GETTYSBURG COLLEGE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Neoliberalism and the 1980s American Novel

The Violence of Capitalism in the Reagan Era
James Taylor III, Class of 2012 Stefanie Sobelle, Advisor

This paper examines a lineage of anti-capitalist sentiment in several seminal American novels of the 1980s published prior to and during the Reagan administration by tracing specific effects of Reaganomics on the literary household. Using literary and economic methodologies, I illuminate an entrenched violent nature within the capitalist history of America, arguing that the Reagan era solidified economic violence as cultural necessity without regard for dissenting opinions evoked in American culture.

Taylor 1

Neoliberalism and the 1980s American Novel: The Violence of Capitalism in the Reagan Era

Don DeLillo concludes his 1985 novel White Noise in a supermarket, pitting a supposedly changed man against the over-active consumption that defines his life. The supermarket has changed, The shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles (DeLillo 325). The American ability to consume grows so strong that any deterrence creates an instant market reaction, yet the supposed adjustment of a free market never comes. The supermarket customers impart A sense of wandering, expecting A second level of betrayal (DeLillo 326) without ever considering leaving the store or altering their consumption patterns. A free market now constrains the consumers: the action of the capitalist, here the supermarket, negatively affects the consumer without offering any alternative action. Easy consumption defines White Noise, with market consideration defining every aspect of Jack, the narrator, except in literal moments of exchange market instability. The rise of neoliberalism during the 1980s changed the international literary environment, with authors realizing a change of the guard in American cultural identity. Examined through the lens of the 1980s novel, the Reagan administration and its push for antigovernment, pro-capitalist policy through neoliberal economics appears lacking and unable to suit the vision of capitalist-critical individuals. Thomas Pynchons Vineland, Kathy Ackers Blood and Guts in High School, Don DeLillos White Noise, and Kurt Vonneguts Galpagos frame the inquiry into the economic awareness of literature during a period of social change. Ackers focus on the extremity of capitalist insertion into the domestic leads the novels, with

Taylor 2 Pynchon illustrating the incongruity of heteronormative family structures and Reagans push for a free market. A movement away from currency as a necessity allows Pynchons college town nuclear family to exist, yet opens Jacks success to criticism over the violence inherent to consumption and accumulation. Vonneguts abstract evolutionary biology then describes a future of necessity brought upon by the neoliberal generation, depicting the selfish nature of capitalism as unable to exist in the long-term. The rise of neoliberalism as a growing economic methodology in America informs the novels: pervasive themes of disenfranchisement, the shrinking of the individual, alternating family structures, and the reduction of the human to commodity are not only naturally occurring reflections of the period but mutual realizations of the authors. Economic academicism grounds this theory, with existing arguments promoting these ideas as innate within a neoliberal regime. The novels establish capitalist financial culture as a deterrent to life, as seen in the supermarket above, with neoliberalism under the Reagan administration acting as the main culprit in changing the valuation of the individual by the capitalist. The literature depicts an America of economically enslaved women and desperate men, of societies clinging to life despite health risks and moral values, and of a government demanding two different ideals from its people, as structured by an increasingly violent economic climate. The Reagan administrations focuses on reviving capitalism in America alters cultural valuation of life on the individual level, yet when brought to market people still choose the familiar values and systems, grudgingly changing only when mandated. The growth of postmodern and heterodox theories in the 80s parallels the rise of neoliberalism, offering a counterpoint to new social normalcy. The rise of human capital exploitation creates a monetized populace, depicted literally in Ackers enslavement of Janey,

Taylor 3 eventually altering the entire social structure of society, seen in the evolving humanity of Galpagos. The spread of neoliberalism occurs through an infection mechanism, where societal power becomes so reliant on capital accumulation and consumption that capitalism exhibits the properties of a virus by instilling workers and entrepreneurs with impossible hopes of success in an open market. Kathy Ackers Blood and Guts in High School exemplifies the control of women by economics and sexuality within its opening pages. The familial relationship of Janey and her Father defines the novels conception of domesticity. Acker opens on a crucial conflict: the idea of Father leaving Janey, but through the deportation of Janey. This occurs due to the interference of another woman, Sally, who receives only extraneous attention and no introduction as anything but a sexual competitor to Janey. The distancing of a once-close domestic partnership forms the crux of familial destruction in the wake of commoditization of sexual desire and complicity. The familial unit breaks apart early, creating emotional distance as character relationships fail while Acker only presents the characters in their dialogue and Janeys crude sketches. These sketches serve as exaggerated depictions of thoughts from the novel, particularly the sketch, seemingly of the father labeled, boyfriend, brother, sister, money, amusement, and father (Acker 8). The separation through oxford comma usage suggests these are all different principles, not truly in combination but rather the facets of a relationship Janey must understand by piece. The list given suggests a ranking influenced by sexual opportunism, with boyfriend an obvious object of sexual gratification while father, listed last, should have the first familial place prior to brother and sister. The placement of the sketch and quote near the opening of the novel foreshadow a coming break, where these aspects of Janeys father will separate to provide conflicted existence.

Taylor 4 The obvious problems with an incestuous relationship aside, the domestic environment remains accepted by both parties. The phallic drawings, and the graphic depiction of a ten-year-olds vagina (Acker 19), create an understanding of the sexual and monetary needs to survive as Janeys relationship with her father revolves around the exchange of resources and sexual favor. Sexuality becomes a commodity, where Janey defines her valuations of relationships in regards to sexual ability. By prizing sexual relationships, Janey establishes sex as a priced service. Janeys father avoids this assignment of value for himself, considering his relationship with a non-familial woman, just fucking (Acker 7). However, by having the other woman of appropriate age, socially acceptable as a partner, and seemingly having monetary power as a starlet, Acker introduces a world where sex cannot act as a sole currency. When Janey realizes hes madly in love with the other woman, Father exchanges Janeys sexual presence in his life for the ability to form an acceptable relationship that allows both monetary success in society and sexual normalcy. Fathers urge for accumulation of social standing and non-sexual currency mimics capitalist materialism, with Fathers desire for capital ousting Janey from his life. The family becomes a capitalist enterprise, wherein Capitals deformative failures and violent disarticulations reveal themselves . . . just as family structure models the inequities and oppressions of capital (Hawkins 639). The removal of the mother from the family unit emphasizes Hawkins suggested inequities, as the second parent and provider does not even exist in the economy of the family. Janey, able to fill the sexual role of the mother while decreasing the capital needs of Father, assumes a dual role to remain viable in both the family and the

Taylor 5 economy, yet even this does not provide enough benefit to avoid Janeys sublimation by the starlet. The interplay of family and capital merges the conceptual identities of both, where the prominence of capital needs definition in family structure to gain cultural necessity, while the family needs capital for survival in a capitalist economy. The desire to accumulate mounts, forcing the two-member family to separate and become separate economic actors in response to only Fathers desires. Janey lacks the ability to reproach her father, unable to compete in both traditional family structure and as an economic agent. Ackers assignment of total control of the relationship to the father resembles a patriarchy, indicating familial power as well as apparent economic influence without regard to the needs of others. Upon realizing the societal implications of incestuous union and realizing the desire to accumulate, Father takes the ultimate step of plunging Janey into a world defined by capability to produce as human capital. Janey defines herself in sex, but her low self-valuation depreciates the economic benefits of sexual sale. Janey becomes a damaged commodity, unable to sell herself or grow into a productive unit at an economic level. Janeys abuse has reasonably warped her, with the new trends in society forcing her to leave a sex-for-comfort ideal into a world of determining value by actual, non-familial function. Janeys age seems entirely mutable, as her survival in another country and her sexual understanding betray Ackers portrayal of her as a child. An emotional transience exists as well in the depiction of Father, who has no actual parental attachment to Janey or concrete role in her life outside of sexual partner. The initial depiction of Janey as a sexual object due, almost solely, to her gender and her Fathers sexual proclivities essentializes the role of the domestic woman to sexual fulfillment. However, Janeys forced removal from domesticity encourages sexual activity

