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Douglas Coupland video clips available on iTunes

Fans of quirky writer, visual artist, and Canadian cultural icon Douglas Coupland can watch three free video clips inspired by his new novel Generation A via the iTunes Store.

Set in the near future, Generation A revolves around five people from different parts of the world and their shared experiences of being stung by bees in a time when bees have supposedly become extinct.

 The clips were developed by Toronto-based production company Crush Inc. in collaboration with Coupland and his publisher, Random House Canada.

In the 10-minute clip “Generation A – 10 Questions for Douglas Coupland,” the author is seen trapped in a sterile white room with a psychologist’s couch and yellow coffee mug, answering questions posed by a faceless female questioner with a clinical British accent. Coupland provides answers to questions such as, “What is the most evil letter?” (answer: j) and “What is the loneliest letter?” (m). He also provides long-winded philosophical replies to unheard inquiries:

 The reason we have books, the reason we have stories … it allows someone else to come in and hijack your internal voice for awhile so that you don’t have to do any of the work. When you hear a story and when you read a story, it sort of somehow ennobles our life … 

In order so that we don’t go crazy, we imagine that our lives have to be stories … whether or not it’s true, it sort of works.

The clip is frequently interrupted by brief “commercials” advertising a fictional television news team and a drug called “Solon CR,” both of which are featured in Generation A.

The other two clips correspond to some aspect of the novel. “Colour Samples” is narrated by a character who eases his mind by concentrating on unique paint colours, while “The Tragic Death of the Channel Three News Team” tells the story of a religious cult bent on killing celebrities, beginning with the Channel Three News Team, in a graphic novel-inspired animated feature.

The film clips will be available on iTunes until Sept. 14. 

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