The Writing of “Dreck”: Consumerism, Waste and Re-use in Donald Barthelme’s Snow White

Abstract

The anonymous narrator of Donald Barthelme's "The Rise of Capitalism" (1970) opens his story by saying he has made a mistake (198). He thought he had understood capitalism, but now realizes it eludes his grasp. In the ensuing ten passages, the narrator taking the reader through a series of increasingly bizarre scenes populated by factory employees, monarchs, Catholic saints, the woman to whom his story is directed, and the members of a country club. The events he narrates are startling. "Honoré de Balzac [goes] to the movies," he states (200). "Capitalism ar[ises] and [takes] off its pyjamas" (201). Meanwhile, the narrator bemoans various current crises, including the allegedly polluted state of the Ganges, which he attributes to the by-products of the Western wig factories that line it: Strands of raven hair floating on the surface of the Ganges. Why can't they clean up the Ganges? If the wealthy capitalists who operate the Ganges wig factories could be forced to install sieves, at the mouths of their plants. And now the sacred Ganges is choked with hair, and the river no longer knows where to put its flow, and the moonlight on the Ganges is swallowed by the hair, and the water darkens. By Vishnu! This is an intolerable situation! Shouldn't something be done about it? (201) From this proto-environmentalist diatribe, the scene cuts to a dinner party of generic bourgeoisie discussing capitalism over crudités and elegant place settings, while parenthetically considering the value of human beings: Friends for dinner! The crudités are prepared, green and fresh. The good paper napkins are laid out. Everyone is talking about capitalism (although some people are talking about the psychology of aging, and some about the human use of human beings, and some about the politics of experience). (201) Capitalism, Barthelme posits, is both insidious and intangible. Its language and logic permeate every aspect of Western culture, while its physical by-products clog the arteries

The anxiety of being Australian: Modernity, consumerism, and identity politics in Michelle de Kretser’s The Lost Dog

“…Given that he appears to see consumerism as a significant aspect of Australianness, and given capitalist modernity’s “peculiar affection for fixed categories of value/worthlessness”, it is no coincidence that this apprehension is articulated in the language of commodification and market competition (Dini, 2016a: 9). Moreover, who has to wait and struggle to gain entry into Australia, and who is welcomed with open arms by the state, is dictated not merely by racial but also by market considerations, as Helga Ramsey-Kurz (2017: n.p.)…”