Taylor 6 in lieu of freedom, as Janey reverts to her domestic position as a sexual object, remaining unable to live as an actualized or liberated woman due to her fathers treatment while also not acknowledging the ability to profit from sexual proclivity. By having Janeys Father accelerate the process to maturity and establish sex as a currency, Acker creates a parallel to the new economic structure and the role of women. Despite her attachment to her father, Janey must revert to domestic images in her liberated life due to her fathers faulty parenting and inability to prepare Janey for independence before thrusting her into life outside the familial home. The feminine gender role, even in a period of liberation, becomes the sole method of expression for women groomed into this societal idea, increasingly so when a focus on the nuclear family represents this ideology. Ackers anti-authoritarian stance shifts the burden of liberation from governing bodies to the oppressed. Recognition of oppressive regimes in Blood and Guts in High School demands generalization: depicting Father, the slave trader, and the people who sexually exploit Janey as male suggests patriarchal and monetary oppression, but the ideals contained apply to any form of oppression. Janeys conversion to object limits the ability of gender and sexuality; Janey promotes authoritarian ideals by submitting regardless of actual ability to rebel, acting as a symbol of the worst to come. The copyright date of Blood and Guts in High School places the finished manuscript in 1978, on the cusp of the Reagan administration and during the ascension of neoliberalism to the mainstream. Ackers rebellion does not target Reagan, but rather the ideas that lead him to public prominence. Janey, and the shock value inherent to her character, exists as a warning sign representing the extremes of capitalism and patriarchal forms. The final rebellion of workers serves to scare Janeys oppressors, but the capitalist class openly mocks the rebels who in turn

Taylor 7 disdain Janey (Acker 138). The violence amounts to nothing: it is a show of desperation that succeeds only in killing Janey and allowing the growth of capitalism to continue in a new generation. Vineland seizes upon Ackers ideals, but attacks Reagan era neoliberalism for its internal fallacies in governance rather than the actions of individual capitalists. Pynchon casts characters as representative of their political leanings, the oppressive agent Vond battles anti-authoritarian Zoyd with increasingly ridiculous methods, but Vonds failure and Zoyds success remain tied to neoliberalisms failure as an ideal. Pynchon takes government inconsistency to task with Ackers penchant for the extreme, but plays it for humor rather than visceral shock; where Acker imposes the terrors of individual oppression, Pynchon suggests ideological warfare while inserting the unbelievable and the unreal to lighten the tone. Zoyd, a lifelong hippy, operates on manufactured mayhem, seeking pay from the government for insanity by engaging in the same stunt year after year (Pynchon 3). Written in 1990 and occurring just prior to Reagans reelection, the novel is reflective regarding Reagans presidency. The primary source of action, Zoyds avoidance of Brock Vond, serves as a commentary on the destruction of social welfare programs aimed to help people like Zoyd, who Pynchon decides to depict as not truly crazy or in need of the actual money earned by keeping up with his mental-disability checks. Zoyd does not defraud the government for this money; rather, he exploits a loophole to rebel against an overwhelming cultural force. With the main character existing seemingly outside of the need to earn money by work in a neoliberal atmosphere, the depicted domestic thrives outside the goals of the Reagan administration. Attempts to influence the creation of heteronormative families surged in the Reagan era, culminating in Department of Health and Human Services regulations in 1988

Taylor 8 which, Ruled then that essential freedoms of patients, professionals and private institutions could be withdrawn as a condition for receiving federal funds (Rosoff 318). This guideline limited the operation of family planning centers, combining previous attempts at healthcare regulation by exclusion enacted by the Reagan administration. While Vineland received publication three years before these regulations, the Reagan administration historically Exacerbated the conflicts with attempts to redefine family planning, (Rosoff 312), privileging funding only to the healthcare deemed acceptable to party platforms. Vineland plays with this conceit, allotting the counter-cultural Zoyd funds due to voter and administration approved mental health regulations. This contradiction plagues Zoyds life, as remaining dependent on this money yokes him to the authorities yet enables him to live with a degree of monetary security. His wife Frenesi has left him for a government agent, and Zoyd maintains only partial custody of his daughter, depicting a broken family yet one where all individuals remain solvent through government funds. Through Frenesis attachment to Vond the nuclear family hopes for reestablishment, yet this can only occur through Vond inserting himself directly into Zoyds life as a government agent, implicating government funding, not any true feeling, as the source behind Vonds quest for social normalcy. The governments ability to alter individual lives places it into the role of an economic agent, antagonistically represented by Vond and redeemed by Zoyd. The distribution of funds goes beyond ensuring solvency, instead altering reality itself as power changes between Vond and Zoyd. Vonds nearly-endless funding culminates in his receiving a helicopter squadron, one of which will, Lower him to within centers of the girls terrified body, where she could stare into the dim face, backlit by the helicopter lights (Pynchon 375). The ridiculous nature of this

Taylor 9 stunt plays the conflict like a cartoon, where Prairie gets a one-liner and Vond must be reeled back up when the mission fails. The linear nature of the conflict becomes exaggerates the circumstances, emphasizing a hero and villain dynamic that brings audience sympathy to Zoyds family. Zoyds encounter with Frenesi in Honolulu again toys with unreality to highlight the purity of Zoyd. Despite the attraction having an emotional core between Zoyd and Frenesi, Frenesis relationship with Vond establishes an anti-authoritarian motive for Zoyd. In private, he considers the sexual aspects in the space of the room, growing out of his attraction and desire to lure Frenesi from Vond. As Frenesi enters her room and locks Zoyd out, he contemplates the airspace between him and the ground (Pynchon 59), suggesting a meeting on an upper-floor of the hotel, where Zoyd must consider the drop to the ground. However, the emotion of seeing Frenesi again, and the airspace between the direct object Zoyd and the ground may indicate a floating sensation; Zoyd lifts off of his feet in passion for the woman who he cannot name and only addresses as she in the passage. Zoyds levitation, be it real or symbolic, is spurred on by finishing a beer. The beer reinforces the oddity of the situation instead of dismissing it as intoxication however, with the can prompting Zoyd to consider matters of space by with what he imagined as cold scientific interest dropped the empty can, observing it all the way down (Pynchon 59). Zoyd must define the space around him or risk losing control over his own vision of reality. The risk of death and the loss of government funds pervade his life in Honolulu, and without Frenesi, he feels no purpose. To stop any sense of floating, Zoyd becomes intoxicated into sense, creating an alternative to reality by observing the consequences of his action in his drunken state and government recognized insanity.

