Esther's rhinoplasty

[Paul Murphy]

ckaratnytsky at nypl.org wrote:

>  But, Paul--was Esther, who
>      is now, arguably, lost, a redemptive figure at all? 

I don't think so ... like (arguably) everyone else in the Whole Sick 
Crew, whatever transformative/redemptive energy or impetus she may once 
have had has dissipated, become inert, inanimate (?), well before the 
novel's chronology opens. And this might be the broader meaning of the 
nose-job, the passage where Esther describes her 'delicious loss of 
Estherhood' -- the irrevocable loss of selfhood being one of the crucial 
points here ...

> And--how did
>      once-altruist grafter Schoenmaker, who stared up with boy-wonderment
>      at pilot superhero Godolphin, become--stunningly!--arch-cynicist
>      grifter Schoenmaker?  What happened?  Was it the horror, the horror of
>      Evan Godolphin's face?  Tommy the P doesn't tell us, I don't think,
>      but I may be missing it.  Alas the sad reversal.
> 
>      Or, maybe that's the point...

Indeed, I think that is the point. Schoenmaker typifies the old 
Frankfurt-School line about Anpassung, the accommodation or adaptation 
to the bad totality of post-war consumer-capitalist society, with its 
attendent fetishisms and myths. Altruism (inevitably?) gives in to the 
deformations of the principle of exchange.
Cheers,
Paul