The Ladies' Paradise <+4> [Au Bonheur des Dames] Emile Zola

Amazon.com: Books: The Ladies' Paradise (Oxford World's Classics (Paperback)): "Nothing New Under The Sun ? Re-Read The Novel, May 10, 2003
Reviewer: Rachel Garret (Beverly Hills) - See all my reviews
With his Rougon-Macquart series, Emile Zola established the family saga. He put into naturalistic prose and photographic narrative the tales of a family and how their lives are affected by their surroundings. In L'Assomoir, he focused on the lives of the Provencals, those who live in the French countryside, whose lives may appear peaceful and orderly but might not be at a closer look. In Nana, he wrote about the world of the courtesan or high class prostitute operating in the beauty and sex-obscessed French culture of Paris. In 'Au Bonheur Des Dames' (The Lady's Paradise) Zola exposes the capitalism and consumer culture of fashion, as expressed in the sales at the department stores.

It was the time of Karl Marx, a time when conservative elements came into conflict with those of individual expression and equal rights. Previously, Emile Zola's novels were bleak, Dickensian and depressing, making a cynical social commentary that progress and idealism is stifled under staunch older generations of Republican power (in this case the French Second Empire under Louis Napoleon III). He conveyed so much pain and suffering in 'Germinal' about the coal mine workers in rural France. Like John Steinbeck of the 19th century, Emile Zola immersed himself in what he wrote, treating people as humanly real as possible, touching a chord to so many for his unabashed truths.

In The Ladies Paradise (the title refers to the name of the high class department store in downtown Paris), Zola portrays the fetish and profitable business of women's fashion. Octave Mouret, who at fist comes off as a money-loving, greedy, corporate seducer learns the value of progress and the rights of the individual. Where as he had always dominated women, manipulating them to buy his endless carrousel of hats, silks, gowns and shoes, he cannot win the affections of the newcomer sales girls Denise.

Denis eyes become our eyes as we see into the sexist world of consumer capitalism. Even today, this holds true. Women are encouraged, enforced and expected to be beautiful and attractive, with 0 size dresses, with fashionable tastes and so forth. Those who cannot meet society's self-imposed ideals of beauty crack under the pressure, becoming anorexic, anxious and sick. Super models, department stores, fashion magazines and the latest trends to look like Britney Spears (and behave just as shallow and air-headed) is the way to happiness they say. Emile Zola completely transports you to Paris of the 1870's and 1880's a time when the world seemed to be losing its better values. Is it still losing its values ? Only through advocating women's rights, individual expression, equality, and less stifling elements in society are we truly to be happy."

================
Is consumerism good or bad?, March 21, 2003
Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire
by Peter N. Stearns "
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415244099/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-6415185-2579329?v=glance
Reviewer: L. van den Muyzenberg (Cannes France) - See all my reviews
Before reading this book I was not consciously aware that consumerism is a movement with a history of many centuries. I also did not realise that mass consumerism in Western Europe started in the 17th century. This book will give you real insight in what consumerism is all about unless you are a specialist in consumerism. The book combines a good historical perspective as well as the good analysis of the forces that drive consumerism. The book also shows that in all countries there has been and still is tension between those promoting consumerism as good and unavoidable and those that oppose it.
A few points of detail. The book contains almost no statistics other than anecdotal information like the sugar consumption in Paris in 1790 and similar interesting figures. The historical perspective is rather incomplete when it comes to Greece, India and classic Rome. Buddhism is not described quite correctly. Buddha was not opposed to wealth but only insisted that it should be earned honestly and used properly. It is correct that prominent Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama and a prominent monk scholar in Thailand Payutto oppose mindless consumerism and are very concerned about the impact on the environment. However consumerism is flourishing in Thailand even though it is a Buddhist country. It is a typical example of a society moving in one direction and spiritual leaders pulling in another direction. One great merit of the book is that it is only 142 pages long and very readable.
============

Old School Political Science, January 26, 2001
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/080705643X/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-6415185-2579329?v=glance
Reviewer: "chairman_luedtke" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
.../... .../... Polanyi's work obviously runs counter to a great deal of conventional wisdom on the topic of economic and political doctrines and their relationship to social change in the 19th Century. For instance, the 19th century is often called the "age of nationalism," but Polanyi's Great Transformation, like the work of Marx, minimizes the role of the nation-state in shaping the lives of its own citizens, by arguing that state governments were merely pawns for the ideal of the self-regulating market and its stooges in power, both financial and political. Indeed, as a remedy to the negative effects of the Great Transformation, Polanyi seems to advocate a rise in the power of the nation-state, through the active securing of freedom and rights by its citizens in opposition to the stateless self-regulating market. One could brand Polanyi a collectivist for this reason, although he would resist such a charge precisely because of his defense of individual freedom against the market and his warnings about the dangers of erring on the other side: the potential loss of human freedom that would come from free individuals attempting to subjugate and regulate markets through government. "Regulation both extends and restricts freedom; only the balance of the freedoms lost and won is significant" (254). In other words, Polanyi is certainly not a Marxist, because of his lack of both economic determinism and any clear theory of class conflict and revolution, but neither can he be an apologist for capitalism since he seeks to shatter the myth of the self-regulating market as being a "natural" ideal independent of social moorings and above general social welfare. Therefore, instead of these two extremes, he strikes a middle ground that is as paradoxically complex as it is eloquently defended.
===============
One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy
by Thomas Frank "
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385495048/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-6415185-2579329?v=glance
Tom Frank has it right., January 4, 2001
Reviewer: Richard Du Brul "richard_dubrul" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
I'm a Republican, sort of, and I've known and usually disagreed with Tom Frank for several years. Disagreed partly because of his and my age, educational, and career differences. But, as an older market research professional, disappointed with the ethos and ethics of our time, I heartily agree with Tom in his view that the American public has been sold a wrongful message on the state and - more importantly - the future of our economies. Plural is important, domestic plus export and import sales. I disagree with him on the unions' role, because he does not look at work rule problems. But otherwise, Tom Frank is right: The democratization of capital is largely a myth. Really, this is a thoughtful and - How did he have the time and stomach to read all that junk blah-blah management literature? - a very well researched and written book. The newspaper reviews, like the Chicago Tribune's, are right. Tom's written an important book about our futures.