Wednesday, June 20, 2001
Title: The PowerBook
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Publisher: Vintage
I think it is probably fair to say that The PowerBook is not quite what I expected. The description and first few pages caught my interest making it sound like it was a story about the exploration of identity and someone who offered the opportunity to step out of one identity into another. Which to a degree it is; the main character Ali offering others "freedom for one night". However the shop she runs and the online extension of that are barely touched, being more of a subtext and inference. Rather this is the story of how weaving new identities and stories for customers can end up affecting the author as much as the character.
As usual Ali is emailed by a customer looking for that one night's freedom, but when the two women meet in Paris and end up having sex together things have changed. This builds up so that the core of the story is the affair between these two women, the lonely storyteller and the married mystery woman. Through this the storyteller weaves tales, most of them building up to climaxes of tragic love. These retellings and attempts to rewrite intersperse the progress of what is supposed to be real.
On that basis the book would probably not be anything special. But the way in which it is written works well, split into short chapters, each started with an icon imitating a computer activity and relevant to the words that follow. At the same time the way that the author explores the ideas of narrative as she unfolds her narrative is interesting, leading to some memorable lines. Overall a curious book, that is a pretty quick and reasonably enjoyable read.
RVWR: PTR
June 2001
Title: No Logo
Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Flamingo
no space - no choice - no jobs - no logo
No Logo is an exploration of modern culture and the role that corporations seem to have increasingly taken upon themselves. The author details how changes in legal and business terms in the 1980's changed the way that companies could work - on the one hand allowing a greater diversification and power to be taken on by the corporation and on the other shifting the emphasis from production to branding. In doing this the author breaks the book into four section - no space - no choice - no jobs - no logo.
No Space describes how the brands have invaded all public space - how advertising has entered every surface of education centres, how sponsorship has taken over events and how shopping centres have taken over town centres. Doing this she explains the consequences of these events and the reactions that have resulted from that. No Choice involves the expansion of the core companies - showing how they have come to dominate their markets, but also how they have transcended the bounds of just being a drinks or shoe maker. In some ways this is most effectively shown in the media industry - the way in which conglomerates now taken in film studios to make films, cinema chains to show films, video chains to rent films, TV/newspaper to advertise and promote films.
No Jobs explains how the shift from production to branding saw the corporations disassociate themselves with the actual manufacture of any of their goods - selling off all their factories and using contractors. With this one of the key principals of the brand is to make maximum profit - achieved by selling for maximum money and paying minimum for it to be made. The side affects of this is that the people in the west who used to manufacture are now made jobless by these companies, so where they may have supported the employer in the past they now see them as the enemy. The jobs then move to the poorer countries where sweatshops result and brutal conditions are the outcome. At the same time the brands still need people in their shop, but work it so that they aren't real jobs so don't have to pay real money - the obvious thing with this being the rise of the "McJob".
No Logo is the culmination of the book, where we see how all the factors have come together to make the corporations the enemy for a lot of people in the modern world. With this we read details of the actions which are taken against the enemy - from protests and boycotts to culture jamming and direct resistance. It should be clear to anyone watching the news these days that something is going wrong - every time there is a summit of "world powers" there are protests, often turning to riots. No Logo explains what is going wrong, why it has happened like this, why it wasn't stopped sooner and what people are doing about it all the time. No Logo is well written, making it very much a readable and accessible book - with the author's personal explorations and travelling adding to the extensive reading and research that make this such a strong book.
One of the most curious things about this book is the way in which it has been received - being widely reviewed to mixed results, being published by one of the conglomerates mentioned, being widely stocked by some of the chains mentioned (one trip in to an American chain book store that has a shop in Glasgow I counted over a 100 copies of No Logo on display!). No Logo seems to be making an impression in that it is certainly selling, one in turn has to wonder whether it is actually making sense and making a difference? Additionally I have seen a couple of books since reading this, which overlap this one, is this just a new trend for trendy authors? I could go on for pages about No Logo and quote extensively from it - but I think I've said enough.
RVWR: PTR
June 2001
