I can no longer shop happily
May 4, 2022 3:28 PM Subscribe
“Of supreme importance,” writes Zola in his 1883 department store novel The Ladies’ Paradise, “was the exploitation of Woman. Everything else led up to it, the ceaseless renewal of capital, the system of piling up goods, the low prices which attracted people, the marked prices which reassured them.” from "Lost In the Supermarket," in which Rhian Sasseen riffs on Claire-Louise Bennett's new book Checkout 19 and the literature of retail
If you've never read The Ladies' Paradise, it's SO GOOD. There's a whole little mini-genre of literature about department stores, examining the social and political changes they brought, that's VERY worth reading. But The Ladies' Paradise is the first and best!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:26 PM on May 4, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:26 PM on May 4, 2022 [9 favorites]
Also it has a primeval database system! Zola’s great on how stuff got done.
posted by clew at 5:07 PM on May 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by clew at 5:07 PM on May 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Haven't read the article yet. Just popped in to show appreciation for the title. Now I have a The Clash earworm and I'm fine with that.
posted by Zumbador at 9:34 PM on May 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Zumbador at 9:34 PM on May 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I've been on the fence about reading Checkout 19 (it looks too violent / psychologically dark for me to enjoy), but I remember liking The Ladies' Paradise - and nothing else about it except a vague recollection of slavering over newly invented plate-glass windows? I'll have to dig it out for a re-read.
There definitely is something about scenes of supermarkets (and to a lesser extent convenience stores) when they pop up in fiction. I'm not sure I agree about the essayist's point that it's a feminized space - for me it always feels like an empty, soulless, maybe-capitalism-is-actually-eating-you place.
I know from a filmed perspective, it's very hard to shoot a scene in a supermarket that isn't either depressing or saccharine, because the spaces are set up in a way that make them very hard to shoot beautifully. The ceilings are low, there's no natural light and the actual lighting is terrible, but the shelving setups make it hard to bring your own on a reasonable budget. They're just ugly spaces, and the products themselves (as the writer noted) are all screaming at you for attention in clashing ways. In literature, you can remove yourself from that a lot more. But somehow the filmed scenes I can remember in grocery stores (in Go, Clerks, Grosse Pointe Blank, recently in Don't Look Up and Station Eleven) do stay with me for some reason.
posted by Mchelly at 6:10 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
There definitely is something about scenes of supermarkets (and to a lesser extent convenience stores) when they pop up in fiction. I'm not sure I agree about the essayist's point that it's a feminized space - for me it always feels like an empty, soulless, maybe-capitalism-is-actually-eating-you place.
I know from a filmed perspective, it's very hard to shoot a scene in a supermarket that isn't either depressing or saccharine, because the spaces are set up in a way that make them very hard to shoot beautifully. The ceilings are low, there's no natural light and the actual lighting is terrible, but the shelving setups make it hard to bring your own on a reasonable budget. They're just ugly spaces, and the products themselves (as the writer noted) are all screaming at you for attention in clashing ways. In literature, you can remove yourself from that a lot more. But somehow the filmed scenes I can remember in grocery stores (in Go, Clerks, Grosse Pointe Blank, recently in Don't Look Up and Station Eleven) do stay with me for some reason.
posted by Mchelly at 6:10 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Mchelly, you might be interested in the photography of Brian Ulrich.
posted by PussKillian at 6:51 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 6:51 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Great post! I’ve added a bunch to my reading list. :-)
God, fuck Cheever and fuck Updike. I work retail. If I see the likes of a Cheever or an Updike walking the aisles—on a fun little ethnographic safari—I’ll wing an out-of-season pineapple or a melamine pitcher at his head.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 9:59 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
God, fuck Cheever and fuck Updike. I work retail. If I see the likes of a Cheever or an Updike walking the aisles—on a fun little ethnographic safari—I’ll wing an out-of-season pineapple or a melamine pitcher at his head.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 9:59 AM on May 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
But somehow the filmed scenes I can remember in grocery stores (in Go, Clerks, Grosse Pointe Blank, recently in Don't Look Up and Station Eleven) do stay with me for some reason.
You need to see Repo Man. If you haven't, see it; if you have, see it again. ("Feelin' Seven-Up, I'm feeling Seven-Up")
posted by chavenet at 1:30 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
You need to see Repo Man. If you haven't, see it; if you have, see it again. ("Feelin' Seven-Up, I'm feeling Seven-Up")
posted by chavenet at 1:30 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yes! Haven't watched that in ages but definitely another favorite! plate o' shrimp
posted by Mchelly at 1:37 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 1:37 PM on May 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
« Older Anyway AAA BAAY-BAAYY, here's FRANKFRANKFRAAANK... | I’m studying sn-risks. . . Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by thivaia at 3:36 PM on May 4, 2022 [1 favorite]