Category — cool stuff

Title: PopCo
Author: Scarlett Thomas
Publisher:Harcourt
Pages:512
ISBN: 015603137X
Price: $5.46 (USD)

I enjoyed many things about this book – so much so that I read it cover to cover over the space of a day.

Alice Butler, an employee of PopCo in the Ideation and Design section, is headed to Devon, England for a company sponsored “Thought Camp” where she and her fellow employees will try to come up with new ideas for the next toy craze to hit the shelves.

While the work she does on the trip is very interesting, equally interesting to me was the story of her childhood and the mystery surrounding a necklace her grandfather gave her as a kid. The necklace has been engraved with a number that, if she can crack it, holds the key to a location containing millions of dollars in treasure. Much of Alice’s childhood revolves around learning the math that goes with breaking codes and ciphers. As a non-math person, I was really impressed by how Thomas (via Alice) explains codes and ciphers. You don’t need to have a background in math to understand what she’s talking about, and even if it still leaves you confused (or bored as some readers complained of) the mystery of her necklace and the treasure are more than enough to keep you interested.

I really enjoyed Thomas’s ability to remember what it was like to be a kid – the desire to be liked (or at least not teased) by the popular kids. The need to fit in and, at the same time, anger at having to fit in with the right clothes, hair, lipgloss, or whatever thing was currently cool. And the horror of having to hide those things that you were certain would cast you so far down the social ladder, you’d be reaching for the bottom rung – I think Thomas actually says almost exactly that at  some point in the novel. Alice’s ability with codes, ciphers, math and chess – and the fact that she lives with her grandparents – are things she wants to hide from the kids at school – especially the popular girls who seem to have accepted her as one their own.

I also liked that she understands the ways in which all those childhood things carry over into adulthood too. It’s the same sort of stuff even when you grow up (wanting to fit in, irrational worries that other people don’t like you or are upset with you and won’t tell you, trying to figure out what people want from you and what you want for yourself, feeling compelled to do things you don’t like in order to be “normal” etc.). Yet, with all these insights into her mind and being human, I found Alice’s sudden sexual relationship with another Thought Camp attendee, Ben, a little puzzling. Don’t get me wrong, it seems like a great way to pass the time and have fun while at a sometimes dull or pointless work outing – but given her repeated mentions of her shyness, her awkwardness and general lack of interest in being very social at all, I was surprised by the wordless/nameless sex she and Ben have. Their relationship does become more normal, but its beginning was a little jarring.

Despite that awkwardness – and who knows, maybe flings with colleagues happen like that all the time, and I just don’t know because I’ve never had one – I found myself intrigued and delighted with passages such as this:

“…I walk to the bus stop in town, breathing the bonfirey, marshmallowy smells of autumn. I love this time of year, when people start to rehearse for Christmas plays and pantomimes and the air feels like it’s full of magic spells. This is the time of year when arriving home after school feels cozy, like going back to bed.”

Maybe this only resonated with me because  I love autumn, but I found myself thinking, “Yes! That’s it exactly!” – and then bookmarking it. I also enjoyed her thoughts on marketing age-appropriate things to teenage girls (relevant to the plot, but I won’t spoil it for anyone) – and how many things are targeted at these young people but have insidious, adult meanings. Specifically this passage:

“I find it disturbing that there’s so much childishness in those magazines, and so much about sex at the same time…You are encouraged – in a playful, “childish” way – to pay so much attention to the detail of your “cute” socks and your “cute” bag and the cut of your…jeans and your bubblegum-coloured nail varnish because, well, basically because you want boys to think about fucking you. They don’t say that explicitly, though. They talk about fancying and snogging and crushes. What they don’t say is, “Here’s how to make boys your age want to fuck you.”

She goes on to talk about how that ends up making grown women, who are no longer the smooth-faced, thin and small 16 year olds they once were, want the illusion presented by the same magazines too, and so they end up buying age-inappropriate clothing and accessories as well.

It’s not that I had never thought of this, or noticed it, but Thomas put it so well that it was impossible to not think about it once I’d read it. And there are several other succinctly put observations about perfectly ordinary things throughout the book that made me think, “That’s exactly how I would have said it – if I’d been able to think it so clearly!”.

My only truly negative thought about this book involves the ending. Like other readers, and you can check out the reviews on Amazon.com for this, I was disappointed by the ending. The first 2/3 of the book is interesting and moving along at a good clip, and then it just…sort of…ends. I didn’t feel there was any resolution to anything. What sort of stuff was she doing with NoCo? What happened with her and Ben? Where was the treasure (and what was the treasure)? I didn’t feel that Alice had finished becoming whoever she became when the book skipped ahead through her further adventures after Thought Camp and then ended so abruptly.

However, there were many other who felt that the book ended exactly as it should have and I can see their point in this. Alice is smart and resourceful – thinking outside the box is second nature to her, what she does after Thought Camp may even be perfectly obvious, and the exact goings-on between her and Ben are not really crucial to the story anymore. For me, despite all this logical “I can see it your way too” thinking, the story felt unfinished to me. That being said, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing – because of it, I know that I will go back and re-read this book to see what I missed; to see if the things I missed make the ending better for me. And really, what better praise for a book about a treasure hunt is there than knowing the reader is going back a second time to look for more treasure themselves?

Kiss Catcher couples pillowcases. Made of pure awesome.

I was wandering down West Broadway here in Vancouver after doing some shopping with a friend and I noticed Twoo – a fabulous and funky little place that sells stick people art, jewelry and glassware, Kimmidolls and all sorts of neat little things.

I went in – how could I not?

I talked with the owner about how cool stick people are (because let’s face it they are pretty cool) and mentioned this website which he had a look at right away. He liked my stick people enough to say “You should make some cards and bring them here and see if they sell.” I was so excited I nearly did the Happy Dance right there.

It never occurred to me, not seriously anyway, that anyone might actually pay real money to buy something I drew. So there it is, I’m going to make up a dozen nice cards with my goofy stick people on them and see what happens.

It has always been my dream to get paid to draw stick people (well, second only to my dream of getting paid to play video games and goof off) and yesterday might be a small beginning in that direction.

If it goes well, maybe I’ll start an Etsy page and people can buy from there and even request custom drawn stick people that look or talk like people they know!

In the meantime, while I get my stick people mojo flowing, check out Twoo and support stick people! If you’re in Vancouver check out Twoo in person at 252 West Broadway.