DOUGLAS COUPLAND is working on a new novel, Girlfriend in a Coma. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, by Ludwig Bemelmans. "For most of his life, Ludwig Bemelmans lived inside of New York's hotel- and night-life. This book depicts the extinction of early-20th-century Edith Wharton-style notions of luxury and decadence. Bemelmans's world collided with the modern ethos of the mid-20th century that favored standardization, efficiency, and mass production. This sounds horrible, but it's a gentle, sweet, and entertaining trip across Europe, to the US, and through South America. A somewhat obscure book available with a bit of searching."
Barfout! "This is probably the world's hippest magazine. It attempts to locate the absolute fringes of Japanese culture, focusing on art, fashion, and music. The Japanese youth have gone galaxies beyond the 'cultural rebellion' of North America, where you can get your nipple pierced at the mall. Rejecting the system requires far more bravery in the conformist society of Japan than in the West.
WHITFIELD DIFFIE, a key inventor of public key cryptography, holds the title of Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems.
Clothes and the Man: The Principles of Fine Men's Dress, by Alan Flusser.
"I've been interested in fashion for a number of years. There was a period when I didn't really dress, but in the early '80s I started working at Northern Telecom and got on the lecture circuit - I was going around giving hype and needed some nice clothes."
Boys Like Us, edited by Patrick Merla. "The first piece in this collection of biographical writings by gay writers is a charming essay about the various ways of coming out, by Samuel Delany, author of the wonderful autobiography The Motion of Light in Water. It's interesting that pre-Stonewall, "coming out" did not mean making a public appearance - it meant taking part in a homosexual act. Did he come out at camp when he was 11? Delany asks. Or when he first went home with a man at 17? Delany discusses a dozen events that could be seen as his coming out."
Suzanne Stefanac is online executive producer of The Site*, a television show and Web site about the impact of technology in the world.*
City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn, by William J. Mitchell. "This MIT don attempts to build a topology for the new digital terrain and does an admirable job. Blowing past easy comparisons between the infobahn and asphalt highways, Mitchell insists that the emerging information ecosystem is a ferociously Darwinian place. Although heavily laden with argot - conjuring up electrosomatic cyborgs sporting exonerves, for instance - the book amuses and informs at every quirky turn."
The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed in New Orleans, by Andrei Codrescu. "I love New Orleans. If I ever left San Francisco, I would go to New Orleans. When I'm reading Codrescu's tantalizing vignettes, I can smell the crawfish and chicory, my feet feel as though they are rolling over warped and moss-frosted brick walkways, and my internal clock slows from an urban lurch to a saucy saunter. All the while, Codrescu manages to infuse his tales with a wry and dark humor that belies his Iron Curtain youth. A delightful read."
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STREET CRED
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