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Conscience? How much? Shall I consume benefits of sweat-shop laborers or not? Wallace offers an intellectual challenge: undergo an honest search for a conscience of consumption of commodities from a world market that's ruining poorer people's lives. But, owning things is supposed to make us merry. Right? Capitalism buys happiness through materialism. Fine clothes are supposed to reveal character. New cars equal status, right? Shows exaggerate the life styles of rich folks & degrade lives of poorer ones. Markets love for us to believe our social standing relies upon ownership of fine objects. Wallace asks us to consider the 'gods' of commodities: take an inventory of what materials we own, what they mean to us, how they rank us in status within all of humanity. In his book, "The Fever," is what one woman gets when she travels to an under-developed nation on a dangerous trip through abject poverty. She can never be the same content woman once her conscience is razed to awareness of how her ownership leads to someone else's dire suffering: after she experiences that human suffering herself. Wallace/she asks does poverty turn someone into a terrorist? She sees it happening. Can she believe her eyes? Is democracy just or a system of legal injustice? What is y/our status in such a system? In 2004, Wallace's screenplay of this book became a film starring Vanessa Redgrave. She interrogates her 'middle-class' self, exposing cause & effect relations capitalism urges us to ignore. Instead of shopping for more stockings, panicking when she's out of coffee, she finds forbidden links between y/our consumption of materials & sweat-shop-like horrors. Wallace intends for us to be torn by becoming honest within ourselves by making us ask: do I accept being some sort of capitalist creature who benefits daily from grand larceny running rampant over under-developed nations 'of people' who are suffering because I want, need, buy & consume status through material objects? In the film, Redgrave does monologues saying, 'all I need do is stay true to my system-created persona, close my eyes, forget who I've seen & eat, drink & be merry: not face global looting, torture, rape, suffering & death of people I don't even know!' Countless others ask, 'What can I do, anyway? Send my salad abroad?' Who has courage enough to resist cooperating with an unjust capitalist system? Gandhi did! A Boston Tea Party did, too! Redgrave portrays, with perfection, the dilemma between 2 parts of a persona in Wallace's book, screenplay & director Carlo Nero's film (Vanessa Redgrave's son with Franco Nero, her "Camelot" co-star). Angelina Jolie co-stars as a revolutionary from an under-developed nation exploited by capitalism. Portraying a liberal, intelligent, middle-class woman who wants to do what's right, neither author nor actor lecture. Instead, both brilliantly question the obvious injustice of capitalism: who is really benefitting? Wallace, through Redgrave's inquiring mind, invites us into their internal inquest: to understand the root of (their) privilege, an unjust society & how the 2 are connected. In a capitalist market, 1 gains what many others lose. Once realized, what is s/he to do? Ignore facts & be merry or face brutal attacks capitalism can & does wage against anyone who questions its power, control & injustice? Wallace's book, screenplay & film ask questions. That's their beauty: not preaching. Redgrave on film begs to know . . .Read full review