Shampoo Planet

Information about Shampoo Planet

Shampoo Planet
AuthorDouglas Coupland
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Novel
PublisherPocket Books
Publication date1992
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages304 pp
ISBNISBN 0-671-75505-6 (first edition, hardcover) & ISBN 0-7432-3153-8
Preceded by
Followed byLife After God


Shampoo Planet is a novel by Douglas Coupland published by Pocket Books in 1992.

Coupland's second novel could be read as a thematic prequel to (1991), his first and most famous work. The protagonist of Shampoo Planet, Tyler Johnson, is in some ways, a younger version of Andy from Generation X.

Plot summary

Tyler is completely enamoured with consumer culture. He boasts about his extensive collection of hair care products and calls his room the modernarium, filled with sleek furniture. Tyler seems like an empty shell who is incapable of any deep emotions or of caring about anyone other than himself. As the novel progresses, however, he reveals that he is capable of strong feelings, especially when it comes to his family.

Tyler is a young person raised completely within the world of consumer culture. The inner covers of the book feature a mock periodic table that lists "elements" of modern life like television and pizza alongside actual chemical compounds; the text of the book itself is replete with fake product placement, where Coupland mentions invented brand names, including their trademark symbols. The inference is that in Tyler's world, the real and the artificial are indistinguishable. By the end of the novel, he learns to tell the two apart.

The protagonists of Generation X are the people who have already learned Tyler's lesson and rejected the falsity of consumer culture but are unsure what to replace it with. Coupland's third book, Life After God (1994) explores the options for value systems amid consumer culture.
Douglas Coupland
Born: November 30 1961 (1961--) (age 47)
CFB Baden-Söllingen, Germany
Occupation: novelist, short story writer, playwright, graphic designer, visual artist.
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In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government.
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See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.


A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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novel (from, Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new", "news", or "short story of something new") is today a long prose narrative set out in writing.
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Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
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Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster which primarily publishes paperback books.

Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry.
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A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather).
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Paperback, softback, or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The book covers of such books are without cloth or leather, and are bound, usually, with glue rather than stitches or staples.
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International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. The ISBN system was created in the United Kingdom, in 1966, by the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith.
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Life After God

Author Douglas Coupland
Country Canada
Language English
Publisher Pocket Books
Publication date March 1994
Media type Print (hardcover & paperback)
Pages 360
ISBN ISBN 0-671-87433-0 (hardcover)
Preceded by
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novel (from, Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new", "news", or "short story of something new") is today a long prose narrative set out in writing.
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Douglas Coupland
Born: November 30 1961 (1961--) (age 47)
CFB Baden-Söllingen, Germany
Occupation: novelist, short story writer, playwright, graphic designer, visual artist.
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Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster which primarily publishes paperback books.

Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry.
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-1991- 1992 1993 1994  1995 .  1996 .  1997 .  1998  . 1999  . 2000  . 2001 

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''For the 2007 documentary film, see Protagonist (film)
A protagonist is a term used to refer to a figure or figures in literature whose intentions are the primary focus of a story.
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standard periodic table below.


The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular method of displaying the chemical elements. Although precursors to this table exist, its invention is generally credited to Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869.
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Product placement advertisements are promotional ads placed by marketers using real commercial products and services in media, where the presence of a particular brand is the result of an economic exchange.
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Life After God

Author Douglas Coupland
Country Canada
Language English
Publisher Pocket Books
Publication date March 1994
Media type Print (hardcover & paperback)
Pages 360
ISBN ISBN 0-671-87433-0 (hardcover)
Preceded by
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-1994- 1995 1996 1997  1998 .  1999 .  2000 .  2001  . 2002  . 2003  . 2004 

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