First, we played Librarian. Then, we played Grocery Store Clerk, Doctor, and Astronaut. In the summer, we played Sea Explorer, diving into the deep end of the public pool to retrieve an array of colorful, weighted rings.
We played at being workers before we really knew what that meant. It was good to have “a job” but it was even better to be “the boss.” As the oldest of our gaggle of neighborhood kids, I liked to pretend like I knew what I was doing when it came to “work.” When we played World Cup Soccer, I got to be the Coach. And, after much negotiation, we found a way to play Spice Girls with six kids instead of five: I volunteered to be the Record Exec (although I would’ve preferred to be Baby Spice).
Playing “work” was mostly fun, but embedded in this knowledge that being “the boss” was best, there was a contradictory understanding. “The company” was evil, and—by association—so was “the boss”
Where did this idea come from? Certainly not my 1990s parents who never really talked to us about their jobs or bosses. And definitely not the traditional American elementary school I attended, with its very structure designed to foster compliant workers.
From what I remember, the seeds for some of these worker-centered, community-centered notions were planted by what might seem like an unlikely source: 1990s children’s media.
A specific book from the good ol’ summer reading list comes to mind: Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise. Published in 1998, this epistolary novel follows the fifth graders of Dry Creek Elementary as they commission a new, updated drinking fountain from designer, Flo Waters. A new fountain is a must in Dry Creek as the town has been in the midst of a drought for ages.
As a kid I was drawn to the varied voices in Klise’s novel, each one fresh and funny from a cast of characters with the punniest aquatic names imaginable (think Tad Poll and Goldie Fisch). In addition to the word play, much of the sparkle in this book lies in the spectacular design ideas that the fifth graders put forth, spinning out their project from a single-spout drinking fountain to a glorious oasis, complete with water slides and taps that dispense sodas and juices.
Here comes the spoiler: through their investigatory research of the water supply in Dry Creek, the kids uncover that the town drought is the result of a dastardly plot to hoard water for corporate and personal gain. Indeed, local rich lady, Sally Mander, and “the boss” of the water company, Delbert "Dee" Eel, have redirected the town’s water supply to serve their private interests. The kids expose the truth, the water supply is re-routed, the fountain is built, and the town changes their name to Geyser Creek.
Hooray! Boo, “the company”! Boo, “the boss”!
While Regarding the Fountain doesn’t exactly have an Eat-the-Rich philosophy at its core, the notion of centering public good over corporate interests shines through.
My present day summer reading has matured a bit, although some of the themes remain the same. A few weeks ago I finished Kikuko Tsumura’s There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job. The novel follows the misadventures of a young woman who works her way through a series of seemingly mundane day-jobs. Simultaneously, she tries to recover from burnout after leaving her career as a social worker (sound familiar, anyone?). Throughout, she struggles to not over-invest in her seemingly irrelevant work responsibilities. Arranged as a series of short stories that cover the arc of each job experience, our protagonist finds that she is on an economic hamster-wheel, uninterested in meaningless work, but unable to untangle herself from a culture that inevitably leads to burn out, even in low stakes situations. This was a fun read, particularly if you are like me and prefer a dash of surrealism in your literary fiction.
Before any of you start making comparisons to Convenience Store Woman, might I suggest a different companion read by a close friend of mine titled No One Wants to Work Anymore. My buddy, Issy Manly, has outdone herself with this collection of comics, all themed on the topic of work. In particular, my favorite comic in this collection, To All the Bosses I’ve Begged for a Job, is epistolary as well, playing with the cover letter format as a vehicle to critique the opaque, inequitable nature of the job market. No One Wants to Work Anymore is beautifully illustrated in full color and available at Antenna’s online store.
If the Barbie movie did not quite satisfy your anti-capitalist media cravings (and let’s face it…in that department it fell way short), any of the summer reading mentioned above might wet your whistle.
I’m continuing this series on summer reading through late September. Subscribe to get it directly in your inbox!