[...] Wallace did not sign the story initially, using the pseudonym Eliabeth Klemm, his new attempt to write as a "NOBODY". [...]
Why does work often feel futile in a postmodern and neoliberal society? Why do even many highly rewarding jobs seem dehumanizing and attenuating amid superabundant wealth and leisure? Philip Mirowski argues, "Not only does neoliberalism deconstruct any special status for human labor, but"--in terms…
[...] In "(I)" a reader can get away with disdain for Jeni and her shallowness, but "(II)" makes palpable what Smith observes: "If one is used to the consolation of 'character,' ... Wallace is truly a dead end. His stories [are] turned outward, toward us. It's our character that's being investiga…
[...] Many times, to Kafkaesque comic effect, the story adds "(i.e., the depressed person)" after pronouns that already clearly identify her (i.e., the depressed person--you get the gag) (BI 50, e.g.). [...]
[...] Fr how can the interviewee reconcile the support of his upbringing those coins represented with the seeming total evacuation of dignity in the work, that sense the speaker has that the job compromised his father's personhood, that "he brought his work home," in "the fact he wore in the men's …
