Hey Nostradamus! By Douglas Coupland: Cheryl 1988

In the introductory chapter to this novel, Douglas Coupland introduces us to one of the victims of a high school massacre in East Vancouver, Canada. Her name was Cheryl, and the author allows her to narrate her specific story and background leading up to the massacre and the time of her death. Cheryl was a newly wedd Christian practicioner despite being from a non-religous family. She also happened to be pregnant during the time of her murder. She got married at 17 with fake ID's provided by her husband, Jason; whom was also 17 at the time that they got married in the city of Los Vegas. Cheryl was part of a devoted Christian group of friends reffered to as the "Out for lunch bunch", the name was given to them because they didn't usually eat in the cafeteria during lunch but would rather go outside of the school to nearby diners for lunch. They were also part of the "Youth Alive!" club. The "Youth Alive!" club included Christians that would practice their religion, and often had a dim view on non-believers and tended not to listen to them. From what was suggested about the club and its followers, its primary goal was to keep believers believing, and supported non-believers to join; should they choose too. Despite being part of the Christian group, and posessing the Christian image, Cheryl would often think for herself and in heart be apart from the group but externally conformed with the group. Although she did meet eye to eye with alot of the the Christian customs and her group of friends, she did not neccessarily accept absolutely everything about the religion, which caused her an internal isolation. She also posessed an artistic view on the beautiful world she narrated, and understood the value of the simpler things in life. She found joy with Jason and also through the beautiful world that ended with her life.

I very much enjoyed Douglas Coupland's tone. He was humerous in the most serious moments of his novel and appeared to be a kind of satire for me. I also agreed and understood the implications that I was lucky enough to attain from his writing of the first chapter with regards to religion and conformity. It's interesting how people immediately find faith or question it in times of extremities. People who are close to death, and spent most their life not believing in god tend to begin to believe at the time of their conclusion, whether it be out of fear of the unknown or uncertainty of their moral/immoral behaviors they exhibited throughout their life time. Then there are people that question gods existence during the nearing of their death by the cause of criminal acts. They believe that god's existence is present in everywhere and the fact that they acknowledge this makes them immune to anybodys immoral acts or behaviors. In their eyes, they are protected by god at all present times. But when something occurs that threatens their very existence and shakes them into a certainty of death they immediately go back on their religion and wonder why god would ever allow this, and then question if there even really is a god all along. They usually end up continuing their beliefs despite the outcome, may it be out of again; the fear of the unknown, or if it would be to shameful to turn on something they have devoted themselves to. Either way humanity has a funny way of dealing with death, and the unknown. Douglas Coupland explores this in his novel. Cheryl who was a devoted Christian found herself praying, while at the same time questioning her prayers at the time of the massacre. She had written in her binder during the time "god is nowhere". This could be read in two ways. One way would be to read it as, god is now here, and the other would be god is no where. This details the debate of religion before death that Douglas Coupland incorporated into his novel. During the time of the massacre Cheryl's mind was just as chaotic as what was going on outside of her mind. As she layed dieing in the arms of her lover, she concluded that despite the beautiful world we live in, and all the pleasures that it holds; darkness still exists. I strongly agree with this because I believe darkness is a corequisite for pleasure. Their cannot be good without evil, the same way white couldn't exist without black or vice verca. The author also made a good foreshadowing of the outcome of the chapter by allowing his character Cheryl to first say "I believe that what seperates humanity from everything else in this world is that humanity alone has the capacity at any given moment to commit all possible sins."(p.3). He also made it a good read by transferring back and forth between past background and actual happening of Cheryl's life and death.