Two things struck me while reading the first few chapters of this novel: the prevalence of different forms of violence and commercial media. Aside from the obvious outward violence of misogyny and general aggression, John Self is constantly doing violent actions to his own body. He continuously assaults his body with alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, sleep deprivation, fast food, etc. There is never a moment in the novel where he is not undergoing some form of pain; even in moments when he appears comfortable he is subjected to the persistent ringing of his tinnitus. I believe that there is a link between the violence done to John’s body and the overwhelming prevalence of commercial media and its related technologies. The postmodern world is a world of high commercialization, where people are constantly bombarded by advertisements in different forms and through new technologies. From radio, movies, and television commercials, to bill boards and massive commercial signs in cities, the postmodern citizen cannot escape the daily imposition of commercialism. Similar to how John lives through various self-inflicted pain throughout the novel, the commercial elements of our life always appear to merge into a type of white noise, a noise that, like John’s tinnitus, is always present but not always noticeable. For example, most commodities that surround you in your room probably possess a corporate logo of some kind. We don’t stop to recognize this logo when we use the item, but it may have played a factor in your decision to purchase it. All these commercial items contribute to create a type of commercial white noise, one that now exists in the private home due to purchased commodities. If one were to think of John Self’s last name as a type of allegory, Amis may be stating that the prevalence of commercial media is a form of assault on our “Selves”, one that contributes to a collective pain which could lead to a societal degeneration that mirrors John’s bodily harm. Amis appears to support this degeneration when he writes about the loss of a family Italian restaurant to make way for multiple fast food burger places. There appears to be a loss of authenticity that is implied to be a product of commercialism. However, similar to how John continues to engage in undisciplined self-abuse, we continue to support and spread the influence of commercialism, regardless of the losses this action entails.
Hi Liam,
I think you’ve nailed it. The cynical and pessimistic tone with which Amis brilliantly writes certainly conveys a deep sense of contempt for the great convulsion of stupidity he sees taking over the postmodern world. The unconscious self-annihilation we see John Self undergoing throughout the novel is the very condition of the postmodern man; he is essentially lifeless – devoid of any and all meaning/value. In a postmodern world consumed by commercialism, where the free market is slowly and destructively killing off any sense of individuality, man himself has become a commodity in this “liberal” market. As Frederic Jameson has famously theorized in his seminal essay “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”, the loss of the subject/person is the central point of postmodernist culture. The reason why? Commodities.
In terms of understanding Amis’ attitudes towards postmodern culture in his book, I think its safe to say he’s quite bitter of the way commercial media has taken over through how it assaults his character, John Self. Earlier in the 20th century, we used to be able to look at images and paintings in relation to the world within which they were produced. Now, in post modern culture, we are only looking at a simulation or repetition of art (ie. Warhol’s Pop Art). Images and art no longer tell us about the real world. The postmodern man is ultimately lost in a bunch of pop cultural images.
This is how we understand the title of the novel: “Money: A Suicide Note”. Not only is money a suicide note for the postmodern man who looses his “self” as he succumbs to the commercial culture and free market, money is a suicide note for culture itself. For Amis, money is the opposite of culture. As the individual drops out, all that is left behind to prove his existence is a bank “note”. Amis is writing about a society which has no culture, but in the most literary way possible in an attempt to resist its own commodification! This is perhaps why it can be so infuriating for readers… but I think it’s important that the misogynistic and sexist narratives of the text are not conflated with Amis’ own attitude. They are deliberately enraging in order to get his readers the THINK – to resist commodification!
In addition, there is an endless supply of resources and statistics that support this phenomenon.
There is one massive shift in the advertising industry that helped this extreme level of consumerism and commodification – the expansion of branding and ads into non-conventional forms. In other words, ads are not just on magazines, TV, radio, and billboards anymore, but on the train, buses, all over the internet, the apps you use, unapologetic product placements in movies, sporting events, and essentially anything that your 5 senses can notice. Here’s an example: after looking at the player jerseys, is Vancouver’s soccer team the WhiteCaps? Or the Bell Mobility team?
Sadly, this all comes with side effects. If I can find it, I recall an article that explores the downright horrendous state of education in the US today, where a culture of instant gratification, commercialization, along with raucous sex and alcohol for teens and older, is favoured over the pursuit of knowledge and development. And as I wonder; does this tie into the underfunding of major scientific institutions such as NASA?
I suppose there are two suitable counteractions for this phenomenon: either control one’s environment, or what he/she senses, by limiting this ‘white noise’; or by understanding that a person him/herself is a perceived entity that should be prioritized above all the white noise of commercialization and blatant consumerism.
Okay, these suggestions are pretty abstract, but I hope they steer into the right direction.