Taylor 10 The scientific precision does not fail, however. Pynchon goes as far as to incorporate the speed of sound versus the speed of light, as seconds after the beer can hit the board, Zoyd heard the faint clank of impact, as the can meanwhile bounced away (Pynchon 59). Zoyd immediately recognizes the physical, and while taking note of hearing sees another action occur not concurrent with his state of reality. Space has warped sense for Zoyd, who follows reality while also allowing this distinct physical aberration to exist, as actions seem to occur outside of the books space-time but within the supposed reality of the novel simultaneously. Further exemplifying the adjusted reality, the dropped can falls with perfect geometry. The concept of perfect geometry stays unidentified, at best meaning only according to mathematical laws of geometry. Perfection then contains any set of physical possibilities due to any number of variables, meaning imperfection in anything outside the physical. Pynchon assures oddity of character, with the surfer whose board the can hit now having suspicions extending well beyond Earths orbit (Pynchon 59) despite the obvious reality of it coming from inside the, seemingly, walled and ceilinged hotel. Yet the perfect geometry of the hit forces consideration of outside possibilities; perfect geometry, and perfect in consideration of Pynchons abstract reality, forces the consideration of a realm outside physical space while characters must remain in physical space. The oddity of Zoyds world constrains to physical life, yet oddity faces determination by reality and society. Extending this outward, a consideration of the unreality of the novel places focus back on why Pynchon would include these diversions. An increasingly unstable political environment, particularly during the reelection campaign Vineland takes place during, threatens to place even higher emphasis on the Reagan platform while offering no drastic change from the opponent. The unreality concept provides a methodology to deal with an invasive government. Zoyds

Taylor 11 rebellion extends beyond receiving money from a government trying not to spend; by embracing the internal conflicts threatening the Reagan platforms stability, Zoyd always stands as a protagonist against the cartoon villains in the government and the strange groups emerging around him. The merging of economics and culture permeates the novel, particularly as it affects figures of the counter-culture as easily as willing capitalists. This establishes a scarcity value, wherein even conceptualizations, here virginity, are valuable only as long as it is imperiled. Let the pressure diminish, and it loses its currency. Like money, it needs to circulate within a system of exchanges to exercise its value (Who Was Saved? 79). Hayles use of virginity places the abstract into a capitalist economy, while conversely suggesting multiple periods of exchange occur thereby eliminating virginity. Hayles does not note the inherent physicality, however, as Zoyds use of the phrase popping my cherry (Pynchon 303) directed towards Hector relies on Hector completing the task. Virginity, as a socially valued prize with a higher value than another form of sex, conflates the political with the social and physical. The circular flow of capital expands to include not only traditional capital, but also any item of value. There is theoretical economic sense to a market-priced virginity, while the path the commoditized virginity follows forms an analysis method. The idea of virginity must receive a market value first from consumers, and this value assigned to all cases. The process relies on social processing of information, where rumor, anecdote, and personal valuation aggregates to form a cultural value for each case, in this case imitating a limited-supply commodity that receives extra attention in a sexual market. The societal pricing of concepts amounts to the marketing of information, where consumers must trade based on their own valuations gathered from received information.

Taylor 12 Hayles examination of concept pricing through the snitch-system and its juxtaposition of payment value versus kinship system relies on an economic market and an anthropological market, failing to join both in capital terms. By having an individual acknowledge the kinship system and place a value to knowledge incorporating the importance of family, these two systems join effectively and avoid the need to introduce Hayless juxtaposition. The simplification of the kinship system also adds more information to the societal market place, as trading information concerning family members not only helps the government and its snitchsystem, but also allows determination of the price for familial betrayal by a snitch. Hayles implication that kinship can lead to solidarity rather than betrayal, (Who Was Saved? 79) seems to exist only within Zoyds family. The reemergence of sexual and familial pricing draws on Acker, with the social valuation of virginity echoing the market value of pedophilia to the men who buy Janey and the selling price of family implicating Fathers betrayal. Zoyds casual conversation with Hector establishes simplicity in valuation: Zoyds focus on virginity and metaphorical gay sex places negative attention upon the action, which Hector realizes at the invocation of the crude popping my cherry. The act has no appeal between these two men, yet the use of the phrase suggests a cultural appropriation in line with the exploitative use of Janey. Zoyds language offsets the counter-cultural character: he is at ease pricing physicality and sexuality, yet his actions against a free-market economy discourage this valuation of life. By inserting this idea into conversation, Pynchon suggests a common parlance already informed by value decisions concerning the individual. This implicit approval of social pricing, however, deconstructs counter-cultural movement away from Reagan. By casting Zoyd as a hippie, Pynchon allows him to linger in an

Taylor 13 idealized American of the 1960s that no longer exists. Zoyd even observes this, as after using the implicit phrase above, he continues his speech: Cant you see I have a kid to look after now, I had to turn into a straight citizen and go on the natch anymore, no time for these hardened criminal drug dealers I used to hang out with, Im totally reformed, man (Pynchon 303). The changing of his life in this era suggests that Zoyd is becoming a part of the government ideal, where reentrance into his relationship with Frenesi, supported by government funding, serves as an ultimate goal early in the novel. He will epitomize the nuclear family yet remain dependent on government welfare, surviving on a system wholly different from neoliberalism. The eventual defeat of Vond does not come from Zoyd, Frenesi, or their daughters involvement, however, but from a changing political climate where Zoyd no longer acts as a target due increasing willingness by the public to participate in the war on drugs (Pynchon 375-377). The governments acute involvement with returning Zoyds life to a heteronormative family suggests a waning of principle during Reagans presidency. Despite his evoked neoliberal ideals, Reagan remains unable to play politics in order to win reelection while keeping with capitalist ideology. Pynchon demonstrates the wastefulness inherent to pursuing Zoyd in terms of both funding and votes, where the governments involvement in the regulation of drugs hinders the development of a free market while pumping federal dollars into the economy, effectively pursuing a Keynesian economic setting. Government funding becomes a treasured asset for every character in the novel, with any concept of justice evoked by who has enough government money to remain competitive. The primary female characters, Frenesi and Prairie, are intelligent and articulate, but stay relegated to possession status in the war between Zoyd and Vond. The government push for the nuclear family can always exist morally in the right-wing political sphere, but the changing focus on government involvement in non-government activity must

Taylor 14 change with voter sentiments, here exemplified in social welfare, DEA funding, and police funding. The desire for government capital in Vineland exists to keep the characters above subsistence, with each having a separate motivation but a unified need. The commoditization of Janey and her exploitation parallels this necessity, even occurring as Father progresses toward social acceptance by discarding Janey. The need to survive envelopes these characters, forcing them into situations that increase in unreality as the novels progress. While evocative of the core dynamics of extreme capitalism, emotional trauma extends from desperation and the inability to subsist without intervention. DeLillo moves onto the next social strata, where subsistence is assumed for all primary characters, demonstrating the deeper flaws ingrained into a society prizing consumption above all else. DeLillos White Noise begins with an already in-place nuclear family and only past concern for economic efficiency. The only novel to deal with an upper-class protagonist, Jack, White Noise depicts a family able to exist between competing government initiatives and a neoliberal economy. However, the novel presents solely Jacks point of view, allowing manipulation of reality into only what he perceives. Without a desire for money, Jack must incorporate new currencies to develop his worth as an individual and to become a head of household. Emotion and information compete for dominance as the new currency, with Jacks perception acting as the voice for information but his feelings toward those around him exemplifying conflicting emotional beliefs. The evocation of human thought into text characterizes the novel, where speech and thought meld into a consideration of the world of both the world as presented to Jack and his interpretations. Death becomes the primary thought

