Blog #4

Life After God - Douglas Coupland

pages 271- 360

1,000 Years (Life After God)

1,000 Years is the tale of a group of childhood friends. It is the longest story in the book. It is narrated by a character named Scout. The story illustrates where each character's life takes them, and their individual searches for meaning, and for God. Scout moves away from society, and into the wilderness, in the wake of an existential crisis, he is taking prescription drugs for some unnamed malady. He is searching for meaning, beauty in the world, what god is right for him, or is there any sort of connection to God. I found this section to be a tad out of the ordinary but in touches well on a very hard-to-write about topic that is written in a sensible manner. I found it so shocking how the teenagers started off so normal, and happy (as happy as teenagers can be). Then the drastic changes that happened fifteen years later: one is an alcoholic, another a drug-addict, another a drug-addict turned Christian, another is HIV-positive. The march of time has left scars, yet the narrator leaves us with his secret in the end which i find the most moving part of the entire novel...

"Now -- here is my secret:
I tell it to you with an openness of heart I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me to be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond able to love." p.359

In Summation...

As i had stated earlier i assumed that this book has was totally against god in today's materialist society. At the end of one short story, the narrator concludes, "My secret is that I need God." Not the way religious fanatic or superficial way, but rather in a deep and primal way. And Coupland doesn't go overboard trying to explain it to the readers -- he just writes it and lets it sink in.