PHOTO: Race car driver Danica Patrick, posing for BodyByMilk.com
I listened to an NPR podcast the other day — an interview with author Hernan Diaz about his Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, Trust — and Mr. Diaz said something that struck me as funny, and slightly weird.
His novel follows two fabulously wealthy New Yorkers, Benjamin and Helen Rask; he’s a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she’s the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they’ve risen to the pinnacle of New York society.
But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? Does the family have a dark secret? And how do rich families go about controlling the public narrative?
During the podcast, NPR host Scott Simon noted different value systems embraced by the various characters in the novel, and asked:
“In a sense, do novelists have to trust in that, too? That readers will understand and find what [the characters] have to say?”
Hernan Diaz responded:
“The book is, to an enormous extent, about this man who is trying to control a narrative. And this is something that I found about wealth, in general, and about wealth in America, in particular. Great fortunes have the ability to distort and warp the reality around themselves. Furthermore, they have the power to align, to bend reality, according to their own designs.
“I think, in fact, the greatest luxury good today — out there — is not mansions or yachts. It is reality itself…”
What a weird thought. That money can buy reality itself.
That’s kind of a mind-boggling concept, when you consider that money is nothing but little scraps of paper in someone’s wallet… or little electronic specks on a silicone chip, inside some bank’s computer… or even just a promise that’s somehow related to someone’s signature.
Later in the day, I happened upon a op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, about milk.
The stuff that every body needs, if the owner of that body wants to become famous, and wealthy, and eventually appear in ‘got milk’ advertisements.
The story in the Los Angeles Times appeared to be authentic, but we might want to consider that the online Los Angeles Times is itself nothing but little electronic specks that send stories and pictures to my computer here in Pagosa Springs.
The editorial was written by the Times Editorial Board on May 9, and this was the headline:
Got free speech? An LAUSD student is restricted from promoting non-dairy milk
LAUSD being the Los Angeles Unified School District, which, like every school district in America, serves cow’s milk with its lunch offerings.
Not that the school district necessarily wants to serve dairy products with their lunches. They know that many students are allergic to cow’s milk. But the district is required, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to serve dairy milk with lunches. Or else.
High school student Marielle Williamson learned about the USDA rules this year, when she was prohibited from handing out literature at school about the disadvantages of drinking dairy milk unless she also provided information about its ‘benefits’.
According to the Times Editorial Board, Ms. Williamson is a vegan and decided she didn’t want to promote cow’s milk. From the Times:
Last week, she joined a lawsuit filed by the national nonprofit advocacy group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine — accusing the USDA, the Los Angeles Unified School District and school administrators of violating her free speech rights…
…Williamson, 17, believes the USDA rules prioritize an industry’s profits over students’ health considering that many students are lactose-intolerant, a digestive condition that causes bloating, diarrhea, nausea and other symptoms. It affects primarily people who are Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. In California, the majority of public school students are part of these communities. Yet public schools are not required to offer nondairy milk options as part of free school meals. They can provide water, but the USDA has made it clear that schools cannot encourage students to drink water instead of milk…
So I’m thinking, this morning, about freedom of speech. And about folks who have a lot of money, controlling reality.
I’m slightly amused by the BodyByMilk.com advertisement that shows wealthy movie actor Hugh Jackman dressed up as one of the ‘X-Men’ — the character of Wolverine.
All of the ‘got milk’ ads that I’ve seen over the years — and my god, I’ve seen a lot of them — show this or that celebrity with a ‘milk mustache’… and holding a glass of dairy milk.
But apparently, Wolverine cannot hold a glass of milk on account of those long, sharp spikes growing out of his knuckles. So it’s not clear how he got that milk mustache. Nor does it explain how he got such big muscles.
I wish Wolverine were fighting for the rights of children suffering with lactose intolerance.
But as author Hernan Diaz reminded us, reality is created by those who have the most money.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.