THE URBAN DICTIONARY OF VERY LATE CAPITALISM

A linguistics-minded satire presents a psychedelic vision of a future civilization.

The Unionized States of America, late 2060s. “Very late capitalism” has made America unrecognizable, and the regenerative economics professor Cornelius Jobanič hopes to turn things around. When he meets former water polo player and current ghostwriter Benjamin Henderson at the annual Digikiki offline charity fundraiser, he knows he has found a partner. “Lately I have been working on an idea, a grand formula in the discipline of economics,” explains Cornelius. “I have semiboiled a nonstandard formula to eliminate poverty in the world. No more predivision. No more parades without true democracy. At last, true rights to freedoms, life, and happinesses.” Cornelius will be the idea man, and Benjamin will sell it to the masses—though this turns out to be easier said than done. The two set off like a 21st-century James Agee and Walker Evans—mixed with more than a pinch of Candide and Pangloss—to crack the code of poverty. Interspersed with their work are vignettes exploring the varied and colorful corners of late capitalism, from the ins and outs of the Japanese eCats© import-export business to the electoral success of the Search Party, which runs on the political platform of conducting internet searches so their constituents don’t have to. Bunea’s prose is laden with invented buzzwords, though he provides definitions for all of them in the footnotes: “The prematuroid generation, those unperuked yoloing teens are developing an uncontrolled interest in eCats© in all shapes, sizes, and specs, from subquarter minis to 12 inch harpylikes.” These linguistic curios are often quite fantastical, such as the zestybus, which a footnote reveals to be a “colorful public bus with pleasant scents, relaxing ambient music, and massage cubicles.” The book does not function as a traditional novel but rather as a collection of vignettes linked by the occasional appearances of Cornelius and Benjamin. The jokes are sometimes sophomoric, and not every scenario totally succeeds. But as a work of metafictional dystopian satire, it offers some wonderfully imaginative and amusing moments.

A smart satire that revels in the excesses of capitalism.