Coupland's novel is also written self from within (a.k.a., accelerated culture, a culture that simulates television and in which television reality is more real than a reality). In a way, Andy, Dag, claire foreshadow the television situation comedy "Friends" more than they aspire to a place next to Ishmael Ahab, and the white whale in literature's pantheon of great characters. Coupland is self-conscious about his book not really being a work of literature at all. Some have termed this its irony, although it is more plainly the case that Generation more than Moby Dick, was produced as an entertainment commodity, something stimulating for sale. If not necessarily explicitly tailored for mass consumption through the mass media it was, given its McNovel form and its transparent message, perfectly constructed for this fate.