Taylor 15 process driving the novel, ultimately coming down to an assessment, There are two kinds of people in the world. Killers and diers . . . The more people you kill, the more credit you store up (DeLillo 290). The accumulation of death credit foreshadows Jacks impulse to commit murder in order to solve his own fear of death, as medication, discussion, and the world offer no other immediate answers. Jack worries over social standing and appearance, without regard for the costs incurred to receive this cultural recognition. Class begets recognition, or Jack believes it does as he discusses why he must take German lessons in secret, Because Id achieved high professional standing, because my lectures were well attended and my articles printed in the major journals (DeLillo 31-32). Jack succeeds in his field regardless of linguistic knowledge, yet the perceived effect to his reputation overpowers the time commitment and money necessary to learn German. The desire to gain a position overpowers ability and knowledge for these characters, as Jacks teacher Was a former chiropractor but didnt offer a reason why he was no longer active and didnt say when hed learned German, or why (DeLillo 32). The teacher embodies personal desire, able to forego a more lucrative career to teach German on occasion. This man can teach Jack because the man has no desire to be anything beyond his own desire, thereby posing no threat to Jacks reputation. White Noise asks how life remains livable with death constantly approaching. By limiting characters not to basic needs such as food or money but only to their emotional ideas of self, DeLillo draws out the rush of the era and the uncertainty of economic stability through this simple constancy. Jack transcends monetary worries, demonstrably as he consumes in the supermarket, with DeLillo allowing any concern imparted by the era to affect the human rather

Taylor 16 than the budget constraint. White Noise absorbs economic turmoil, transforming the concept into emotional turmoil, illustrated by the commoditization of emotion. The structure of the novelthe organization of its various components enforces commoditization of the emotional path of life into unit values. Each chapter deals almost entirely within one issue, conversation, or event, while each section synthesizes the thematic underpinning. DeLillo keeps Jack as the narrator in order to further a repeating mechanism that establishes a fiat reading: Jack routinely finds emotions in those around him similar to his own regardless of descriptions given, as in his declaration that The evening in fact was a subtle form of punishment for us all (DeLillo 16) due to Babettes insistence on watching television as a family despite only Jack and Steffie not enjoying the night. Ideas only hold the power Jack allots them, forming his own opinions and those of others into a singular unit used for decisionmaking. These arbitrary valuations guide the reader through the novel, with DeLillo establishing Jack as an unreliable narrator concerning others but with a definite understanding of his own needs and values. By quantifying these values through Jacks emotional responses, DeLillo effectively creates a sort of exchange rate; he thus does not disregard monetary measures but rather incorporates them into the novel as a force that controls Jacks emotional state. Karen Weekes, in her analysis of White Noise, posits a simpler explanation to economic necessity. Weekes focuses on the actual consumerism populating the novel, explaining Jacks lacking purpose through a subconscious obsession with materiality. Consumption, she explains, wards off death and the idea of death: Consumerism, or economic fulfillment, is the only remaining element that seems to be able to lend meaning . . . Jack sees himself in a different in a different light after his shopping spree (293). Placing economic surfeit as a conscious mechanism, Jack hoists neoliberal doctrines upon himself, embodying the more is better

Taylor 17 conceit of the homo economicus model upon which neoclassical and neoliberal economics find theoretical basis. By warding death through consumption, a lack of concern for actual monetary accumulation develops. The lack of mortal protection offered in having an above-subsistence income level devalues accumulation, as no immediate need for increasing wealth exists. As Jack and his family consume without regard to the actual income they bring in, immediate consumption outweighs accumulation as an economic impetus due to the fear of death and the preventative status given to consumption. Jacks perception of currency as a controlling factor against death places increased importance on accumulation for himself over his family. An aggregation dynamic forms when the ideal of possessing the most emotional and intellectual currency overrides all other desires. By not using this currency to provide, Jack embraces the neoliberal aesthetic while letting other characters survive or die off as necessary. This concept defines the final notion of family in the novel. Exemplified by an idealized family picnic, Jack describes, We take a thermos of iced tea, park the car, watch the setting sun. Clouds are no deterrent. Clouds intensify the drama, tap and shape the light. Heavy overcasts have little effect. Light bursts through, tracers and smoky arcs. Overcasts enhance the mood. We find little to say to each other (DeLillo 324). This episode occurs at the overpass, however, the site of the near death of Wilder and a symbol of a decreasingly pastoral world. By placing death and modern life at the same location, DeLillo establishes recognition of mortality as [the drivers] knew this picture did not belong to the hurtling consciousness of the highway, the broad-ribboned modernist stream . . . Some force in the world had gone awry (322-323). The uncertainty of the drivers to the situation combined with the instinct to avoid Wilder forms an undercurrent of mortality, where recognition of human life folds over to include

Taylor 18 the observer. The fear of death emanates from Jack and reaches its largest audience in the actions of his stepson, who survives only as people realize they may kill another, referencing Jacks epiphany when ceasing to murder Willie Mink. The recognition of mortality, however, does not imply submission to fear. While Jacks longing to escape or forget death defines his life, the drivers avoiding Wilder act out due to the stimulus present. The swerving drivers determined higher worth in avoiding the child than continuing on route, placing higher societal value on life. Jacks epiphany spreads in mass where it may influence the most people for the better, despite Jacks eventual return to the supermarket. The small increase in welfare comes in recognition of providing society with a service, here put onto life or death stakes. While DeLillo leaves a mass message of hope, Vonnegut begins mired in death. A similar desire for societal well-being links the authors, with Galpagos insisting its characters unify as a society or let their entire species die out. The movement away from the individual evokes Pynchons allegorical characters, while the extremity of the situation brings back the shock of Acker. Pinning the characters to a specific location and wiping out all other human specimens ensures the fear of death and the need for subsistence, concurrently delving into the value of any activity that does not improve society. As the survivors breed to ensure humanitys continuance, few of their actual achievements in life matter as death surrounds them. However, memories can exist within the starting societal structure, brought to a head by a story from Leon Trout about the creation of artistic works, in particular the statement, Oh, wellshe wasnt going to write Beethovens Ninth Symphony anyway (266) about the death of Kazakh. The construction of Beethovens Ninth Symphony occurred after Beethoven became completely deaf, indicating reliance on

Taylor 19 internal composition and musical theory as well as natural ability. The mention of the Ninth Symphony evokes that the dead cannot complete a work as revered, meaning living remains a struggle against the failure to create. The statement, to Trouts recollection, originated in World War 1, a piece of gallows humor to make burying the dead easier. The language changes only slightly over time. The original form, Dont worry about it. He wasnt going to write Beethovens Ninth Symphony Anyway, changes only in the immediate dismissal: Dont Worry About It transforms into Oh, Well. An inherent gloom possesses this change: in the immediately dire Western Front, the sheer number of living individuals removes memory of the dead. However, the closed quarters of the Baha de Darwin and the small populace of Santa Rosalia suggest death as unforgettable a necessity of life and therefore constantly thought of. Without a thrust into immediate destruction and war, the thought changes outside of time to morph solely into situational necessity, gathering the emotions inherent to each new use. Trout, existing outside of time as a specter, relays the original statement as well as the transformational nature of the Baha de Darwin. Trout plays at witnessing both spectacles, yet cannot feel true emotion at death as his story, despite present tense usage, occurs from one million years in the future. The events on Galpagos become as ingrained into history as Beethovens construction of the Ninth Symphony; the reiteration of the statement implies that Trouts vision of time is morphed constantly by his longevity and incredible knowledge of past and future. The simple idea of Trouts phrase points to a devaluation of human life if a person never creates a masterpiece. The actual creation bears little import to the phrase: a cultural touchstone appears, its value exists only in cultural memory, and the inability to recreate noted. The artistic

