Slaves of New York: You and the Boss

This short story towards the beginning of the book spans a mere six pages. Yet within these six pages, Janowitz creates a reality which certainly does not feel real. While this story could be interpreted in several different ways, I read this as a woman in a dream state imagining her life if she were to replace Bruce Springsteen's wife. It is safe to assume she is a woman with an obsessive personality and obtains desires for celebrities. The late 1980s played host to the height of celebrity culture (Cashmore, 2014), where Arnold Schwarzenegger was known as a cultural icon, not just an actor. In the same regard, Bruce Springsteen was a household name, not just a singer. Therefore, it is not unusual for the public to fantasise about lives with these stars.

The story begins with the line "First, you must dispose of his wife" (p. 36). From this line, the reader gets an immediate sense of a bitter tone and what the story might entail. Also, this real-time writing seems to be conducted in the form of a semi-stream-of-consciousness (a thought process in written form instead of composed prose). She gives Springsteen's wife a lobotomy, Valium, and a one-way ticket to Hollywood and the wife accepts this and leaves. Of course, this simply would not happen in a fashion such as this in real life which is what hints that this might be a dream of sorts. This is also supported by Janowitz writing in the third person about the narrator herself (i.e. referring to myself as "you").

The narrator shows an unnerving sense of infatuation by immediately changing the scene to furnishing shopping with "Bruce" and including jokes about his songs. For example, everything Bruce chose was "made in the USA" (p. 37). These visions of her and Bruce seep into every aspect of life in some capacity. Soon after she begins to discuss the sexual nature of their relationship with highly fetishised notions of what happens between them. This would also speak to the sexualisation of celebrities which was apparent during this decade. This continues when she finds out she is pregnant. This story seems to highlights the fantasised ideals that the general public enforce onto celebrities, a culture which still exists today.

There also exists the notion that celebrities are not simply just people, but living legacies and almost godly figures. She compares Springsteen to the likes of "the Beatles, Christ, Gandhi, Lee Iacocco" (p. 39). She also states that he cured a little boy of cancer by simply seeing Springsteen on TV. This, of course, is a medical impossibility, but again, highlights celebrities are not like us, but are above us. Yet this does not stop the narrator becoming sick of Springsteen's company and very easily persuades his wife to leave Hollywood and return home to him.

Even she is only referred to as Bruce's wife. The narrator does not have a name. The only actual name in this story is Bruce. This writing technique has been used in several literature pieces; notably, Curly's wife from Of Mice and Men. This method is employed when characters need to be rendered unimportant or have a superior authority above them. This story is no different. While Bruce is placed on a pedestal, the rest of the world must remain nameless.


References
1. Cashmore, Ellis. Celebrity Culture. New York: Routledge, 2014.