Don't Miss It Now Because You'll Never Get Another Chance
Back in 2012, a couple of weeks before the end of the world (as the Maya long count was about to roll over), a casual conversation with my muse led to a little rant, which I reproduce below, along with a pointer to a PDF file that I dashed off as an example of the phenomenon described below. The significance of this seed will be evident to those who have read Ice Skating in Hell with Molls, the book that eventually blossomed from this exercise in writing "the detective novel of the future"...
Have you noticed that in modern films, nearly every computer is an Apple®, with the logo clearly visible no matter what the actors are doing? Cereal boxes are always displayed with their labels clearly in-frame. Cans of soda pop are never just generic stuff, but are handled so the labels are always recognizable? That's called product placement. It's a symptom of very serious, ultimately fatal, degenerative disease in modern society.
The post-modern novel, like the average Hollywood film of today, will be a low-brow, pandering piece of schlock that is a mere vehicle for advertising. Product placement will be the key to success, because the novel will no longer be about telling stories, entertaining or educating users, or even (ho hum) providing a mirror in which humanity can ponder existence. The post-modern novel will be about selling space to advertisers, in the most direct way possible. A modest example should suffice as a beacon to light the way... toward ice skating in hell with molls.
Read the *POOF!* and you'll get the drift.
This blog posting will self destruct before Halloween.
Have you noticed that in modern films, nearly every computer is an Apple®, with the logo clearly visible no matter what the actors are doing? Cereal boxes are always displayed with their labels clearly in-frame. Cans of soda pop are never just generic stuff, but are handled so the labels are always recognizable? That's called product placement. It's a symptom of very serious, ultimately fatal, degenerative disease in modern society.
The post-modern novel, like the average Hollywood film of today, will be a low-brow, pandering piece of schlock that is a mere vehicle for advertising. Product placement will be the key to success, because the novel will no longer be about telling stories, entertaining or educating users, or even (ho hum) providing a mirror in which humanity can ponder existence. The post-modern novel will be about selling space to advertisers, in the most direct way possible. A modest example should suffice as a beacon to light the way... toward ice skating in hell with molls.
This blog posting will self destruct before Halloween.
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Wow, PJ, some of your ideas are certainly worth millions! :-) And thanks for the pointer to Jennifer Government... If Naomi Klein likes it, then it must be interesting... Probably right up my alley...
Richard wrote: "Wow, PJ, some of your ideas are certainly worth millions! :-) And thanks for the pointer to Jennifer Government... If Naomi Klein likes it, then it must be interesting... Probably right up my alley..."It's weird that the blurb didn't actually describe the book, but rather just gave someone's endorsement. Then again, maybe not weird at all considering the subject matter. I think Barry was a marketing major who got a little cynical and switched to writing. Or maybe I just made that up. It's early, I've only had a few sips of coffee, and my brain could still be in a quasi-dream fog. I do have enough wits about me to notice that I must have had a brain-skip when I was writing it last night. I remember switching the phrasing of the Google vow section and must have left both versions in. Maybe I'll get a percentage for each reference? Nah? Ok, then. I'll settle for clarity and fix it.
I hope you like the book. I read it years ago and thought it was an intriguing concept. Most of my memories are of the setting and how everybody uses the name of their employer as a surname, rather than a family tie. Oddly, I don't remember much of the plot. It was a fast read though. More coffee! (Or rather, more Kirkland Fair Trade Coffee by Costco!)
@PJ: the blurb didn't actually describe the bookYes a little odd... If I get it, I'll probably get the paperback; the Kindle version is priced too high... :-(
And I see you edited the Google vow part; and it reads better... LOL.
Richard wrote:"If I get it, I'll probably get the paperback; the Kindle version is priced too high... :-("The local library surely has a copy.
And I see you edited the Google vow..."
Yeah. Brains are weird. At least mine is. I preview everything before I post, so I have no idea how I missed that until this morning. But I certainly did.
... the blurb didn't actually describe the book... :-( "Interestingly, the Kindle version does have a descriptive blurb. It sounds more like the jacket cover of the copy I borrowed way back when:
"Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It's a brave new corporate world, but you don't want to be caught without a platinum credit card--as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneakers by shooting customers, Hack attracts the barcode-tattooed eye of the legendary Jennifer Government. A stressed-out single mom, corporate watchdog, and government agent who has to rustle up funding before she's allowed to fight crime, Jennifer Government is holding a closing down sale--and everything must go.
"A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the world ever." (Gotta love that last line. To be really hyper hype-y though, it should say best book in the entire universe.)
Smashed-Rat-On-Press
The main purpose of this blog is to announce occasional additions and changes to the SROP catalog or the site. And it doubles as a soap-box from which to gesticulate and babble...
- Richard McGowan's profile
- 49 followers
I've also mused about other corporate-sponsored venues. For example, maybe clergy could wear their donors' names on their collars, robes, or stoles. Or they'd announce, "today's baptism is brought to you by..." or "And now it's time for the M & T Bank Kyrie Eleison", or "in the name of God, and Microsoft, you are absolved..." or "it's now time in our ceremony for Tom and Betsy to exchange their wedding vows, brought to us by Google". Doctors in cash-strapped charity hospitals could deliver Gerber or Enfamil babies (with permanent tattoos designating it) or the sad tidings "Hallmark and I wish to say that we did all we could, but it's time to pull the iPlug and give your Ensure-sponsored grandpa back to the Soylent Green plant". (Why doesn't the GR-spellcheck recognize the word Soylent? Did I spell it wrong or does it not read its own books?)
Anyway, if you want to be entertained, as well as depressed, I heartily recommend Jennifer Government by Max Barry, unless a corporate-sponsored Suck Fairy has taken all the fun out of it.