Zadie Smith's trippy short story "Meet the President!" felt like several episodes of Black Mirror and posed a lot of interesting questions. It got me thinking a lot about the idea of "nowhere" and how privilege and reality influence that nowhere. Both Bill and Aggie are from a nowhere, but their experiences and interpretations of each others' upbringing are drastically different.
Bill's "nowhere" is also an "everywhere." His most consistent relationship is with his dad and he sees more through the virtual reality chip in his head than through his real eyes. He can presumably look at whatever location he wants to through the VR thing, but he doesn't have a hometown. He has no tangible ties to anyone, anywhere.
Aggie's "nowhere" is more of a cultural nowhere. Her community is small and insignificant to the bigger influences of the society Bill is a part of. She has a strong sense of place, but according to anyone outside of her sparsely populated area, she's from nowhere. The only people left in her region are "the ones who can't leave."
Bill's nowhere is because he moves around too much. Aggie's is because of the isolation that comes with her location and poverty.
The impact their nowheres have on their characters is another interesting thing. Bill, because of his privilege and somewhat nomadic lifestyle causes him to latch on to his father, constantly seeking approval and trying to prove his independence. The death of his mother combined with his lack of a The lack of resources in Aggie's community forced her to grow up quickly and mature at a young age. Bill doesn't have to acknowledge the issues that come from his kind of nowhere because they aren't as prevalent in his day-to-day life, they lie more under the surface. Aggie, however, is constantly reminded of her circumstances.
The strongest piece of their nowheres, though, is their relationships with others. All of Bill's friends and teachers seemingly communicate through chips in their heads, and his only constant is his busy father. Aggie knows her family and has a strong group of allies supporting her during tough times. Melinda Durham, the old woman Aggie's with at the beginning, knows the history of the area's population. Aggie has a stable community and a history she fits into, while Bill just sort of floats around.
What other differences do y'all see in the impacts of their nowheres?
Bill's "nowhere" is also an "everywhere." His most consistent relationship is with his dad and he sees more through the virtual reality chip in his head than through his real eyes. He can presumably look at whatever location he wants to through the VR thing, but he doesn't have a hometown. He has no tangible ties to anyone, anywhere.
Aggie's "nowhere" is more of a cultural nowhere. Her community is small and insignificant to the bigger influences of the society Bill is a part of. She has a strong sense of place, but according to anyone outside of her sparsely populated area, she's from nowhere. The only people left in her region are "the ones who can't leave."
Bill's nowhere is because he moves around too much. Aggie's is because of the isolation that comes with her location and poverty.
The impact their nowheres have on their characters is another interesting thing. Bill, because of his privilege and somewhat nomadic lifestyle causes him to latch on to his father, constantly seeking approval and trying to prove his independence. The death of his mother combined with his lack of a The lack of resources in Aggie's community forced her to grow up quickly and mature at a young age. Bill doesn't have to acknowledge the issues that come from his kind of nowhere because they aren't as prevalent in his day-to-day life, they lie more under the surface. Aggie, however, is constantly reminded of her circumstances.
The strongest piece of their nowheres, though, is their relationships with others. All of Bill's friends and teachers seemingly communicate through chips in their heads, and his only constant is his busy father. Aggie knows her family and has a strong group of allies supporting her during tough times. Melinda Durham, the old woman Aggie's with at the beginning, knows the history of the area's population. Aggie has a stable community and a history she fits into, while Bill just sort of floats around.
What other differences do y'all see in the impacts of their nowheres?
Kind of lame that Aggie's hometown is not a nowhere to her, but people's condescension towards her community reduces the significance of what Aggie treasures; whereas Bill is in a presumably more significant/more respected position societally but he doesn't have the same sense of fulfillment Aggie has?
ReplyDeleteI think that both of their nowheres stem from their relationships. Aggie's nowhere comes from the transience we see in her relationships (her sister died, her mother-figure that I can't remember the name of just left) more than the town she lives in. Bill's nowhere comes from the fact that he has virtually no relationships, and the one person he does have a relationship with, it's a very rocky one. They both lead pretty sucky lives, brought on by their respective places at either end of the social/socio-economic spectrum. The fact that either end of the spectrum sucks but there doesn't really seem to be a middle class who would presumably be much happier leads me to believe that this world is pretty abysmal and filled with unhappy, unfulfilled people.
ReplyDelete