Dubai, 1971.

From Tom Wodicka’s recent article about Douglas Coupland’s first visit to Dubai:

“I felt Dubai was a city ripe for his fiction. Had he ever thought about placing a novel here?

‘Until this trip I would never have been so presumptuous. One reason I’m glad I came is that all the things about Emirati culture that were really alien to me … clothing … architecture … art … suddenly made sense, so when I see things Arabic back home now, instead of being confused, I think, I know what that means.

‘I think everyone should come to Dubai. It would bring a lot of peace to the world. I’m always attracted to situations where new electronic patterns collide with the old. I can now very easily imagine writing a story set in that huge Dubai Mall wherein everyone talks only by texting and screen snaps.’

He then spoke about one of the strongest impressions Dubai left on him: ‘I think the key thing about the Emirati world right now is that it’s beginning to define itself as itself, as opposed to importing creativity from elsewhere. So it’s a pivotal moment for the region’s young artists: can they translate their experience and emotion into a form that makes others elsewhere understand their world more? It seems like there’s this whole massive mode of being that’s itching to be understood. And you’re getting a new museum [a modern art facility in Emaar’s Downtown Dubai development]. Young artists are going to have to fill it.'”