Douglas Coupland
Paperback | Pages: 371 pages Rating: 3.88 | 22862 Users | 879 Reviews
Specify Books Concering Microserfs
| Original Title: | Microserfs |
| ISBN: | 0060987049 (ISBN13: 9780060987046) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Daniel Underwood |
| Setting: | Redmond, Washington(United States) Silicon Valley, California(United States) |
Description Conducive To Books Microserfs
Narrated in the form of a Powerbook entry by Dan Underwood, a computer programmer for Microsoft, this state-of-the-art novel about life in the '90s follows the adventures of six code-crunching computer whizzes. Known as "microserfs," they spend upward of 16 hours a day "coding" (writing software) as they eat "flat" foods (such as Kraft singles, which can be passed underneath closed doors) and fearfully scan the company email to see what the great Bill might be thinking and whether he is going to "flame" one of them. Seizing the chance to be innovators instead of cogs in the Microsoft machine, this intrepid bunch strike out on their own to form a high-tech start-up company named Oop! in Silicon Valley. Living together in a sort of digital flophouse --"Our House of Wayward Mobility" -- they desperately try to cultivate well-rounded lives and find love amid the dislocated, subhuman whir and buzz of their computer-driven world.Funny, illuminating and ultimately touching, Microserfs is the story of one generation's very strange and claustrophobic coming of age.
Itemize Regarding Books Microserfs
| Title | : | Microserfs |
| Author | : | Douglas Coupland |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 371 pages |
| Published | : | 1995 by Harper Perennial |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Humor. Contemporary. Cultural. Canada. Novels. Literature. Science. Technology |
Rating Regarding Books Microserfs
Ratings: 3.88 From 22862 Users | 879 ReviewsAssess Regarding Books Microserfs
My wife read Coupland's 2004 novel, "Eleanor Rigby" and found it to be pretty good. I learnt that he is both an author and a "post-modern" artist. I often see Douglas Coupland books in the scifi section of the bookstore. 1995's "Microserfs" was about coders working for Micrsoft in the 1990's. My son is currently a coder working for Microsoft. I thought, perhaps this might give some insight of his world. This is not scifi, but rather, techfi. Though I've never worked in an office cubical, am notFiction. A little slice of the mid-nineties, Microsoft, and Silicon Valley. This was was my first Coupland book and it wasn't what I was expecting. Apparently I was prepared for shallow postmodernism or something smugly impressed by its own cynicism. I don't know where I got that idea, but this is an optimistic book, full of human moments, love and friendship, and the things that drive us to succeed. I was surprised at how sweet it could be at times.It's also got plenty of computer talk:
Edited to include more flat foods at the request of an obsessive nerdy friend.Highly amusing little book of coders all aged 32, mentally if not in years, being obsessed with programming and living their messy student-type lives shaped by this consuming passion.The idea of flat foods that can be slipped under a door for their more Asperger's type friend who cannot leave his room until all the code is written is funny. Kraft cheese slicesFruit leatherMelted icecream (does this count?)Melba toast
Microserfs is one of Coupland's most populair books with a certain cult-status.The thing which I not really liked, was that that this book contains too much software-terms. A typical "Douglas" with different kind of funny people and their singular qualities. Typical "Coupland's" were as well the dialogue's and the way the characters go on with each other....When I read it a few years ago, I can remember it was just too sweet for me.Maybe it was not the right moment to read, right then. I can
A snapshot of a time not so long ago, these people are familiar, even if I was never one of them. They are filled, despite their constant craving for some "life" they insist they do not have, with optimism and joy. I don't think I view the modern tech world with that kind of hope and so the whole story reads like one of a bunch of rosy faced kids who have the luxury of not knowing about the current hell world the Internet is today. Oh, for that dream of the nineties!See, so, at one point, Daniel
Douglas Couplands Microserfs reads like a time capsule crossed with a nerds-only Breakfast Club. Focused on the California geek population who powered the late eighties/early nineties technology boom, the novel focuses so much on time and place that it could arguably be classified as historical. The CD-ROM and early internet references seem, like an AOL disc or heavy monitor, both quaint and annoying. Coupland transcends the period piece nature of Microserfs about 60% of the time, especially
I just dropped the book on the table and I'm thinking of rereading many of its parts. It's amazing how much one can learn from a work of fiction so cleverly crafted and so loyal to the culture it intends to explore. What Coupland achieved is a truly fascinating take on why the Valley ignites so much obsession, even decades before HBO's Silicon Valley came along.The way Dan and his friends are portrayed is worryingly relatable to many of us who in any level deal with technology and its culture.
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