Microserfs

Last updated
Microserfs
Microserfs.jpg
Author Douglas Coupland
Cover artistWilliam Graef
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Genre Epistolary novel
Set in Redmond, Washington and Silicon Valley, 1993–94
PublisherRegan Books, HarperCollins
Publication date
June 1995
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages371 (Hardback)
ISBN 0-06-039148-0 (USA hardback), ISBN   0-00-224404-7 (Canada hardback)
OCLC 32167397
813/.54 20
LC Class PS3553.O855 M53 1995
Preceded by Life After God  
Followed by Polaroids from the Dead  

Microserfs, published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form [1] as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of Wired magazine and was subsequently expanded to full novel length. [2] Set in the early 1990s, it captures the state of the technology industry before Windows 95, and anticipates the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.

Contents

The novel is presented in the form of diary entries maintained on a PowerBook by the narrator, Daniel. Because of this, as well as its formatting and usage of emoticons, this novel is similar to what emerged a decade later as the blog format.

Coupland revisited many of the ideas in Microserfs in his 2006 novel JPod , which has been labeled "Microserfs for the Google generation". [3]

Plot

The plot of the novel has two distinct movements: the events at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and the move to Silicon Valley and the "Oop!" project.

The novel begins in Redmond as the characters are working on different projects at Microsoft's main campus. Life at the campus feels like a feudalistic society, with Bill Gates as the lord, and the employees the serfs. The majority of the main characters—Daniel (the narrator), Susan, Todd, Bug, Michael, and Abe—are living together in a "geek house", and their lives are dedicated to their projects and the company. Daniel's foundations are shaken when his father, a longtime employee of IBM, is laid off. The lifespan of a Microsoft coder weighs heavily on Daniel's mind.

The second movement of the novel begins when the characters are offered jobs in Silicon Valley working on a project for Michael, who has by then left Redmond. All of the housemates—some immediately, some after thought—decide to move to the Valley.

The characters' lives change drastically once they leave the limited sphere of the Microsoft campus and enter the world of "One-Point-Oh". They begin to work on a project called "Oop!" (a reference to object-oriented programming). Oop! is a Lego-like design program, allowing dynamic creation of many objects, bearing a resemblance to 2009's Minecraft (Coupland appears on the rear cover of the novel's hardcover editions photographed in Denmark's Legoland Billund, holding a Lego 777.).

One of the undercurrents of the plot is Daniel and his family's relationship to Jed, Daniel's younger brother who died in a boating accident while they were children.

