Foreword, the inevitable backlash

[Paul Nightingale]

s~Z: Something about basketball (I think, there's a reference to a
court, I don't think it's tennis, could be Buckingham Palace).

s~Z again: an incredibly detailed upthrow of something.

(1) I dutifully followed the link to the LA Times because I was
desperate to read the full report. What happened next? What happened
before? How old is he? Who's he fucking? What was the weather like? I
mean - c'mon!

So what did happen? I'm not registered. They ask me to fill out stuff. I
don't mind lying about my age, or where I live. But why? It's a
marketing exercise. So I never got to find out if this guy is Slothrop.
Sorry.

(2) Wow! I'm so impressed! I read it twice. No, three times. I'm still
reading it. Not a single typo (I think - could be wrong, as so often
before). Dedication. I have to come clean and say it never occurred to
me to go out and do this kind of in-depth, rigorous research for myself.
A man walking the mean streets. Could only happen in the People's
Republic.

And then what? Well, overkill. Foucault said there's too much
information in the world, and this is a good example. Who reads this
stuff? I'd like to think the only people who could understand it
wouldn't be buying said obscure object of (please!) desire in the first
place. So why do they do it? Do consumers feel empowered because they
have all these fancy words on the wrapper. Raymond Williams, whom I've
referred to already, wrote that 'consumer' was a poor alternative to
'citizen': in a democracy, the former simply accept that's given them.
Hence, 'consumer' is a derogatory term. The wrapper says it isn't. It
says: You know, you can choose. It also says: We have to publish this
stuff, just as military spokesmen have to give (stage-managed) press
conferences and find umpteen different ways of (a) saying nothing and
(b) saying (to the journalists) I despise you for taking this shit
without protest.

There is, consequently, a tension between active and passive
consumption. It's a question of agency. It's also narrative, telling
stories about stuff.