland>.

Slater, Jessica. "GROWING THROUGH THE GRIEF 'HEY NOSTRADAMUS!." High Beam Research. HighBeam, 4 Jul 2003. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-104972242.html>.

Book Choice Submission

My book choice submission for my Grade 12 University English class is Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland. The 244 page book was published on July 1, 2003.

I chose to read Hey Nostradamus! because the storyline appealed to me the most in the fact that it has real life possibilities that could actually relate to my life. I enjoy the feeling of connecting to the emotions of the characters in the book, and I feel as though I will be able to feel the panic and emotion of what the teenagers are going through in the school shooting. Books that have a lot of action are the ones I enjoy the most, and the fact that Hey Nostradamus! tells the story from four people’s perspective makes it more interesting.

Hey Nostradamus isn’t divided into chapters, but instead into four perspectives from teenagers involved in the Vancouver school shootings. I have read till page 23, which is still in Cheryl’s perspective. From what I’ve read so far, I really enjoy this book and how the plot is being developed. What has made Hey Nostradamus different from other books I’ve read is that it didn’t take a lot of time introducing the characters, which is often one of the drier parts of a story. Instead, it caught my attention right away, and has continued developing character details as the story progresses. Another aspect I enjoy in this book so far is the intimate relationship between the two main characters Cheryl and Jason, because it gets you emotionally attached almost instantly. I also like how the story is relatable in the sense that the teenagers are the same age as me, and dealing with issues that all high school students have the potential to go through.

Hey Nostradamus begins with the reader learning that Cheryl is a high school student who just recently found out she was pregnant from her fellow classmate, and husband, Jason. The introduction to the characters reveals that Cheryl and Jason are part of a Youth Alive! religious program. A predominant theme has emerged early on, being that both of these characters motives and lives are based around religion, including waiting for sex until they were married. The setting of the book is focussed around the high school that the students attend, which is Delbrook Senior Secondary school on Vancouver’s North Shore. Cheryl’s perspective of the book is in 1988, and based on the names and years in the Contents of the book, the other three perspectives will be from the following years of the school shooting. The mood of the book so far has been a generally happy and loving one, as Cheryl is explaining her relationship with Jason. The mood begins to change to panic and fear as Cheryl begins to reveal more details of her experience in the school shooting.

Based upon the first 23 pages of Hey Nostradamus, the main themes seem to be love, death, God and spirituality. The bond and love between Cheryl and her husband Jason seems to be a theme that will continue throughout the book, exploring their relationship, and how it either gets stronger, or torn apart, by the school shooting. The central theme of the book is the shooting, so death will play an important part as we discover if Jason, Cheryl, and their friends survive the shooting, and how they deal with the loss of their classmates. God and spirituality so far appear to be a main theme of the book because the decisions of the main characters are based upon their religion, and they have hope in God that He will get them through everything. I think the author is trying to say that all these themes connect to each other throughout the book, and that one wouldn’t happen without the other.

The secondary sources I have found so far in Hey Nostradamus were in the first two pages of the book, which include quotes from Newspapers across the world, who had critics reviewing Douglas Coupland’s latest work. The reviews are interesting because they actually make sense in the way that they have been worded. “Moving and tenderly beautiful....replete with Coupland’s breathtaking observations on consumer culture.” – The Vancouver Sun. So far, the secondary sources found in the book haven’t been confusing because the storyline is pretty modern and has relevant sources.

A line from page 9 that speaks to me is “GOD IS NOWHERE/GOD IS NOW HERE”. This line caught my attention because it seems to be a main theme of the novel, which is God and spirituality. The main characters Jason and Cheryl base a lot of their decisions on their religion’s beliefs, which is what this quote is addressing. This quote speaks to me because it’s dealing with the conflict of God’s existence, and mentally debating where God is. I think that the quote is revealing that by God being nowhere, he is essentially everywhere. There isn’t one specific place you can go for God, whether Jerusalem or a church for example, but instead He is wherever you are (“now here”), as long as you believe.