Anti-Colonialism
Unsurprisingly for an Australian writer, themes associated with colonialism, oppression, domination and imperialist assumptions of privilege and superiority rise to the tide of the narratives within this collection as well as most the author’s body of work. The difference between most writers attacking society from the anti-colonialist perspective is that is that Carey rarely addresses the issues explicitly. For instance, it doesn’t require much work to penetrate to the colonialist issues bubbling on the surface of a story like “A Windmill in the West” which dares to situate a soldier’s story within the construct of a borderland desert area separating Australia and the United States. The political perspectives of the dominant and submissive countries in a colonialist construct is manifest. Less overt, but still clear enough is the colonialist underpinnings of the secretive project Mr. Gleason has been working behind a giant wall; the title “American Dreams” also helps the illumination, of course. Finding the thematic roots of Carey’s obsessive interest in imperialist dominance of the exploited culture in the domestic horror story, “Peeling” may be trickier for some readers, however.
A Critique of Capitalism
To assert that Carey’s stories often can be read as thematic explorations of the dark side of capitalism should not make one assume that he is at the same time forwarding a strongly characterized portrait of any particular alternative. The stories gain strength from their strangeness rather than from promulgating economic ideology. The revolution that has deemed being fat as synonymous with being an oppressor is a critique of capitalist overconsumption; of taking a good idea to an extreme in order that it might be benefit the few far more than the majority. Capitalism can withstand such criticism and should. Likewise, “American Dreams” also has some critical things to say about simulacra and the selling of something artificial even when the real thing is right there for everyone to visit.
Appearances and Perception
Several stories in this collection present a world in which the divide between appearance and perception turns out to be far greater than they may seem at first. The title story kicks this thematic exploration off with the protagonist remembering when his cherubic appearance earned him enduring sobriquets like “Cuddles” whereas the fat excess of flesh now marks him as an enemy of the state. Mr. Gleason’s story commences with the narrative recalling that everybody felt the community must have injured him in some way in order for him to build a giant wall to hide behind and spend five years working on some secret project. Only later it is revealed that the project is a gift to the community that turns out very well for them only after he has died. The soldier in “A Windmill in the West” has been assured by his superiors that his mission to guard this strange border suddenly existing between Australia and the U.S. is utmost military importance, but guarding a border nobody ever tries to cross eventually devolve into his own inability to determine where it is supposed to actually be. And then there is “The Chance” to take a gamble on a Genetic Lottery which brutally explores the assumptions often made between one’s external physical appearance and one’s internal character.
