New Cities/New Soviets

February 24, 2006

Ambition 2

In Douglas Coupland's novel

"Girlfriend in a Coma"

he builds a virtual time-machine,
an 18-year coma
which functions to transport
the heroine from 1979
to the mid-nineties.

Here's the catch: her
imagination of the world
has continued without her,
progressing even
as she slumbered.

It is as if she is synchronized
to a world clock. Historical time
has passed, and even though
she has not experienced the
intervening years, her hopes
and imaginations
had gone on unchecked.


Proposition: Ambition cannot be avoided.


Coupland despairs at his generation's
refusal to articulate an ambition.

In an attempt to avoid the trap
of careerism, or of the self-centered smugness
they so despised in their parents,

Gen X nulled out their chance to
articulate a hope for the future.

Posted by Sam at February 24, 2006 04:47 PM

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