Taylor 20 heights of the Ninth Symphony receive no mention. Artistic achievement falters with time, with essentialism disregarding the specifics of work by focusing only on memory of its creation. Art suffers commoditization twice over, first in its ability to reach the generation of creation, then in its ability to maintain artistic power to allow statements such as Trouts to exist in common conversation. The invocation Beethovens Ninth Symphony, existing outside of time as a masterpiece and in time only as a memory, suggests evolutionary biology as solely matters concerning the ideal survival of the fittest, rather than remembrance of the failures and lesser mutations along the way. Within art, every issue faces assessment for its value, placement into the common lexicon, and holding for deeper appreciation. A work that fails to inspire these actions will die and no longer have a place in life; in this way, it becomes victim to the same forms of evolution affecting biological organisms. Art cannot self-propagate, as it is dependent on humanity to create, rank, and integrate it through time. By extension, any human activity in a society concerned solely with propagation faces judgment on how the activity betters propagation or long-term livelihood. Trout may remember the phrase and the people, but it has little import to the human evolution one million years later. A total devaluation must occur should humanity persevere, which must have occurred by the emergence of the species Trout observes in the future. Procreation survives as the only activity guaranteeing individual and societal advancement, ensuring the personal satisfaction of passing genetic lineage while helping total welfare through increased population. This view of society as only a means to reproduction obliterates the nuclear family structure, ultimately relying only on base urges and simple needs to create a society rather than insisting upon family values and cultural norms to satisfy human desires. Marys reluctant

Taylor 21 engagement to Wait prior to the crisis denotes an already crumbling view of tradition, as Mary decides, If he wanted betrothal so badly, and betrothal was all she had to give him, then she would give him some (Vonnegut 258). The marriage exists only as a transaction, with its absent meaning in the context of human achievement ensured when Wait, Died with a smile on his face about two minutes after the Captain pronounced them man and wife (Vonnegut 260). This enforces a neoliberal structuring of the world, through survival of those who can accumulate and the aggregated cultural meaning of remembering them after death. The nuclear family must die in order for society to survive; the contributions of those living in the society remembered in place of tradition. The meritocracy that forms privileges men, culminating in the Captain, Who was then an old, old man, and the father or grandfather of all the islands young people (Vonnegut 260). The return to patriarchy and incest brings Ackers claims to the forefront, here with the majority of society possessing the same DNA as a person of power and influence. The difference in scenario does do away with arguments of privilege, as the Captain lucks into survival, but the evolutionary myth Vonnegut tells indicates a successful society despite a foundation of inbreeding. Converse to Acker, Vonnegut populates the survivors with a majority of women. While a multitude inherit the wife role instead of none, society still devalues women. An overabundance exists, meaning women must again take on roles of servitude to society and children in order to influence cultural movement. The eventual move to a community-welfare based society does away with this patriarchy, but only due to an increased breeding pool. These views of the household create a counter-position to any nuclear family idealized by Reagan. The closest successful family to the nuclear ideal occurs in Zoyd, Frenesi, and Prairie, yet this grouping survives solely on government funding. The ultimate neoliberalism of

Taylor 22 Vonneguts reproduction-based society has no use for Reagans family structure, while Ackers Janey falls into psychological and physical peril from her fathers construction of her into a sexualized gender role, and Jacks family serves his own need for validation through emotional and informational currencies. The domestic structures built in the literature classify the family as antithetical to economic need, where an individuals ability prizes itself over contribution to those who need assistance. The maximization of individual wealth guarantees a market for neoliberal ideologies, as those possessing economic power exert their will over the less privileged. The reduction of characters in the novels to their most basic form implies a violent conversion, where even the optimistic Vineland ends without assurance of a changed future, and the evolution in Galpagos comes after a mass purging of humanity. The violent nature of neoliberalism imprisons characters, instilling a sense of necessity to the new American culture. The spread of neoliberalism comes as a contagion, where promises of assured wealth for hard work in a free market ring true to an America in a gas crisis and approaching a recession. White Noise embodies this crisis, infecting The-College-on-the-Hill with a disease in the airborne toxic event, a government monitored accidental release of toxic gas. The toxin could infect anyone in its radius, including Jack, who becomes the one who got out of his car to fill the gas tank (DeLillo 137): Anything that puts you in contact with actual emissions means we have a situation (DeLillo 138). No protection against infection seems possible, as those interacting with contaminated individuals do not even bother to wear protective gear. DeLillo, before examining the full effect of the event, nods to the gas crisis of the late 1970s, when neoliberalism began to emerge in mainstream economic circles. Jacks decision to get gas comes before the release of toxins, with Heinrich debating Babette that There cant be

Taylor 23 always extra. If you keep, you run out (DeLillo 126). The argument brings in competing theories concerning oil usage: the cornucopian view of oil existing for the duration of the time the market demands it and the Malthusian view of any resource declining to zero due to overharvesting and exploitative use. DeLillo does not linger, allowing the argument to favor Heinrich logically and the Malthusian view, letting Jack regain control by asserting the need to stop whenever a gas station appears. The ease of consumption of a scarce resource, even when its scarcity is mentioned moments prior, does not affect Jack, who willingly buys gas because the present offers no reason not to. As Jack can afford the market price and feels in no immediate danger, the impulse to buy succeeds economically. However, engaging in this activity puts him in the event radius of the airborne toxic event. Infected over an economic decision, Jacks fear of death magnifies and his consumption intensifies. With the gas crisis in mind, the convenience of neoliberalism offering market priced gas from any supplier parallels Jacks situation. The American belief in Reagans depiction of the free market stood for convenience and momentary economic sense, infecting the dominant Keynesian economic system with consumers eager to find work and embrace a system that offered any immediate hope, regardless of long-term stability. The gas crisis parallel falls away as DeLillo depicts government response to the event. SIMUVAC, the government response team and New state program theyre still battling over funds for, (DeLillo 139), quarantines those present at the outbreak for data collection. An employee tells Jack, We thought we could use it as a model, attempting to turn a real event into a simultaneous response and simulation. The data collection used for modeling attempts not to deal with the problem at present, but act as research for the performance of future simulations. SIMUVACs response exists to prove the efficacy of its models in order to obtain government

Taylor 24 funding, hoping to acquire the data necessary to polish simulations for presentation. The battle for state funds associates the government-reliant characters of Pynchon, establishing a trope of profit-seeking government bodies at odds with the governments economic agenda. The research and lack of information broadcast by SIMUVAC connects the toxic event directly to the Food and Drug Administration throughout the 80s. The apparent outbreak of a disease, infecting a small but defined population, mirrors the spread of HIV and AIDS. Initially found in gay men, and determined a sexually transmitted disease, homosexual lifestyles suffered scrutiny (Richert 468). By the end of Reagans presidency, the disease was widespread among many lifestyles, but ignored by the administration as, despite research into prevention and monitoring, it was taboo: the presidential commission produced a report in June 1988 . . . the presidents response to the recommendations was to shelve them (Richert 469-470). Infection became known and unknown: public knowledge and professional research into the disease would continue, yet no governing body would issue true rulings on its severity to the American people during the Reagan years. By leaving AIDS as a lingering topic among multiple communities, differentiation of opinion created misunderstanding and misattribution. While the FDA did stand for increased scientific investigation into HIV, AIDS, and treatments, it also struck down many experimental treatments to preserve scientific methodology (Richert 470-472). DeLillo, publishing White Noise in 1985, could witness the early investigations into the AIDS crisis, but at the time of publication, neither the Reagan administration nor the FDA would have issued a scientific statement concerning the disease. Jacks inability to receive information from SIMUVAC distinctly mirrors this investigation, as research took place by government officials on infected

