Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices

3. Apocalypse by Subtraction

3 Apocalypse by Subtraction Late Capitalism and the Trauma of Scarcity j peter y. paik How sad to see great nations begging for a little extra future! —E. M. Cioran Expansion or Death The comics series Fables, written by Bill Willingham and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, concerns a community of refugees in New York that is composed of familiar characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Beloved as well as infamous figures from European folklore and legend, such as Snow White, Prince Charming, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Boy Blue, the Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, the Black Forest Witch, and the Big Bad Wolf all live undercover on a single city block in Manhattan known as Fabletown , having been forced to flee from their magical homelands by the invading armies of a shadowy figure known only as the Adversary. Having left behind their wealth and possessions in the old world, the members of this invisible diaspora, who call themselves “Fables,” form a new society under a covenant that grants them immunity from prosecution for any crimes they committed in the past before their arrival in the mundane world. Thus, the Big Bad Wolf, having taken human form, is in charge of security in the highrise where most of the Fables rent apartments. The Black Forest Witch, best known for nearly having made a meal out of Hansel and Gretel, now provides an indispensable service to the community by using her magic to help keep Fabletown concealed in plain sight from the ordinary residents of the city, whom the Fables call “mundanes,” or “mundys” for short. Though the Fables regard themselves as members of a closed, traditional ethnic community, they for the most part lead lives of anonymous toil, their daily activities being little different from the everyday experience of ordinary mortals. For the dull and disenchanted world where these virtually immortal beings have taken refuge seems to be the only realm that the mysterious Adversary has shown no inclination to conquer. The reprieve enjoyed by the Fables from the depredations of their enemy comes to an abrupt end when a detachment of animate wooden soldiers arrives from the fairy tale homelands to demand their surrender.1 The Fables defeat these troops in the ensuing battle, but not before these formidable warriors, who are immune to pain and do not eat or sleep, inflict heavy losses on the community of exiles. In response to this attack, the intrepid Boy Blue undertakes a secret mission that sends him back to the homelands with the objective of uncovering the identity of the Adversary.2 Traversing the myriad magical realms that have been united under the Adversary’s rule, Boy Blue eventually reaches the imperial capital, where he uses his enchanted sword to decapitate the emperor, a terrifyingly powerful giant who has led the armies that have conquered and subjugated thousands of worlds. Taken prisoner after seemingly accomplishing his task, Boy Blue learns that the real power in the empire is wielded by the humble woodcarver, Geppetto, whose wooden soldiers comprise an elite caste charged with carrying out the most important administrative as well as military assignments in the realms. Held captive in Geppetto’s modest workshop, Boy Blue promises to restore to the craftsman his eldest son, Pinocchio, if he will reveal how a lowly woodcarver in a distant and insignificant land came to build a vast empire, crushing countless lives and taking over innumerable kingdoms and principalities in the process. The political significance of Fables as an act of literary worldmaking arises from the reflections it provokes regarding the nature of imperial expansion and the fate that this path sets in motion. The empire it portrays, to be sure, is one that possesses a medieval caste hierarchy composed of humble peasants , haughty landlords, rapacious soldiers, and supercilious administrators. The comic depicts moreover not a historical medieval world, but the one found in contemporary fantasy narratives, in which magic is an accepted reality of everyday life. Yet, the narrative manages to convey with considerable forcefulness the way in which empire provides a seductive solution to problems that might otherwise be arduous, if not altogether unsolvable, in a chapter 3 50 system of values that seeks to promote both freedom and equality. Empire, not least in the U.S. context, permits a rising standard of living by opening up new markets for domestic goods...