On The Bleakness

The bleakness of my trans-continental readlist seemed almost perfect. Combining Cormac McCarthy's The Road with Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed was almost too much to handle as I contemplated both my future and my future employment opportunities.

But, it was also appropriate considering, I first traveled cross country reading another bleak novel, Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero. Coincidently, it was on cable today but I'm sure the chances of that are not very slim.

More interesting than how scary Nickel and Dimed reminded me of my past and prepared me for my future was the fact that the reference Ehrenreich makes to calling poverty a state of emergency seems very much in line with Agamben's State of Exception. In my own words, the fact that poverty as defined, is not considered a permanent state, but still treated as such is beyond the boundaries of politics. The state of exception declared by G.W. Bush following 9-11 put a hold on our civil rights, but once politics as usual are off the table, all bets are off. The state of exception is permanent and so is poverty.