The Language of More

I counted the number of ampersands in Future in the Past which is the chapter that follows Clare. There are 68 ampersands over 36 pages that lead to an absolute onslaught of thought and information. Clare's language and constant stream of thought reads rather like what happens when one surf's the internet. Her train of thought is "globalized" in that one idea will ping off another and form a chain  that doesn't always make sense, but is very similar to what I've experienced on a  Youtube spiral. Point A might not directly link to point C, but they do connect through points b, ba, bb, bc, and so on.

Also interesting in this web-surf style narrative is how product placement will redirect Clare's thoughts.  The first brands she specifically mention are Rice Krispies and Frosties, when mentioning Sara's mundane mornings, which leads directly to school. The next is Blu-tak left from Sara's movie posters which leads to Sara's "brand" or swimming trophies being thrown away. Sara's inability to participate in consumerism means that she and her family it seems must forfeit her product. By being unavailable as a product, Sara is discarded like the many Kleenex that Clare goes through over the course of her chapter, the one brand she mentions several times.

Clare refers often to shopping, usually after a traumatic event happens. Is it "retail therapy?" It doesn't seem so, more a critical look of how far retail situations have permeated into our collective consciousness. For instance, she mentions running into neighbors on the street after the funeral,

"if I meet them outside or at the shops & there's someone who knows mum or him it's this funny sideways look & how are you all coping a dreadful loss like we lost a purse or a dog or a terrible way to lose one's life like she just put it down somewhere & when she looked up she didn't know what she'd done with it a terrible way to lose someone close  like we lost her in a department store in the sportswear department (notice the placement of Sara's brand) & if we went to the customer service desk we could put a call for her over the intercom speakers this is a message for Sara Wilby your family is waiting at customers services could Sara Wilby please come back from the dead" (202).

Clare equates her sister's death to common marketplace mishaps, showing how pervasive the idea of consumerism is to her. Sara's life isn't anything more than an item. No one specifically equates Sara to being merchandise, except Clare.

She also mentions, near the end other alternatives Sara could have had,

"& since you went quite early on after you went I started making them while I was lying here lists of all the things that you could have been including a swimmer a swimmer obviously but the thing is you could have been anything a doctor someone selling jumpers in a shop selling shoes in a shoe shop selling papers in a papershop someone who looked after trees & bushes at a garden centre see all anyone is talking about at school is the millennium  this is the millennium  what will you do for the millennium five hundred words on how you will make the world a better place in the millennium & all I can think is that the list of things it would have been possible for you is never fucking ending it goes on forever new things adding to it all the time you could have been a TV vet or done the things they keep telling us at school with  computers & personnel or got married or been a person working in a hospital the night a dead girl who'd fallen down  a lift shaft got brought in 7 then like ER the story would have gone on for you instead of stopping" (208)

But the strange thing is she never envisions her sister as anything incredibly successful. Sure, TV vet and doctor are a bit higher up the chain, but she was never a CEO, or running her own business. Or making anything for herself. Not a top chef or a builder. Sara was only good enough for selling jumpers, sweaters, paper... Now that she is no longer marketable, Sara's potential value decreased dramatically, all based on what Clare knows about the world.It seems all she knows is what her potential is to sell things. Or be sold. Or be marketed to. The pacing of her language, removal of punctuation, (pauses, stops) removal of and itself,  and the thoughts she has all equate to her culture of more. More things. More purchases. Sell, buy, sell. More.