Taylor 25 individuals, with data gathered to measure the possible impact and destructive nature of a real disease. The use of contact and emission (DeLillo 138) suggests a physical nature to the toxin, while Jack leaving the protection of his car to pump gas gives a somewhat crude parallel to the lack of protection and sexual activity that could spread HIV. The lack of individual protection by the SIMUVAC employee Jack talks to exists, realistically in the novel, because the man did not engage in behavior that put him at risk. Jacks normal reaction to needing gas becomes a death sentence, with the knowledge of its spread and effects held almost entirely in the hands of the unexposed. This real infection from the airborne toxic event quickly turns into a less tangible fear of death, with Jack unable to cope at first with the idea of death by disease and then death in general. This enables the plot that concludes the novel, Jacks search for Dylar at the expense of his family, yet parallels again disease fears. Any action taken could result in death, or, as with Wilders ride across the freeway, remain blissfully ignorant of it. Regardless of the actual result, the knowledge that death could strike at any moment infects Jack, recasting his entire lifestyle to play to this fear and not to the people around him. The infection-fear mechanism assists in defining his family as assets, and ultimately becomes the pricing idea by which Jack must monetize his family and himself. The disease could very well outlive Jack by having a thirty year lifetime, making Jacks eventual death what Hayles terms a matter of statistics (Postmodern Parataxis 410). Hayles deconstructs the infection to represent the entrance of the fear of death, rather than fear of the actual disease. Jacks use of consumption and Dylar to placate his fear empowers the government, who refuse basic information, confusing Jacks desire to overcome death with the

Taylor 26 goal of consumption. The aftermath of Jacks fear, the erasure of most of his children, and his altered but still consuming personality appear no less informed or manageable; Jack instead gives into the statistics, falls into the nuclear family structure, and seems to seek no further information about his disease. The infection subsumes Jack entirely, as he becomes complicit with neoliberal ideals. While his desires pervert capitalism throughout the novel, his submission to its American incarnation by the end of the novel implies a deeper infection that takes full control. He may be wary and more apt to describe the information overload in the tabloids as the novel closes (Pynchon 326), but this only indicates the same store receives his capital while his seeming skepticism changes nothing outside of removing several of his children. The technological depiction of Jack as SIMUVAC catalogs data concerning his infection further exhibits his full conversion to the modern age. Jack relieves this conversion only in his violent moments, particular the assault of Mr. Gray / Willie Mink. Societal structure faces death only in these moments of violence, when its representatives face literal injury. Hayles builds her reading around this interpretation of violence, noting, The trajectory of the novel, then, arcs from fetishized embodiment to a dissipation of materiality into information, onward to a recuperation of embodiment through violence (Postmodern Parataxis 411). By leaving the concluding overpass and supermarket scenes out of her analysis and placing the conclusion of Jacks emotional arc on his violence, Hayles allows Jack to deal with mortality by allowing his acceptance of death to come by almost inflicting it. Placing the conclusion here draws a similar conclusion however, as the recuperation of embodiment" remains fetishized by consumption, with Jack only achieving acceptance of societal structures rather than surpassing or acting against them in an effective way. Violence uncompleted leaves society in the same place, as Jack cannot process inflicting death on another nor reach beyond acceptance of statistical mortality.

Taylor 27 Jack remains infected by his disease, his coming death, and the desire to consume and placate these fears. Jack loses conception of himself without recognition of death, installing fear as the incentive to keep living. Acker saddles Janey with a sex addiction and enslavement to display a similar life unlived, where upon receiving freedom, Janeys physical life ends with the phrase, She dies (140). Ackers final poem concludes sexually charged, All I want is a taste of your lips (165), opposite a picture noting, So we create this world in our own image (164). Jack and Janey become inextricably tied as victims of neoliberalism, unable to survive successfully without constant fulfillment of core desires. Ackers recognition that the world will form to create markets for these desires again places responsibility on the individual to change the world around them, while Pynchon demonstrates that not only the subservient fall victim to violent capitalism. Janeys desire for sex overcomes the fear of death, but forces her into cooperation with societal standards. The infection mechanism again presents literally, as heterosexual sex contains similar contamination risks, as well as the possibility of pregnancy. Janey disregards her safety to capitalize on her sexuality, due to her monetization by her father and the repeated events that stabilize her as an object, a woman in need of sex who defines life through it. The risk of losing this lifestyle defines her early in the novel, with her quite literal infections and her abortions causing her to realize death was secondary to curing problems with sexuality. Janey acts opposite to Jack, but in response to the same impetus: a culture of infection. Janey decides, If I got pregnant again, Id stick a broken hanger up my cunt. I didnt care if I died as long as the baby died . . . I was still desperate to fuck (Acker 34). Jacks privilege to live without concern for true currency or a desire outside evading death illuminates Janeys

Taylor 28 desperation: just as Jack eliminates the children he no longer finds necessary to live with by the end of the novel in order to preserve his life as he values it, Janey acts to preserve her capability to have sex regardless of the lives around her. She fears the infection of pregnancy so far as to risk death to eliminate it. Janey conditions herself to the monetization of her sexuality by pitting her desperation to fuck against the idea of death, and chooses sex. The inability to protect herself from pregnancy comes dictated by her body, as An IUD made me bleed, inability to pay for medication even with sexuality (There was a druggist in Harlem whod slip me some pills every other month if Id give him a blow job under the counter, but once every month isnt enough), and the refusal of her partners, in this case the infecting agents, to use condoms (Acker 34). Unable to preserve her desire to stay without child despite monetizing herself and actively trying to maintain her childfree body, the intervention of the Turkish slave trader parallels increasing neoliberal idealism. Despite her literal status as a slave, Janey remains able to preserve her sexuality as a commodity, have a capitalist owner who must ensure her ability to make money through sex, and altogether live in the extremist version of her desire to fuck. Acker turns tragedy into gallows comedy in this sense, where the fulfillment of base desires requires divergence from anything else in life including freedom. While the establishment of Janey as a commodity belonging to Father negates traditional family dynamics, a clear economic motive forms: more is better. The higher capital gain promised by Fathers starlet exceeds Janeys value, making Janeys replacement a natural reaction. The subsidy paid to Janey to ensure her short-term livelihood acts as altered alimony, ensuring her livelihood only for a short period. The sexual abandon Janey partakes in occurs as this alimony ends, with her capitalization of sexual prowess effectively ending any relationship

