Shampoo Planet chronicles six months in the life of Tyler Johnson, an ambitious, conservative twenty year old who was raised in a hippie commune. This includes a trip to Europe, breaking up with his girlfriend, starting a new relationship... but what the book really is about is presenting a snapshot of popular culture in the U.S. of the early nineties.
A reviewer of Cosmopolitan wrote about it: "Nobody has a better finger on the pulse of the twenty-something generation, and not since the great writing days of Woody Allen has anyone been more hilarious and quotable." So, here are my favourite Shampoo Planet quotes:
Meeting Anna-Louise was like finding a
stranger's shopping list on the
mall floor and realizing there are other, more interesting diets than your own. It was the first time I ever felt
incomplete.
If two
planets the size of
earth were placed next to each other, say, only a mile apart, their
respective gravities would cancel each other out in between.
The whole scenario reminds me of the adage that World War Three will be fought with nuclear weapons and World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.
What does this clustering mean -- has an
asteroid punctured the roof? Are the kitchen walls
bleeding? And if so, exactcy *where* is the
Channel Six News Team?
I mean, I'm all for
self-expression, but keep your
expression to yourself, please.
"
God, I wish they'd install
urinals in the
ladies room," says Gaïa, as we arrive at the tables. "At chest height. So when you did the *one-two-three
purge* you wouldn't always mess the knees of your
panty hose on the bathroom floor."
In periods of rapid personal change, we pass through life as though we are
spellcast. We speak in sentences that end before finishing. We
sleep heavily because we need to ask so
many questions as we dream
alone. We bump into others and feel
bashful at recognizing
souls so similar to
ourselves.
The ship's captain announces that we have just crossed an
invisible line -- a
border -- into Canada. Stephanie and I peer into the boat's wake, dumbly, expecting to see a dotted line.
I remember reading of an
F-16 fighter jet with a computer-software
glitch that made it
flip upside down when crossing the
Equator; I want to know the software
secrets encoded deep within *my* cells.
The kids are wearing T-shirts with
molecules printed on them:
LSD,
chocolate,
testosterone,
valium,
THC, and other mood-altering chemicals.
...
"Does
MTV have a molecule?" I ask.
"What's MTV?" Neil replies. "I don't like designer drugs."
Thanks to jessicapierce who was able to verify that "Coupland" is in fact pronounced like "Copeland".