On the U.S. Novel as a Metaphor of the Modern State
The emergence of the United States (U.S.) as a global power and, more importantly, as a model for the development of countries across the globe had been in the making for decades before it surfaced during the second world war. The settling of political unease within the newborn nation in the 19th century allowed the state to stabilize itself and prosper. The developments then, as they continue to be today, were driven by seeking security and material ends, mainly involving slight military interventions and economic growth.
With the waning of European influence in the period that followed the war and the rise of American power, the U.S. revealed the essence of its “modern” society whose “know-how” won the war. After the cold-war allowed for the rise of the post-modern as of the late 1960s, modernization theories made a come-back in the 1990s with the collapse of Berlin’s wall and the barriers it represented to the U.S. on its way to a new age of imperialism. The resurgence of modernity highlighted its own cyclic, or self-repairing, and self-destructing nature.
Many of the American post-war novels offer metaphors of different aspects of this “modern” society. In particular, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano” depicts a society able to regenerate following a failed revolution while Colson Whitehead’s “Zone One” discusses the fall of high-rise walls built in an effort to save civilization. Before shedding light on the former and discussing the latter on the level of governance and individuality, an overview of what makes a “modern” society is introduced below.
Thus, emphasis is given to the individual to make his choices and little is attributed to surrounding factors.
In the mere sense, modern refers to a mode of knowledge in which reason and logic dominate, in addition to scientific facts which are empirically-derived. Such premises lead to ideas such as the existence of the “perfect” scientific way to perform any given task and the necessity of evident moral choices, as binary as circuitry switches. Thus, emphasis is given to the individual to make his choices and little is attributed to surrounding factors.
As Andrew describes it, a modern state is concerned with the objective analysis of a given subject, valuing production and exchange. It usually encompasses a liberal capitalist economy and emphasizes individuality, most importantly within the economic system (Andrew, 1984). Such a state is also characterized with central governance and high-dependence on private institutions in the development of government strategies and economic means, as well as unequal distribution of resources where possessors of the sought higher-sciences (engineering, natural sciences, mathematics, etc..) are preferred. This also creates a growing class separation where those with different skills or kinds of knowledge are separated from the “elites”.
These features appear symbolically in Vonnegut’s novel which appears to describe the continuous development and revival of the modern state. In “Player Piano,” we observe the demise of Paul, an engineer-manager, as he seeks meaning behind his life decisions and actions while Bud who managed to get himself unemployed reconnects society with machines after a failed rebellion. The machines are not but a symbol of the efficiency and technicality long-sought in the age of modernity. The implicit integration of industry and governance, within which people could only work at post-war privatized industries or do irrelevant work in the Reclamation & Reconstruction workforces or the Army according to what machine-decisions punched into cards, is a reflection upon the lack of choice the citizens usually face in the free-market as part of “liberal” capitalism. The cracking social structure is seen in the city’s division by the river. This form of segregation forwards the indifference of the governing forces about the average man. As opposed to human decisions which are affected by one’s empathy and experience of the other, most decisions in that economy Vonnegut sets up are done by a central computer, EPICAC, which wisdom is based on incremental programming and statistical analysis. This indifference is also internalized into the engineers, the elites, the likes of Finnerty and Proteus, who start to crack as they grow disconnected of themselves. This is the fracture point of individuality. This is what lead Mills to say that the Americans are not aware of themselves, within classes, union or organizations (Mills, 1951).
Rather than resembling an end, the rebellion more likely resembles natural convection, a mere wave which allows resources to circulate, managers to be terminated and average citizens to feel involved.
On the other end, one could observe the upheaval of machines that “average” men and those tired of the “system”’s constant trials of shaping and reshaping them and the rest of society attempt. Rather than resembling an end, the rebellion more likely resembles natural convection, a mere wave which allows resources to circulate, managers to be terminated and average citizens to feel involved. Crunching the numbers, the economic crises occurring periodically on a global scale are an after-effect of this circulation intrinsic to modern states. As Anderson of the International Financing Review publication describes it,“ Markets, despite their collective expertise, are apparently destined to repeat history as irrational exuberance is followed by an equally irrational despair. Periodic bouts of chaos are the inevitable result,” (Anderson, 2000). It might be the space dedicated to each individual’s freedom and the “invisible hand” of the free-market that allow the modern state to have such an elasticity as to crash and recover, just as the average men reconnected with the machines after having led a rebellion against their authority.
