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Mark Bailey's Reviews > Look at the Lights, My Love
Look at the Lights, My Love
by
by
The subject of this book reminded me of The Clash song 'Lost in the Supermarket'. This and the fact everything I've read by Ernaux so far is extremely good meant it was an easy choice to read.
The supermarket is a place described as 'emanating both comfort and alienation', and a space in which you can 'forget that you're not alone, or that you are'.
As we consume more and more, supermarkets no longer function merely as a place of necessity to buy goods. They serve as something bigger, they 'provoke thought, anchor sensation and emotion in memory...they are part of the landscape of childhood for everyone under fifty'.
And while sinister in many ways (pure consumerism, 24-hour accessibility, special offers, goods that initially we wouldn't have dreamed a supermarket would sell etc.) they also have an element of escape, of comfort; evoking a sense of invisibility on the one hand and belonging on the other.
Paradoxically, in an increasingly saturated world of divide and conquer, supermarkets are a place that is part of the problem, yet at the same time one of the most effective spaces in increasing personal presence and social cohesion. As Ernaux states: 'there is no other space, public or private, where so many individuals so different in terms of age, income, education, geographic and ethnic background etc., rub shoulders with each other'.
Ernaux is a stunning writer and emotionally very powerful. This is a much lighter read, offering playful insight into the role and experience of being in a supermarket.
The supermarket is a place described as 'emanating both comfort and alienation', and a space in which you can 'forget that you're not alone, or that you are'.
As we consume more and more, supermarkets no longer function merely as a place of necessity to buy goods. They serve as something bigger, they 'provoke thought, anchor sensation and emotion in memory...they are part of the landscape of childhood for everyone under fifty'.
And while sinister in many ways (pure consumerism, 24-hour accessibility, special offers, goods that initially we wouldn't have dreamed a supermarket would sell etc.) they also have an element of escape, of comfort; evoking a sense of invisibility on the one hand and belonging on the other.
Paradoxically, in an increasingly saturated world of divide and conquer, supermarkets are a place that is part of the problem, yet at the same time one of the most effective spaces in increasing personal presence and social cohesion. As Ernaux states: 'there is no other space, public or private, where so many individuals so different in terms of age, income, education, geographic and ethnic background etc., rub shoulders with each other'.
Ernaux is a stunning writer and emotionally very powerful. This is a much lighter read, offering playful insight into the role and experience of being in a supermarket.
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Look at the Lights, My Love.
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Reading Progress
April 26, 2024
–
Started Reading
April 26, 2024
– Shelved
April 26, 2024
–
Finished Reading
