Their talk was endless, compulsive, and indulgent, sometimes sounding like the remains of the English language after having been hashed over by nuclear war survivors for a few hundred years.
Douglas CouplandWhen someone tells you theyโve just bought a house, they might as well tell you they no longer have a personality. You can immediately assume so many things: that theyโre locked into jobs they hate; that theyโre broke; that they spend every night watching videos; that theyโre fifteen pounds overweight; that they no longer listen to new ideas. Itโs profoundly depressing.
Douglas CouplandI wouldn't mind if the consumer culture went poof! overnight because then we'd all be in the same boat and life wouldn't be so bad, mucking about with the chickens and feudalism and the like. But you know what would be absolutely horrible. The worst? ... If, as we were all down on earth wearing rags and husbanding pigs inside abandoned Baskin-Robbins franchises, I were to look up in the sky and see a jet -- with just one person inside even -- I'd go berserk. I'd go crazy. Either everyone slides back into the Dark Ages or no one does.
Douglas Coupland