1C Lesson for The More Factor by Laurence Shames (86)

 

 

Part One. Lexicon

 

1. More, the American idea of the eternal frontier that has no boundaries. Endless expansion is part of the American Dream of happiness and achievement. More is not a mindful pursuit. It is a mindless habit. Shames keeps referring to the “habit of more.” See page 87.
2. Manifestations of More: bigger and bigger houses, SUVs; more and more horsepower for cars; bigger and bigger dinner portions at McDonalds, HomeTown Buffet; larger and larger outlets. We even have bigger toilet seats, which have doubled in width over the last 100 years. See Big John Toilet Seats.
3. Concupiscence, the pursuit of happiness without a moral compass, which leads to insatiability and unrealistic expectations. One of the most grotesque illustrations of concupiscence is a “reality” TV show called My Super Sweet 16. See page 90.
4. Moral dissolution, you do so many bad things you no longer feel badly for committing all these heinous, despicable acts.
5. Insatiability, the condition of never being satisfied.
6. Impoverishment through Substitution, you cannot fulfill your basic human needs, such as loving, belonging, distinction, creativity, so you become a consumer and hope that your consumer goods will substitute for your lack of basic human needs. Of course, these consumer goods only serve to impoverish you all the more, a condition you erroneously try to fix by buying MORE consumer goods.
7. The Curse of More: Americans don’t emphasize quality. Instead, they obsess over quantity. Take Dominoes Pizza. We care about the size and price of the pizza, not its quality. See page 88, bottom.
8. The Libido Ostentandi, Latin word for ostentatious is ostentatio, pompous, obnoxious showing off; hence the definition translates into “the need to show off” or the need to impress other people with things you’ve accumulated.  Again I refer you to Sweet Sixteen and other similar vile shows like Real Housewives of New Jersey.

 

 Part Two. Essay Option for Essay #2:

Compare the moral decrepitude described in Shames’ essay to one of the following films: A Simple Plan, Wall Street, or Goodfellas.

 

In your first page, describe a scene of excess, which embodies the grotesqueries of More. Then in your next page begin your thesis, which might go like this: Goodfellas exemplifies the Curse of More, which entails _____________________, ________________________, __________________________, and ___________________________________.

  

Part Three. Sample Introduction with a transition: The Gastronomical Inferno

 

My gym looks like an enchanting pleasure dome, an extravaganza of taut, sweaty bodies scandalously exposed in spandex tights contorting on space-age cardio machines, oil-slicked skin shrouded in a synthetic fog of dry ice colored by the dizzying splash of lavender disco lights. Tribal drum music plays loudly. Bottled water flows freely, as if from some Elysian spring, over burnished flesh. The communal purgation appeals to me. My fellow cardio junkies and I are so self-abandoned, free, and euphoric, liberated in our gym paradise.  
                 But right next to our workout heaven is a gastronomical inferno, one of those all-you-can-eat buffets, part of a chain, which is, to my lament, sprouting all over Los Angeles. I despise the buffet, a trough for people of less discriminating tastes who saunter in and out of the restaurant at all hours, entering the doors of the eatery without shame and blind to all the gastrointestinal and health-related horrors that await them. Many of the patrons cannot walk out of their cars to the buffet but have to limp or rely on canes, walkers, wheelchairs, and other ambulatory aids, for it seems a high percentage of the customers are afflicted with obesity, diabetes, arthritis, gout, hypothalamic lesions, elephantiasis, varicose veins and fleshy tumors. Struggling and wheezing as they navigate across the vast parking lot that leads to their gluttonous sanctuary, they seem to worship the very source of their disease.

 In front of the buffet is a sign of rules and conduct. One of the rules urges people to stand in the buffet line in an orderly fashion and to be patient because there is plenty of food for everyone. Another rule is that children are not to be left unattended and running freely around the buffet area. My favorite rule is that no hands, tongues, or other body parts are allowed to touch the food. Tongs and other utensils are to be used at all times. The rules give you an idea of the kind of people who eat there. These are people I want to avoid.

Recently I witnessed an extended family, all fat, coming out of the buffet. They were limping, bloated, sickly, full of crapulence. The matriarch, the grandmother, had a huge travel bag full of donuts and biscuits that she had pilfered from the buffet tray. Apparently, she hadn’t stuffed herself enough. The donuts and biscuits were falling out of her over-packed tote bag as she hobbled across the parking lot. You could see the baked goods rolling across the asphalt like rot-gut bowling balls.  This grandma’s butt was too big to get into the back seat of the banged-up, rusted Mercury Topaz, so she had to swing the door all the way open. Seemingly oblivious, she rammed the right door into the left door of  a brand new dark gray Honda Accord parked in the next space. The Topaz door was wedged right into the once-pristine Accord and I could see sparks and gray paint chips flying off it. All the while the grandmother, straining with her cane, was lowering herself into the Topaz while grunting like a pig. She squatted lower and lower while gagging and squealing. Spittle flew out of her mouth along with bits of semi-masticated biscuit clods.

The scene became even more grotesque. Grandma’s weight sunk the back of the Topaz so low that the car’s rear hit the asphalt and this made the door wedge deeper and deeper into the Accord. By now the door had violently gashed that poor new Honda. I was just standing there with my gym bag in my hand wondering if I was the only person who saw what was going on. It then occurred to me that someone’s Accord was getting thrashed. I rushed into the gym and explained the situation to the manager and he let me tell everyone what had happened over the PA system. A guy ran off the StairMaster while screaming hysterically and I followed him to the parking lot. The family was still sitting in the Topaz. They were so stuffed from their feeding that they were now “recovering” inside the car with the windows down, fanning themselves with the buffet’s take-out menus. The Honda owner was irate. He screamed at them and they just looked at him with bovine indifference, their chins glistening with drool. A bunch of clueless gluttons destroying and devouring everything that comes into their path.

Just what is the appeal of consuming slop until one is moribund and incapacitated? It seems a uniquely American experience. It seems Laurence Shames, author of “The More Factor,” has got a handle on our gluttonous, insatiable appetites. He explains that America’s frontier, fueled by the myth of Manifest Destiny, created an appetite for conquering vast lands. In the absence of virgin forestry, we, as Americans, still have the hunger to conquer and exploit, but now we’ve circumvented that rapacity into consumer excess and in the process, I would add, we regress into our troglodyte ancestors.

The emotional and spiritual retardation Shames describes with such trenchant lucidity is well rendered in the film Goodfellas, which shows that the More Factor is an insidious curse comprised of _________________________, ________________________________, _______________________, and __________________________________.

 

 Part Four. Class activity: 

In groups of two, brainstorm a time you witnessed the More Factor. Describe a scene of excess that you’ve seen; mall, bowling alley, buffet, sporting event, party, gambling event, car show.