Pastoralia

by George Saunders

You were doing the best you could? Just like I am?

From one worker to another? Such an odd exchange.

“Well, shit,” she says. “You know I’m freaking rooting for you guys.”

Janet will be almost impossible to "turn in" after this line. The pathos here is irresistible!

Nordstrom is unhappy with you, it says. And unhappy with me because I have been lying for you on my DPPEFs. So I am going to start telling the truth.And as you know, if I tell the truth about you, you will be a goner, unless you start acting better. Therefore please start acting better. Sorry I couldn’t say this in the cave, but as you know, we are not supposed to speak English in the cave. I enjoy working with you. We just have to get this thing straightened out.

Strangely eloquent. I was underestimating this guy. He's sincere and acting ethically with Janet.

“I have plenty of friends,” she says. “Name one,” he says. She looks at me. Which I guess is sort of sweet. Although I don’t see why she had to call me Mr. Tightass.

Whoa, Janet gestures toward a friendship, which only sets us up for more heartbreak later.

“No,” says Marty. “It makes no difference. It has nothing to do with it.” “I think it helps,” says the kid. “Because then you don’t have to worry about your shoes splitting.”

questioning the intersection of morality, wealth, labor, leisure, and the good.

Around noon the door to her Separate Area flies open. She looks weird. Her hair is sticking up and she’s wearing an I’m With Stupid sweatshirt over her cavewoman robe and her breath smells like whiskey.

The GEICO moment?

Bradley never knew him.

Absent fathers, or males living with female relatives seem to be death knells for Saunders' characters.

“Wow. You’re even nicer than I thought. You’re the best, man. And starting right now, no more screw-ups. I know I said that before. But this time, for real. You watch.”

Ah, we've all been here. The resolutions. The pronouncements. The trying. And the coming (and inevitable!) failure.

This is the way organizations grow and thrive, via small courageous contributions by cooperative selfless helpers, who are able to do that hardest of things, put aside the purely personal aspect in order to see the big picture. Oh and also, you might want to be out of the cave around ten, as that is when the deed will be done.

A re-valuation of TRUTH. Truth and the corporation. A sort of capitalistic transcendence and charlatanism all packaging into one box that we mostly accept without questioning.

Because what is truth? Truth is that thing which makes what we want to happen happen. Truth is that thing which, when told, makes those on our team look good, and inspires them to greater efforts,

An ironic pragmatist's truth. But with capitalism, baby!

and causes people not on our team to see things our way and feel sort of jealous.

hints at competition.

So when a rumor makes you doubt us, us up here, it is therefore not true, since we have already defined truth as that thing which helps us win. Therefore, if you want to know what is true, simply ask what is best.

Wow. Utterly break-taking B.S. but weirdly compelling. The truth here is in the strength of the utterance. Just the act of spouting this stuff.

Five more hours and I can enter my Separate Area and find out.

Acting "good" now. Following the rules he's really only half-heartedly followed, even if expressing belief in them. How long will this last?

The White Hats were Beginning to Begin. The Pink Hats were Moving Ahead in Beginning. The Green Hats were Very Firmly Beginning, all the way up to the Gold Hats, who had Mastered Living

Brilliant! You can picture the hotel conference room. Feel the AC chill. See the somewhat worn carpet.

“You.”

A contemp version of something like a medieval morality play

A mantra. A mantra can be thought of as a repeated internal reminder, can’t it?

Saunders is clever. This remark cuts two ways: 1) it's utter commodified self-help B.S. 2) yet it's true that we need mantras and that, within certain religious traditions especially, we need and live by mantras. What else is our beloved rosary?

“Now Is the Time for Me to Win!”

You can't make this stuff up. Oh, wait a minute. Paul Thomas Anderson nods.

I’ll be guiding you through my Three Essential Steps: Identification, Screening, Confrontation.

Yaniky won't make it very far, as we'll see.

“Winky: Crazy-looking and too religious and needs her own place.”

Rogers will work wonders with this. Really.

“Winky: needs her own place.”

I mean, a real psychologist would you get here. Helpful work!

“What we’re going to do now is act this out symbolically,” Tom Rodgers said. “Primitive cultures do this all the time.

Rodgers' main selling point. His customers "do" something. Jungian undertones here?

‘No more, Winky. Grow wings, Winky. I love you, but you’re killing me, and I am a good person, a child of God, and don’t deserve to die. I deserve to live, I demand to live, and therefore, get your own place, girl! Fly, and someday thank me!’ This is to be your submantra, Neil,

to "sell," this submantra must have these life-death terms.

I mean it, jagoff, I’m not kidding,”

Pittsburghese? ;-)

Down in the city are the nice houses and the so-so houses and the lovers making out in dark yards and the babies crying for their moms, and I wonder if, other than Jesus, this has ever happened before. Maybe it happens all the time. Maybe there’s angry dead all over, hiding in rooms, covered with blankets, bossing around their scared, embarrassed relatives. Because how would we know?

Bardo prep. It's been interesting how hindsight turns up nuggets like these of Saunders working out this ghost thing.

“What I was just saying was that, our aim is, we’re going to be looking at some things or aspects, in terms

this voice ... another Saunders' classic.

of driving? Meaning safety, meaning, is speeding something we do in a vacuum, or could it involve a pedestrian or fatality or a family out for a fun drive, and then here you come, speeding, with the safety or destiny of that family not held firmly in your mind, and what happens next? Who knows?”

Fascinating voice. How does Saunders do it? Imitation? More student papers? :-)