Taylor 29 with her father as she enters into the market place as a commodity. Janey receives a higher personal fulfillment, she believes, engaging in these acts at the cost of life, yet she still absorbs the traditional economic mode of Father. Neoliberalisms return and adherence to near-complete laissez-faire markets backdrops Janeys acceptance to it, with her enslavement becoming a literal interpretation of the ability to trade in conceptual goods, here the exchange of Janeys most rudimentary desire and the capital of anyone wanting to purchase her. Ackers slave trader exists as a literal exploitative capitalist: his presence at a monetary level suggests the traditional Marxian capitalist, profiting off the work of another, while holding sex slaves increases emotional exploitation from the reader. Janey assumes a role of pure human capital, bought and sold in an allegory of the capitalist market place. Dissecting the overturn of traditional structures in the novel, Kathy Hughes turns toward the enslavement of Janey by her father, capitalist structures, and eventually the Turkish Slave Trader. Hughes posits Ackers choice to make her heroine underscores her beliefs: in a capitalistic, patriarchal society, all women are as powerless as children (126). The constant exchange of Janey reinforces the cycle of capital: her father loses interest, her value undergoes reconsideration in the market, and her capture indicates the market determining her to have no value besides as a moneymaking object for another man. Father determines Janeys decline, with the patriarchal nature of their relationship reflecting the ultimate repositioning of women in a capitalist environment. Cementing the repression, Janey remains ostensibly a child. Hughes attributes this age in the face of temporal shifting to Ackers representation of a physical and linguistic manifestation of the childhood incest, and the aftermath (127) while keeping Janey a child increases the visceral intensity of [Ackers] words (128). This suggests a shock-value to Janeys age, which

Taylor 30 seems certainly present due to the temporal and educational shifts Acker presents while keeping Janeys represented age static, as well as the implication that a woman at the age of consent would be just as effective but lacking power to illustrate the patriarchal structure of capitalism. The shock, however, lies at the core of Ackers assertions concerning capitalism, as the use of a child promotes reaction outside the text: casting an of-age woman in Janeys place suggests complicity in the female toward the incestuous relationship. The complicity exists primarily in Janeys evocation of a desire to be with her father sexually, which expressed in an eighteen or twenty year old may seem more directly pornographic. There may be an implication of malebashing as well, which seems likely in Ackers portrayal of society as patriarchal. Opponents of Ackers depiction of society could easily seize upon the woman having the same desires as her father, while also able to serve more ably in a capitalist economy as the woman would be able to work legally and have more emotional and physical stability. Ackers casting of a child in the role necessitates the existence of the infection mechanic, particularly in Janeys life following the conversion to capital depicted in her valuation. A grown woman may seem more able to break out of this danger, yet the indoctrination of a child keeps the heroine unable to resist infection by a capitalist class. While Ackers notion that a capitalist society reduces women to the level of children, the constant shifting of Janeys place and time allows her to be portrayed as a woman while keeping the inherent value of casting a child in the role. Acker dooms Janey to enslavement to depict the infectious nature of capitalism, as well as the literal health hazards she faces in her market valuation period. Janeys desire to fuck overcomes her desire to live or break free from capitalist oppression. Desire becomes the base infection, which every person must live by if unable to surpass the animalistic urge to continue fulfilling their ideals of pleasure over the idea of life

Taylor 31 itself. Janey seeks her pleasure, or the pleasure assigned to her by the patriarchy, forbidding her to live as anything beyond a piece of capital for use at the bare minimum cost. The infection mechanism mimics neoliberalism, as the increased desire for commodities to determine worth encourages desire, encourages promotion of solely ones own needs, and encourages turning desire itself into a lifestyle as the neoliberal ideal infects the American populace. The longevity of infection comes into question when introducing a longer eventuality than human life. Janeys total enslavement borders on psychopathy; questioned before her death, Why dont you think about freedom instead? Janey replies, The night is opening up, like my thighs open up when theres a big fat cock in front of me (Acker 137). Now only an embodiment of sexuality, Janey cannot act as an ambassador for conversion to capitalism nor reproduce due to intervention by her captors. Mr. Knockwurst explains to his companions, Theyre all Janeys. Theyre all perverts, transsexuals, criminals, and women. Well have to think of a plan to exterminate them and get a new breed of workers (Acker 136). The hypersexualized role establish by the patriarchy cannot be completely filled, as ultra-submissive workers such as Janey ultimately become symbols for rebellion against a non-welfare oriented society. If a ruling class, here male capitalists, continuously breaks down the labor force by creating the means of rebellion, even neoliberal methodology would encourage a newly empowered work force to seize these tools and overthrow the rulers, in order to accumulate more capital. Opportunism defines action in capitalism, suggesting an importance to base desires beyond the want to consume. The crisis Janey causes threatens to bring about a new class system, even if rooted in capitalism. The implementation of survival of the fittest methodology injects evolutionary theory into the time-value of neoliberalism. Galpagos finds the world in a

Taylor 32 financial crisis that Was all in peoples heads. People had simply changed their opinions of paper wealth, but, for all practical purposes, the planet might as well have been knocked out of orbit by a meteor the size of Luxembourg (Vonnegut 24). The generational acceptance of total neoliberalism, which occurs worldwide by 1986, happens in such a quick and complete fashion that there was no reason to believe the crisis would not end. By behaving in complete accordance with financial institutions, humanity begins to die off even before illness ravages the world outside Santa Rosalia. The wreck of the Baha de Darwin simulates the crisis on a smaller scale. As the passengers realize the implication of desertion in a dying world, the instinctual need to survive surpasses ephemeral promises from financiers while the ability to breed represents a genetic mutation that allows the survivors to continue their existence. Despite the collapse of civilization however, the survivors remain in the generation of capitalist growth, subverting base desires into neoliberal framework until the acceptance of death and the preservation of genetic lineage take over as motivation to exist. The ability to give birth acts as a commodity in Galpagos. Infection becomes the only way to live, as pregnancy and the ability to thrive in a new environment suggest the only methods in which society itself can continue. This focus on survival embodies neoliberalism, yet a subversive undertone appears as this means the destruction of human achievement in order to promote raw population growth, an eventual destruction of the meritocratic principles of neoliberal capitalism that begins with meritocracy. Infection presents as both real and idealized. As the survivors must populate, old traditions die out and with them individuals bearing these ideals. The concept of monogamy becomes dangerous to hold, yet remains to those that knew it, as Akiko realizes, This was

Taylor 33 another sorrow [she] had to bear the blatant infidelities of her mate. This was a truly saintly woman (Vonnegut 314). Akiko survives as a new breed both mentally and physically, becoming free of the infectious nature of traditional while also possessing a mutation, her furcovered body, which would allow life to continue. Infection again risks destroying humanity, but now forms as a positive: humanity must become animalistic to survive in even the faintest form. This does create literal problems as well though. In a permutation of sexual disease, the threat of incestuous activity could easily create children destroyed due to the need of their parents to procreate. Akikos mate, named Kamikaze seemingly to refer to death through tireless and unprotected promiscuity, acts solely on sexual pleasure: The female Kamikaze had caught by the spring was his own aunt Dirno, who was then beyond childbearing years. He didnt care . . . He had even copulated with sea lions and fur seals . . . (Vonnegut 314). Vonnegut stylizes Galpagos by noting who will die with an asterisk by their name, yet Akiko, Dirno, and Kamikaze are not marked this way. Their generation comes to accept the desire to live over any other ideal. The survival mechanism acts as a literal interpretation of accumulating. By allowing the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest to instruct characters actions, Vonnegut, with Mary Hepburn (a school teacher and Baha de Darwin survivor) as a proxy, creates a new race out of the genetics of the innocent simple folk Akiko and Kamikaze (McInnis 390). Marys placement of new genetic code allows humanity to survive through infection, yet relies on reduction of Akiko and Kamikaze into capital to propagate humanity. The transformation comes at the loss of humanitys brainpower: the supposed reason humanity fell into a crisis to begin with. Humanity must destroy a knowledge base and become focused entirely on survival, or again risk dying out. The generational acceptance that takes

