Books like Money

Here to StayThe enduring legacy of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher isn’t conservatism as a political programme but narcissism as a mode of living. As the aptly named John Self says in Money, “You just gave us some money... but you hate me, don’t you. Yes you do. Because I’m the new kind, the kind who has money but can never use it for anything but ugliness. To which I say: You never let us in, not really. You might have thought you let us in, but you never did. We’re here to stay. You try getting us out ... My way is coming up in the world” Amis got it exactly right. John Self is now the new normal. The physical embodiment of his ethos is Trump and Harvey Weinstein. John Self is their fictional prototype: coarse, uneducated, racist, misogynistic, overweight, and entirely without taste. He not only became acceptable in polite circles, he became their centre. “You know where you are with economic necessity,” Self opines, by which he means money is the only criterion of value. Therefore more is always better, even if there is no object in having it except having it.There is only a limited amount of pornography, alcohol, drugs, and sex a human being can consume. And their consumption in excess reduces the ability to consume more (it’s impossible to have seven month long hangover without side effects). This causes an irritability which leads to the potential for violence at any moment. Self knows this and lives in constant fear of himself. This in turn makes him more irritable, and so on. “With violence, you have to keep your hand in, you have to have a repertoire.” Get your revenge in first. Never yield. Always hurt the other guy more than he hurt you. Sound familiar?For the English Self, New York City is an enormous brothel, with fast food restaurants in close proximity. The place excites him in a curious way: “You step off the plane, look around, take a deep breath–and come to in your underpants, somewhere south of SoHo, or on a midtown traction table with a silver tray and a tasselled tab on your chest and a guy in white saying Good morning, sir. How are you today. That’ll be fifteen thousand dollars . . .” NYC demands money just to stay alive, lots of it. It makes the making of money as a goal in itself comprehensible, even worthwhile.Lots of literary allusions are peppered through the text, including an increasing number to the author himself, the ultimate hero of the piece, who proposes the redemptive force of literature as an antidote to the Reagan/Thatcherite legacy. Right, that’ll do it. I’ll write to Trump and Weinstein to clue them in.Good writing. But consequently a sermon heard only by the choir of readers of good writing. Not Trump; not Weinstein, therefore.