The Introverted salesman: The Commodification of Nessie
In Jeff Noon’s Solace, the commodification of the protagonist is a gradual process. The question of ethics and morality around the circumstances of their commodification is what a reader is left to dissect by the end of the story. There are economic factors that favour his commodification but at the cost of his autonomy. When he creates intrigue by sharing the taste of Solace, Nesbit’s commercial purpose is fulfilled. But at what cost to his humanity? The question of a human being as an advertising tool is uncomfortable to consider, but in Solace, it explores the ontological split between the product, its genesis and its forthcoming reality. To put this another way, Nesbit gradually loses his humanity in order to sell a product to those in his environment and it does work, until it does not. It is at this point that Nesbit becomes both the commodity and the target audience.
To better illustrate my position, a brief explanation of commodification in relation to a generalised ontological system is needed. Sandlin and Callahan identify that the rise of consumerist ideology has been linked in sociological and consumer behaviour to emotion (2015:83). When considering Nesbit as a commodity, his friendships are his emotional foray into selling ‘Spook’ to his peers. It is evident that these friendships are somewhat motivated by Nesbit’s economic status.
The narrator describes him as “that scrawny little brainbox with the rich parents,” and goes on to detail how Nesbit was the one who first introduced his peers to ‘Spook’, as it was not advertised; one had to already know about it in order to buy it. Within his ontological system, Nesbit is not capable of autonomy as his purpose is to sell ‘Spook’ and he does do this successfully by means of enticing his peers with the different flavour combinations that they then pay him to make for them, as they can’t achieve these combinations of their own.
There is the moral dilemma of where does Nesbit, the non-commodity begin and where does Nesbit the ‘Spook’ advertisement end? In other words, is there an autonomous Nesbit who does not need to sell or buy ‘Spook’ and what are the moral and ethical implications of the answer to this question, as far as his commodification is concerned?
Within his ontological system, Nesbit can only exist if he is preoccupied with ‘Spook’, whether that be the sale or his own purchase of it.
As Eagleton (2003:143) notes in his chapter on Morality, he says:
“Moralism believes that there is a set of questions known as moral questions which are quite distinct from social or political ones. It does not see that ‘moral’ means exploring the texture and quality of human behaviour as richly and sensitively as you can, and that you cannot do this by abstracting men and women from their social surroundings.”
Putting this quotation in context with Solace, it is clear that Nesbit cannot be separated from his ontological system when considering the questionable morality behind his commodification. I’d like to jump ahead in the story to further expand upon this point.
The narrator notes on page 22 (Noon, 2001) that it was not the taste of the flavour combinations that drove Nesbit, it was merely finding the flavours. It begins to consume him, becoming his lifeblood in many ways. As the narrator notes, there came a point where Nesbit was the only person concerned with ‘Spook’ and its different flavour combinations:
“You’d think he’d be happy to just mess with the bottles, but no, he had to drink every single bottle, even the ones that were failed experiments.
By this time the rest of us were growing up, you know. Moving on to the more sophisticated pleasures” (Noon, 2001:21-22).
It is at this point that the commodity becomes the target audience. What critically influences the gradual disinterest in ‘Spook’ in not only the growing up of Nesbit’s peers but his own spiralling, which results in not only a physical deterioration but a moral one within his ontology- it is at this point that a distinct helplessness settles not only over the reader. Nesbit’s commodification not only erodes his own autonomy but goes on to reveal the lack of ethical decisions that preceded his birth and subsequently, his adolescent and adult life. Returning to Eagleton, in order to better explain this conclusion, he explains that ethics are about excelling at being human, and this does not happen in isolation (2005:142).
It deserves mention that Nesbit’s design as a commodification falls in line with the traditional of advertisement and consumerism. The ideology of consumerism correlates with emotion management and relies on both advertising and mass media to elicit specific emotions in consumers that attract them to buy products and experiences (Sandlin & Callahan, 2015:83).
While it may have been preferable for better ethical decisions to have been taken on behalf of Nesbit, his ontological system favoured his commodification rather than his autonomy due to his parent’s poverty and their want to improve their economic position, rather naively believing that the premature sale of their child would not be detrimental to its future.
Furthermore, in becoming the target audience, his search of Solace falls in line with the emotive experience sold to him by the makers of ‘Spook’, as Nesbit knows that such a combination is possible from his previous experimentations- the narrator cites the following as evidence,
“Instead, in this really clear voice, he told me that has was searching for the solace. […] Solace. He said it might take him years to find the right way to twist the bottle cap, but he was determined to get there, even if he died doing it” (Noon, 2001:23).
His compensation is also bittersweet, as he does not have to work but he spends a lot of that compensation money on buying ‘Spook’.
In the absence of morality and ethical direction within this ontological system (although it can be argued that there is some morality within this system), by dedicating his life to finding Solace, despite how bleak his existence may seem to the reader, the experience of this search is how Nesbit finds a meagre sense of autonomy.
However by the end of the story, a new want for ‘Spook’ is subtly planted. The narrator’s interaction with Nesbit at a pub, he tells his listener about the experience of seeing Nesbit combine the six flavours and tasting Solace: He describes the scene:
“It was like watching an expert at play, like a magician or something. I tell you, I was frozen in space, as these six streams of colour[…] all started to appear in the clear liquid,”
By the end of the story, the narrator speaks of the taste of Solace with fondness. And thus, Nesbit fulfils the original purpose of his design. He is born a human commodified from an unfortunate absence of the ethics and the morality that were not possible due to an unequal distribution of power and an opportunity to further consumerism in a more insidious fashion.
Eagleton, T. 2003. Morality (in After Theory). Penguin Books Ltd. London; England.
Noon, J. 2000. Solace (in Pixel Juice: Stories from the Avant Pulp). Anchor. Lansig; MI.
Sandlin, J.A. Callahan, J.L. 2009. Deviance, dissonance, and détournement: culture jammers use of emotion in consumer resistance. Journal of consumer culture, 9 (1):79-115.
