Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland may be best known for coining the phrase “Generation X” with his novel “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture,” but since then he has produced an impressive body of work that examines how technology affects human relations and interactions, human sexuality, social trends, the future of society and more. Most recently Coupland has finished a biography of Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan, one of the key thinkers in establishing current media theory. If you’ve ever heard the terms “the medium is the message” or “the global village,” you’ve heard McLuhan’s ideas. We recently had the chance to ask Coupland about his recent work and ideas, ahead of his scheduled appearance at The Bookworm on Tuesday, October 18.

You’ve recently finished a biography of Marshall McLuhan. Yes, it published about six months ago in the US, a bit earlier than that in Canada.

During the course of your research for the book, did you learn anything about him that surprised you, or challenged your perception of him or his ideas? Indeed. So much that I don’t know where to begin. He changed the way I look at brains, the human personality, time, money, our relationship to machines and electronics… it was (and continues to be) an extraordinary thing.

Much of your writing centers on communication, the way modernity influences the way we create and perceive information, and the effects of this on daily life. It does. I’ve always simply found it fascinating, but with Marshall I’m starting to develop a framework onto which I can hang it all.

What are your thoughts on how social media is used in different countries? So many countries, so I can’t really pick them at random. The larger trend is that social media is intrinsically transnational. It also has the tendency to make a person feel like one person among many – as opposed to books, which make people feel like individuals. It’s a subtle distinction between the 20th and 21st centuries.

What about national efforts to facilitate, curb or control the use of social media? Pointless. A regime can buy itself a few more years, at most, in 2011.

As an artist, you’ve formally studied in Canada, Japan and Europe. Are you interested in the Chinese art scene, and if so, could you share some of your observations? In the West we’ve gone through each wave of electronic technology in real time as it’s evolved over the past 125 years. China skipped so many of these waves. I’m curious to see what its artists make given the fact they don’t have to unlearn so many ingrained attitudes, habits and technological preferences.

What does it mean to be an artist working in 2011, and what will it mean to be an artist 50 years in the future? In one sense being an artist doesn’t ever change; the commitment to make art is a constant. But obviously at the moment art is about learning how to imagine our way out of, and around, the social and political realities caused by the flattening of the world via the Internet and international trade. People don’t change. Technology does. In fifty years? All you can say is that it will be about learning how to imagine our way out of, and around, the social and political realities caused by whatever technological change is then going on.

What are your impressions of China? I can’t yet say. I leave in four days. It feels like I’m going to be given a very powerful drug called ‘China’ that’s going to last for eight nights.

Will there still be books in ten years, or will everything be available only on a screen? There’ll be both, but the way things are going, screens are going to be much better than books. It’s already true in many cases. You have to desentimentalize yourself and accept that Gutenberg and paper were a transitory technology required to get our species to an all-digital reality.

How has the rise of the Internet affected writing as a profession? People find what they want to read much more quickly than they used to. At the same time, the Internet sparks your neurons in certain ways which then makes your brain hardwire itself to that specific medium. This rewiring isn’t conducive to long-form fiction, and probably never will be. So writers may not change, but they have to accept that their audience’s brains are, literally, morphing into something else.

What project are you planning on doing next? A large body of paint and photographic work. It won’t be ready for viewing until late 2012.

DETAILS

Who: Douglas Coupland

Where: Bookworm

When: Oct 18, 7:30-8:30 pm

Web: www.beijingbookworm.com