Stemming from the below discussion regarding our favourite book of the semester, it was definitely Money for me. I found that I could not put the book down, and it included many of the topics of the course that we have covered (much like Capital). For Money, I found the lecture on Thatcherism, and that tension between John Self’s relationship with Britain and New York, very interesting. For a European history course, I wrote my term paper on Thatcherism and the influence Thatcher had not just in Britain, but in Europe and North America. Her economic policies were VERY hard-nosed and she was not one of compromise. Scholars differ on whether her government and policies were beneficial or destructive for England, but regardless she drastically changed the economic landscape of Britain in the 1980’s.
As we discussed, John Self is the uttermost consumer of everything – porn, prostitutes, fast food, drugs, alcohol, etc. He is constantly on the hunt, and has an insatiable appetite, for instant gratification. He lives like a he has the finances of a celebrity, until of course, it all comes crashing down at the end. In the 1980’s, Britain was recovering from her plunge following World War II – a plunge from one of the world’s strongest economies to rampant unemployment, inflation and societal breakdown. It seems so fitting that John Self’s world takes a final fall, regarding the relationship with his “father”, when he is back in England. Here, John is beyond broke, and he has to start rebuilding his life, block by block.
From my research, Thatcher stepped into the political spotlight in Britain at a very tumultuous time, and also had to begin re-building the economy and culture, block by block. At the start of Thatcher’s rule, Britain was said to be suffering from “degringolade”, or falling down sickness. The West German Ambassador at the time said Britain “had the economy of East Germany, and of the 22 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Britain ranked 19th Essentially, Britain was the sick man of Europe.
I see a lot of similarities between descriptions of John Self and Thatcher – scholars discuss Thatcher’s ability to bully, browbeat, and (most importantly in this context), seduce the British electorate. John Self bullies, beats (literally and figuratively) and seduces almost everyone he enters into a relationship with in Money. Furthermore, Thatcher fought hard for Britain to be included in the European Economic Community (EEC, now the EU), as the six original countries were very skeptical of Britain’s place in Europe and what her involvement in the EEC would look like. Britain was the odd one out, looked at with scepticism and critique, and John Self is very much the odd man out in Money – he becomes the joke of the entire novel.
One of Thatcher’s achievements while in office, cited to be one of her greatest, is the British Rebate she negotiated and obtained at the Fontainebleau Summit in June of 1984. This negotiation saved British payment into the Cultural Agricultural Policy (which benefited Britain very little), and put the burden of payment onto other countries, primarily France. Thatcher wanted to keep British money as British money, and was willing to spend that money on the British people and economy, but was not willing to pay into something that did not benefit them directly. This seems fitting into he context of Money because, of course, John Self spends endless amounts of money one his sources of gratification – drugs, alcohol, sex, and fast food. We can easily call Self selfish, and Thatcher was viewed in much the same light following her fight for negotiation.
I argue that the effect of Thatcherism on the global economy is very present in Amis’ Money, and there can be some very interesting parallels drawn into the novel.
Sorry for the long post!
Green, E. H. H.. “Thatcherism: An Historical Perspective”. Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society 9 (1999): 17–42. Web.
Moravcsik, Andrew. “Negotiating the Single European Act: national interests and conventional
statecraft in the European Community”. International Organization. 45.1 (1991). 19-56. Web.