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 19^th  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.

In my English Seminar course last semester we read a pastoral poem, a translation of one of Horace’s Epodes, about the desire to escape the continuous drive more wealth in exchange for a simple country life. The end of the poem was ironic, as the reader learns that it is actually spoken from the voice of a usurer, or money lender, who’s main objective is to continuously gain more wealth from the faulty payments, or inability to pay, of others. The usurer concludes that this will not and cannot occur, and every month he will continue to collect his payments:

“Gainst the ides, his money he gets in with pain, 

At the calends, puts all out again.”

This poem becomes one highlighting desire. The usurer has no intentions of leaving the city life (the financial, economy life) for that of a simple country life, perhaps dreaming of it in his periphery but seeing that desire through.

I thought about this while reading “Money” because the narrative and dialogue in the novel is, obviously, so innately tied to money. Every action that John takes in his day to day life revolves around buying something, spending an exorbitant amount of money, and trying to fix everything with money. In addition, John makes side comments about settling down with Selina, escaping his world of absolute chaos, moving away and disappearing. The reader is very aware that this is not a realism for John, as he seems to thrive on the chaos that his money allows him to. He is caught on the financial treadmill, where there is always more to gan in front of him, always more to spend, and always a chance to get further ahead.

This might be an extreme example of being caught in the economic world, but I think it directly relates both to the world we live in, and the translation of Horace’s Epode. The economy is, and has to be, a part of our dialogue and life every single day.

(Also, if anyone was able to do a word search for the occurrence of “money” in the novel, please let me know, just for curiosity sake).