Characters

Daniel
The book's narrator and main character. Initially a software tester for Microsoft. His thoughts are funneled into the book through the epistolary format of the novel, and also as he records stream of consciousness lists of terms that he believes exist in a computer's subconscious.
Susan
A programmer initially working for Microsoft. Throughout the novel, Susan attempts (not always successfully) to find and maintain a meaning to life outside of work. She eventually gains semi-celebrity status after founding Chyx, a feminist support group for Valley women who code.
Todd
A tester and coworker of Daniel's who is obsessed with bodybuilding and is continually searching for something to believe in. His family is very Christian, while Todd has rejected his parents' faith.
Bug Barbecue
A tester and coworker of Daniel's; "the World's Most Bitter Man". He is older than most of the other characters, and likes to remind them of his greater experience in the software industry. Eventually he comes out of the closet. His primary reason for leaving Microsoft for Oop! was to "leave the old me behind" and start over.
Michael
A gifted programmer with high-functioning autism (specifically developmental coordination disorder) initially working for Microsoft. Michael's decision to leave Microsoft and found a startup company is the impetus for the change in lives of the other characters. Michael lives on a "Flatlander" diet, meaning that he eats only things that are two dimensional; this began after a period during which he barred himself in his office, eating only what his co-workers slid under the door. His screen name is "Kraft Singles". Michael is addicted to Robitussin cough syrup, which contains the dissociative drug dextromethorphan.
Karla
A coder, coworker, and girlfriend of Daniel. Karla's relationship with her family is tense, and she actively avoids contact with them. She begins the story as a closed-off person, but as the novel unfolds her character begins to be more open and understanding. She has a history of an eating disorder.
Abe
MIT graduate coder and multimillionaire who stays with Microsoft when the rest of the characters leave for California. His email conversations with Daniel appear throughout the novel. Abe, who dearly missed his friends, eventually joins Oop! and saves the company from financial ruin.
Ethan
President and co-founder of Oop!. Primarily business-minded, he has been a millionaire three times over with various (eventually failed) projects. He devotes his time to seeking venture capital for the startup company. Ethan's personality is diametrically opposed to the other characters, in part because of his relative lack of technical knowledge. He suffers from bad dandruff and his skin is pocked by scars from procedures to remove cancerous growths.
Dusty
Female bodybuilder and coder who is introduced later in the novel. She is romantically involved with Todd, and they have a baby together (Lindsay). She becomes an employee at Oop!. She and Todd are obsessed with transforming their bodies into perfect "machines" by going to the gym every day and taking protein pills and drinks.
Amy
A Canadian computer engineering student who is introduced later in the novel. She and Michael meet on the internet and fall in love despite never meeting in person or even knowing each other's genders. Due to Michael's fear of rejection, Daniel is sent to the University of Waterloo to meet her. Amy becomes engaged to Michael and joins the Oop! team after graduating from university.
Emmett
Introduced later in the novel, Emmett is a meek and asthmatic storyboard artist hired by Oop! who enters into a submissive relationship with Susan. He collects manga despite his hatred of Japan's influence on American animation.
Anatole
French coder who is Daniel's neighbor and used to work for Apple. Although not an Oop! employee, he visits the team often and accompanies them to Las Vegas for the CES convention. His accent becomes stronger around women.
Daniel's father
A mid-level manager at IBM who represents an older generation of technical workers. After being laid off, he begins to work closely with Michael on a secret project that evokes feelings of jealousy from Daniel.
Daniel's mother
A librarian with little technical knowledge, she serves to give the group insight into what the laypeople understand about technology.
Jed
Daniel's younger brother who died in a childhood drowning accident. He is a looming presence in Daniel's mind throughout the novel.
Misty
The Underwoods' overweight dog. She was originally trained to be a seeing eye dog, but failed the exam because she was too affectionate.

Influences

Microsoft, Silicon Valley, and geek culture

It always amazes me that 90 per cent of people in the States now work directly around a PC. That's like a billion person-hours a day spent, and yet none of the stories we tell, or the books we write, take place in an office. There's just so much of the human soul and imagination in that strange environment now. I'm amazed we don't see 50 books a week on office life.

Coupland, The Times , July 1998. [4]

Coupland lived in Redmond, Washington for six weeks and Palo Alto, Silicon Valley for four months researching the lives of Microsoft workers. [5] [6] [7] "It was a 'Gorillas in the Mist' kind of observation… What do they put in their glove compartments? What snack foods do they eat? What posters are on their bedroom walls?" [8] Friends from Microsoft and Apple also helped him with research. [4]

The novel was a radical departure from Coupland's previous novel, Life After God . "I wrote the two books under radically different mind-sets, and Serfs was a willful rerouting into a different realm". [9] Coupland first noticed that his art school friends were working in computers in 1992. [10]

Digital faith

Coupland's research turned up links to the themes of Life After God. "What surprised me about Microsoft is that no one has any conception of an afterlife. There is so little thought given to eternal issues that their very absence make them pointedly there. These people are so locked into the world, by default some sort of transcendence is located elsewhere, and obviously machines become the totem they imbue with sacred properties, wishes, hopes, goals, desires, dreams. That sounds like 1940s SF, but it's become the world." [10]

Allusions to history, geography, and science

The book takes place first at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington (near Seattle) and then Silicon Valley (near San Francisco). The time period is 1993–1995, at a time when Microsoft has reached dominance in the software industry and emerged victorious from the "Look & Feel" lawsuit by Apple Inc., a company that had at times seemed in danger of falling apart. The Northridge earthquake takes place during the story and has a profound effect on Ethan, who eventually constructs a replica highway interchange out of Lego pieces to honor the infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake.

History

When Microserfs first came out, most people thought it was a tightly focused anthropological look at a tiny group of historically transient information workers in the American Pacific Northwest. It turns out they were forming a template of the way everyone else in the world works in and around information. As time went on it became a lot broader, instead of a lot narrower, which is what happened with Generation X.