While “Player Piano” points out a modern state’s inherent resilience and ability to regenerate, “Zone One” shows the other side of the scale, its self-destructiveness.
“He’d never been to Buffalo, and now it was the exalted foundry of the future,” writes Whitehead. It is no incident that the same city that have suffered from a post-industrial crash also have been made the capitol of reconstruction. The location of the city in the Western end of the state of New York, the state which housed the States’ first capital, might be a call to review the fundamentals upon which the greatest nation of our time has been built. This call for clarity is reinforced with the Saturday’s opening quote,“ The age demanded an image of its accelerated grimace.” What seemingly might have been viewed as the best scientific method to run a state has slowly turned into its own death. As Whitehead puts it,“ The dreams … favored a classic anxiety paradigm.”
The central government in Buffalo has been formed of the brightest of minds, and maybe even Nobel Laureates. However, as history has shown us that a game of intense logic always ends up in an arms-race, the authorities leading the reconstruction have failed to block a whole bridge, leaving Manhattan vulnerable, eventually leading to its crash. This is a critique of what we think of as “useful” intelligence. Intelligence beyond technicalities, and within the interpersonal sphere, is needed to handle the politics of running a nation, constructing a civilization. The is what the New Public Administration has made a point about.
However, it appears as though the central government is more concerned with preserving the status quo, keeping the situation agitated rather than completely resolving it.
Another mishap of the modern state is the inefficiency of the bureaucratic system to communicate human thoughts and intuitions. “Buffalo, he explained, wanted information on the general outline of each engagement, but in particular they were keen for the sweepers to record demographic data: the ages of the targets, the density at the specific location..” Little information seems to be transferred to Buffalo about the atrocities to human life, the struggles of the sweepers or engagements with the public which might have made great case-studies for the cures that are supposedly being sought in the once industrial city. “The company tries to make the workers believe that it is looking out for their best interest,” (Romano & Stone, 1947). In the same sense, Buffalo keeps clear communication channels with the sweepers, keeps them supplied with enough bullets. However, it appears as though the central government is more concerned with preserving the status quo, keeping the situation agitated rather than completely resolving it.
“Now that the anti-looting regs were in effect, everyone … was prohibited from foraging goods and materials belonging to anyone other than an official sponsor.” Even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the market manages to overpower the people’s best interest. This is why “You never heard Mark Spitz say “When this is all over” or “Once things get back to normal”.” Everything has, as a matter of fact, been normal.
To reaffirm the fact, it would be helpful to set up a comparison between the different “classes” of people within Whitehead’s “Zone One” and the citizens of the modern state.
In description of the stragglers, Whitehead writes,“ The stragglers, on the other hand, did not move … Their lives had been an interminable loop.” As the middle class white-collar or factory worker, the stragglers are stuck in a moment of time in which their actions are doomed to be repetitive, presumably of little value. “The economic and social facts are one thing; psychological feelings may or may not be associated with them,” comments Mills on the American middle class (Mills, 1951). While zombie genre is usually related to the notion of consumption, Whitehead has chosen to relate the stragglers with their modes of production as well. “One morning Mark Spitz stumbled on some brain-wiped wretch standing at the fry station of the big hamburger chain and had to shoot him on general principles.” Weren’t it for the little thought Spitz puts into his duty, he might have been a straggler himself, stuck in a slaying loop in which he ignored any humane feelings he might have for the “monsters” when they resemble “someone he had known or loved”. This is comparable to the image of an engineer-manager and the factory worker. When the latter is dispensable, the former is of greater value and it is he who chooses who is inefficient, worthy of being dispensed.
In brief, the modern state is characterized by two competing qualities, that of self-preservation and regeneration, and that of self-destruction. It is the delicate balance of the two that keeps the world agitated, performing at its full-potential to continuously develop and reform away from failure. The U.S. novels since 1945 have been recording these accelerated changes which have been keeping the American social structure upstanding. However, as history shows, all civilizations are doomed to fail. They usually do so under the pressure of social stratification, resource and knowledge centrifugation and exploitation.
