[gymbeaux]

The story is an excellent metaphor for how people like him (dare I say “us”) look at life. We overthink and we are uncomfortable at the thought of being “pampered” as though we are superior to the person pampering us. Logical or not, that’s how I feel about it. Perhaps it’s because we are aware of the lousiness of a job such as “porter” whereas the average person is oblivious, disinterested, apathetic or whatever else.

[lisper]

In his famous "This is Water" essay DFW exhibits enormous empathy for others, but I find that empathy MIA here. Yes, there is a little bit of effort to describe the duffel bag story from the porter's point of view, but that's not really the overarching point, which is that Cruising Is Horrible because Life Is Horrible and there is No Way Out and there is no escape from the pit of existential despair.

If instead he'd written a piece about how the staff on cruise ships work ridiculously hard for very low pay to give the guests a respite from their own shitty lives because the crew live even shittier lives than the guests, that would have been a much better piece. But that's not the piece he chose to write here. Alas.

[gizajob]

But why should he write something to suit your moral demands? The piece is clearly and obviously designed to entertain, and is written by a character called DFW who is as much of an invention as everything described. I feel you're missing the depth and the angle - it's not meant to be purely descriptive, it's artistic entertainment.

[lisper]

Yeah, I get that. But as a fan of cruising it feels like a cheap shot at an activity I enjoy and the people who work their butts off to make it possible. DFW seems completely oblivious to the fact that the people behind the scenes of his dystopian fantasy (to say nothing of people like me who buy their product) are actual human beings with hopes and dreams and feelings. You can spin this as "suiting my moral demands" but I think that my entertainment should come at their expense.

[gizajob]

Don't read it then...

Also, if you're a fan of cruising, why do you continue to do it knowing the completely compromised position of those below decks who are being cruelly taken advantage of and underpaid to deliver you your cruise? It seems like you're pinning your own issues with yourself and the activity onto DFW while continuing to enjoy it

[lisper]

Because the people below decks are still taking those jobs voluntarily, and so as bad as their situation is in those jobs, I figure they must still be worse off without them.

I also try to avoid cruise lines that really abuse their workers.

[spicymapotofu]

Is this the defense of your choice to support the industry? I'm not sure I understand it, as the same logic was/is used to justify slave labour and systemic racism - "they want to work, the children enjoy helping their parents in the field". Doesn't this ring sour to you?

[narrator]

I was showing some Skinny Puppy videos from the late 80s and early 90s to a millennial and she commented that the interesting thing about them was that they were leaning in to their mental illness, anxiety and depression to produce great art. That doesn't really happen these days. Everyone is so medicated they are just all robots and they don't have these strong emotional forces driving their creativity in those directions.

[lo_zamoyski]

Perhaps peculiar to the incoherent egalitarian of our age, particular to the middle class: not quite rich enough. The same impulse that motivates the "oh, you shouldn't have, I can't accept this" bit of sentimental moral theater. There's a certain fear of being unmasked as a fraud. You don't quite have the money or je ne sais quoi you feel you should have before you can confidently claim the sense of superiority you'd like. Ah, yes, it's that old mysticism of money again.

Note that the king serves his people, and we do not typically characterize kings as inferiors. Parentd feed, clothe, and bathe their children in their early years with no risk to their rank. Perhaps here lingers a contempt for the work of the working men, an ingratitude, that inflames the strange spectacle of overcompensation, of overvaluing their work.

But it is simple. Either the arrangement is just, in which case there is no problem, or it is, in which case, what are you doing partaking in it, unless it is licit nonetheless, in which case, why the anxiety? Learn to receive what is given with the right amount of gratitude.

Also, I don't especially care for cruises.