Coupland, The Times , June 1998. [11]

Coupland's interest in the world of Microsoft and technology workers began with the publication of a short story in Wired magazine in 1994. The story would later be expanded into the novel.

Shortly before the publication of Microserfs, Coupland began to distance himself from his label as spokesperson for Generation X.

Coupland's novel anticipated the outcome of the late-1990s dot-com bubble with his depiction of the Oop! project's search for capital. [12]

The abridged audiobook for Microserfs was read by Matthew Perry.

Coded messages

Several coded messages are included within the text: [13]

"I heart Lisa Computers

This is my computer. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me, my computer is useless. Without my computer, I am useless. I must use my computer true. I must compute faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must outcompute him before he outcomputes me. I will. Before God, I swear this creed. My computer and myself are defenders of this country. We are masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life. So be it until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Tinned Peaches Yttrium San Fran"

This message is an adapted version of the Rifleman's Creed.

Release

Related Research Articles

OOP, Oop, or oop may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homebrew Computer Club</span> Computer hobbyist users group in California

The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in Menlo Park, California, which met from March 1975 to December 1986. The club had an influential role in the development of the microcomputer revolution and the rise of that aspect of the Silicon Valley information technology industrial complex.

<i>Revolution OS</i> 2001 documentary film

Revolution OS is a 2001 documentary film that traces the twenty-year history of GNU, Linux, open source, and the free software movement.

<i>Girlfriend in a Coma</i> (novel)

Girlfriend in a Coma is a novel by Canadian writer and artist Douglas Coupland. It was first published by HarperCollins Canada in 1998. The novel tells the story of a group of friends growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the late 1970s. On the night of a teenage house-wrecking party, one of the protagonists, Karen, falls into a coma. More alarmingly, she seemed to expect it, having given her boyfriend, Richard, a letter detailing the vivid dreams of the future she had experienced and how she wanted to sleep for a thousand years to avoid that dystopia.

<i>Pirates of Silicon Valley</i> 1999 American biographical television film

Pirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 American biographical drama television film directed by Martyn Burke and starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates. Spanning the years 1971–1997 and based on Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine's 1984 book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, it explores the impact that the rivalry between Jobs and Gates (Microsoft) had on the development of the personal computer. The film premiered on TNT on June 20, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office Assistant</span> Assistive tool for Microsoft Office

The Office Assistant is a discontinued intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office that assisted users by way of an interactive animated character which interfaced with the Office help content. It was included in Microsoft Office for Windows, in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Project, Microsoft FrontPage, and Microsoft Office for Mac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Kare</span> American artist and graphic designer

Susan Kare is an American artist and graphic designer best known for her interface elements and typeface contributions to the first Apple Macintosh from 1983 to 1986. She was employee #10 and Creative Director at NeXT, the company formed by Steve Jobs after he left Apple in 1985. She was a design consultant for Microsoft, IBM, Sony Pictures, and Facebook, Pinterest and she is now an employee of Niantic Labs. As an early pioneer of pixel art and of the graphical computer interface, she has been celebrated as one of the most significant technologists of the modern world.

<i>Life After God</i> Short story collection by Douglas Coupland

Life After God is a collection of short stories by Douglas Coupland, published in 1994. The stories are set around a theme of a generation raised without religion. The jacket for the hardcover book reads "You are the first generation to be raised without religion." The text is an exploration of faith in this vacuum of religion. The stories are also illustrated by the author. Several critics have suggested that this publication marks an early shift in the stylistic vocabulary of Coupland and, according to one critic, he was "excoriated presumably for attempting be serious and to express depression and spiritual yearning when his reviewers were expecting more postmodern jollity". However, the short story would later come to garner more praise though critics and academics have paid little attention to the publication in terms of academics' articles and commentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blake Ross</span> American software developer

Blake Aaron Ross is an American software engineer who is best known for his work as the co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser with Dave Hyatt. In 2005, he was nominated for Wired magazine's top Rave Award, Renegade of the Year, opposite Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Jon Stewart. He was also a part of Rolling Stone magazine's 2005 hot list. From 2007, he worked for Facebook as Director of Product until resigning in early 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer History Museum</span> Museum in Mountain View, California

The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on society.

Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers. The Microsoft Research team has more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners.

<i>JPod</i> 2006 novel by Douglas Coupland

JPod is a novel by Douglas Coupland published by Random House of Canada in 2006. Set in 2005, the book explores the strange and unconventional everyday life of the main character, Ethan Jarlewski, and his team of video game programmers whose last names all begin with the letter 'J'.

<i>Miss Wyoming</i> (novel) 2000 novel by Douglas Coupland

Miss Wyoming is a novel by Douglas Coupland. It was first published by Random House of Canada in January 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Brennan-Jobs</span> American writer

Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various media reports in the early days of Apple. Lisa and Steve Jobs eventually reconciled, and he accepted his paternity. Brennan-Jobs later worked as a journalist and magazine writer. An early Apple business computer, the Apple Lisa, is named after her, and she has been depicted in a number of biographies and films, including the biopics Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999), Jobs (2013), and Steve Jobs (2015). A fictionalized version of Brennan-Jobs is a major character in her aunt Mona Simpson's novel A Regular Guy.

Scott Banister is an American entrepreneur, startup founder, and angel investor. He cofounded the anti-spam company IronPort, and he was an early advisor and board member at PayPal. He invented paid search advertising via keyword auction, a core business model for internet advertising companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Coupland</span> Canadian writer and graphic designer (born 1961)

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He has published thirteen novels, two collections of short stories, seven non-fiction books, and a number of dramatic works and screenplays for film and television. He is a columnist for the Financial Times, as well as a frequent contributor to The New York Times, e-flux journal, DIS Magazine, and Vice. His art exhibits include Everywhere Is Anywhere Is Anything Is Everything, which was exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, now the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada, and Bit Rot at Rotterdam's Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, as well as the Villa Stuck.

<i>Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture</i> Novel by Douglas Coupland

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture is the first novel by Douglas Coupland, published by St. Martin's Press in 1991. The novel, which popularized the term Generation X, is a framed narrative in which a group of youths exchange heartfelt stories about themselves and fantastical stories of their creation.

<i>Player One</i> Book by Douglas Coupland, October 2010

Player One: What Is to Become of Us is a novel written by Douglas Coupland for the 2010 Massey Lectures. Each of the book's five chapters was delivered as a one-hour lecture in a different Canadian city: Vancouver on October 12, Regina on October 14, Charlottetown on October 19, Ottawa on October 25 and ending in Toronto on October 29. The lectures were broadcast on CBC Radio One's Ideas, November 8–12. The book was published by House of Anansi Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Halvorson</span> American technology writer and historian

Michael James Halvorson is an American technology writer and historian. He was employed at Microsoft Corporation from 1985 to 1993 and contributed to the growth of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft Visual Basic software platforms. He is the author of 40 books related to computer programming, using PC software, and the histories of Europe and the United States.

References

  1. Wired 3.07, July 1995. Microserfs: Transhumanity
  2. Wired 2.01, January 1994. Microserfs
  3. The Guardian, May 2006. "Observer Review: JPod by Douglas Coupland"
  4. 1 2 Johnstone, Susan. "Talking 'bout his Generation". The Times , July 24, 1998.
  5. Soriano, Cesar G. "DATELINE: Cyberspace and New York" The Washington Times , June 28, 1995
  6. Folmar, Kate. "Channeling the lives of Silicon Valley", The Globe and Mail , June 9, 1995.
  7. Grimwood, Jon Courtenay. "Nerds of the Cyberstocracy". The Independent , November 13, 1995.
  8. The New York Times Interview, September 9, 1994
  9. Cockerill, Matt. "Books: Serfs of Silicon Age". The Guardian , November 23, 1995.
  10. 1 2 Mcclellan, Jim. "The Geek Factory". The Observer , November 12, 1995.
  11. Johnstone, Susan. "Talking 'bout his Generation". The Times , June 24, 1998.
  12. Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. Harper Perennial, 1st Harper Perennial Canadian Edition, "About the Book" P. 6.
  13. Microserfs Mystery Messages