CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

The majority of the protagonists in CivilWarLand in Bad Decline live in a state of perplexity and uncertainty about how to deal with the myriad hardships life in contemporary America bring their way. The most common difficulty these characters face is how to get by at dehumanizing jobs that don’t offer enough material and non-material rewards. The title story’s protagonist kowtows to his boss by hiding the bodies of people their psychotic security officer, Sam, has killed; he does this because unemployment is high and he fears being laid off and, in turn, being unable to support his family. In “Isabelle,” we see an entire neighborhood negatively impacted by white flight, with those left in the wake losing their jobs, seeing crime increase, and having racial tensions flare. In “The 400-Pound CEO,” Jeffrey, morbidly obese and consistently verbally-abused by his co-workers, finally snaps and kills his sadistic boss. In “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz,” the protagonist makes ends meet by selling the memories of others to a local school for gifted students, thereby taking away one of the most individualized things possible: another person’s lived experience.

Corporate culture and procedure, along with profit, is the bottom line of the worlds these characters inhabit; Tim, the boss in “The 400-Pound CEO,” wears a shirt that says: “I HOLD YOUR PURSE STRINGS IN MY HOT LITTLE HAND” (47), and this sentiment can be applied to just about every protagonist (and many other characters) in the stories comprising the collection. This adherence to corporate culture is further reinforced by the mode in which many of the bosses talk down to the employees. In “Bounty,” for example, the protagonist’s bosses offer a sort of indirect, passive-aggressive mode of condescension in how they speak to the protagonist, regarding his poor job performance. This is again exhibited in the title story, in the form of Mr. A, who at least at the outset attempts to positively reinforce his orders while at the same time reminding the protagonist who is actually in charge, and that the protagonist can be fired at any time. We see corporate authority again applied to language in the capitalization of job titles, items, and places that are company property, such as “Historical Reconstruction Associate” (3); “Revenue-Impacting Event” (17); “Leaping Trout Subroutine” (35); “Significant Accomplishments Assessment” (67); and “Clients” (90). The words that get capitalized are, for the most part, all tied to elements of the corporate culture in which they exist and relate directly or indirectly to making profit.

With this sort of top-down, authoritarian corporate culture installed in the worlds of these stories, the characters are left to deduce how to navigate a variety of relationships with those around them. In both the title story and “The Wavemaker Falters,” relationships fall apart due to the protagonists of both stories putting job security before the safety of others. In both instances, this is ironic, as the respective protagonists have taken the actions they have (hiding bodies in the former, showing off/asserting themselves in the latter) in order to be better partners to their respective others.