Taylor 34 primary focus in Galpagos extends into the future, with each successive generation losing individual will. The infection of survival mechanics saves the human race, but eventually morphs it into a completely new species with subsumed desire to stay alive. The materialistic morality of survival of the fittest (McInnis 390) conversely forces mass societal acceptance, making sure each member of the new society ingrained with this ideal will sacrifice for the community at large instead of accumulating for their own prosperity. This reorganization for communal good occurs in Vineland as well, albeit directly counter to Reagan administration ideals. The need for government funding creates a communal atmosphere as Reagans push for social reform assigns responsibility through an intervening agency relying on government regulation. The neoliberal push acts opposite to its traditional form, which idealizes a lack of government intervention into society. Under the Reagan framework, societal incorporation of neoliberalism must ultimately come through governmentfunded initiatives, creating community action through antithetical means. Pynchon comments on this contrast directly, attributing a new economic system to the Reagan administration. Infection must come from on high, where a figure of public respect issues orders of solidarity through economic action regardless of results. Prairies friend Ditzah attributes this directly to Reagans own ideals, asking Prairie: Then again, its the whole Reagan program, isnt it dismantle the New Deal, reverse the effects of World War II, restore fascism at home and around the world, flee into the past, cant you feel it, all the dangerous childish stupidity I dont like the way it came out, I want it to be my way. If the President can act like that, why not Brock? (Pynchon 265)

Taylor 35 Ditzahs attribution that American culture revolves around presidential whims suggests a public ideal of governance, wherein the Executive Branch alters the past as needed if found unsuitable to practiced methodology. However, witnessing presidential engineering of culture does not necessitate a historical view. Prairie offers a more contemporary response to Ditzah, replying, You always did look at things more historically. What I just figure is is hes a mean mother fucker, thats a technical term, and a lot of these MMFs . . . tend to be spoilers which if theres somethin they cant have . . . theyll just go try and destroy as much as they can anyway (Pynchon 265). Ditzah and Prairie connect in their views of destruction; even as Prairie discusses Vond, his destructive tendencies used to enact federal viewpoints make him an agent for the Reagan administration as a whole. Ditzahs idea of historical seizure mirrors itself in the present, where Vonds dedication to wiping out Zoyd represents repression of the counter-cultural ideals of the 1960s. Infection becomes a government initiative: as the past continues to influence modern events, proponents of neoliberalism must wipe out unsatisfactory past data in order to justify the existence of a new cultural order. This alternate history, however, relies on societys complicity. Unlike in Galpagos, there is no immediate threat to humanitys existence, but counter-cultural individuals such as Zoyd, as well as anyone opposing a national transition to neoliberalism, can muster a defense using Reagans existing social platforms to take advantage of redistributive policies. Reagans failure to create an encompassing method of infection, desiring reelection and unable to change America completely in the shape of neoliberalism, allows resistance mechanisms to form. In this vein, the publishing of the actual novels allows notation of these fallacies in administration while demonstrating the methodology of a culture unwilling rebelling against infection by burgeoning

Taylor 36 socio-political norms, opting instead for solidarity in undermining political goals through extortion of policies counter to capitalist ideal. The infection mechanic thrives on reducing the individual to a base characteristic, where ultimate characterization forms on urgency of desire. The fulfillment of desire causes each life to become a commodity, undergoing market evaluation to determine its usefulness to society. Janey would seem the exception to this, not valuing life so much as sexual pleasure, yet life provides the only release for this urge much as the risk of death encourages the individuals in Galpagos to intensify the need to preserve genetic lineage and live in new ways. Why a fear of infection then, if it promotes life and the fulfillment of desire? Infection is the monetizing mechanism that in actuality takes away everything but simple survival. Instead of allowing humanity to create or act artistically, serve their community, or do any non-self-serving action, infection causes the individual to disregard any other characteristics of life beyond the simplest goal. Infection cannot promote a lived life, but rather a continuous one devoid of artistic meaning. The physical realities of disease that ravaged communities in the 1980s act as a perfect example of this: the fear of infection, as well as infection itself, drove power away from alternative lifestyles or acting to fulfill ones own nature. Infection requires prevention, but fear negates active methods of protection and dismantles life. The ultimate commoditization of the individual fulfills through fear of infection: life becomes the only currency worth having. Life acts in a biological sense, thriving on whatever economic or social stimuli prolong life to make the individual into a controllable and fearful commodity. In an economic sense, human capital becomes as easily purchasable as land or input materials. The reduction of humanity to a basic level denotes a capitalist benefit, as human life

Taylor 37 no longer needs evaluation on moral levels. The market not only determines life-value, but the ability of the individual to meet his own needs only by the capitalists positive appraisal. The changing of culture became observable within quantifiable economic data during and after the 1980s, yet authors noticed the change in its birth. The extreme scenarios present in these novels illustrate alternate realities, using extremity to highlight crises of neoliberalism at a cultural level, illuminating failures past academic models and onto emotion-laden characters. The transition of economic theory into literary fiction allowed criticism to grow outside academia, with communities taking advantage of literary cultural analysis to explain and discuss the failings of neoliberalism and the Reagan administration in American culture. Reagans radical economic shift met with an equally radical blowback: alternative novels expounding the flaws of his nation and showing how anyone could face destruction should neoliberalism become the culture of a nation. Violence binds the novels, demonstrating destruction and dehumanization as integral parts of American culture. Exploitation of the worker, cutting funding to any government projects, and the establishment of an entirely free market are not worst-case scenarios in extreme neoliberal thinking, but tenets necessary to its cultural supremacy. While Reagan could not act in a government position while holding true to these principles, the novels present visions of a world to come with roots tied to American appropriation of neoliberal thinking. The violence of neoliberalism in the Reagan era justifies itself through societal acceptance, pushed onto individuals by a governing body and financed by the powerful and the exploited. The social system created extends into infinity with a goal of total acceptance, regardless of negative impact on welfare.

Taylor 38 Consideration of welfare maximization begins to falter when developing a counter to capitalist societies. Vonnegut considers his financial crisis: Simply the latest in a series of murderous twentieth century catastrophes which had originated entirely in human brains. From the violence people were doing to themselves and each other, and to all other living things, for that matter, a visitor from another planet might have assumed the environment had gone haywire, and that the people were in such a frenzy because nature was about to kill them all. (Vonnegut 25) Violence marks the change of civilization, with even a financial crisis, given a financially inclined society, able to end in the death of humanity. Each novel presents change as riots, dying, and failure; the improvement of society for the lowest individual comes at the cost of human life. Indoctrination into fantasies about the benefits of neoliberalism casts a pall onto Reagans legacy, but the violence emerging between capitalists and opponents threatens ideological failure in maximizing welfare for all groups should a life be exchanged for an idea. Finding an answer requires another series of value judgments, inherently traceable to capitalism. The generation Acker, DeLillo, Pynchon, and Vonnegut describe speak in capitalist terms, as capitalism informs American culture. While the cultural changes the authors describe rely on unreal and violent methodologies, the growing criticism of extremist capitalism begins to form a new language in literary and economic discourse. Much as propagation and accumulation spread capitalism, a similar mechanic promoting social equality and alternative economics begs creation through analysis and incorporation of anti-capitalist methodology in literature. The capitalist-critical novel format illuminates the violence of neoliberalism in the Reagan era, while urging reconsideration of cultural change and appropriation by authoritarian bodies.

Taylor 39

Works Cited

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