Banana Surplus Value Aesthetics 香蕉剩余价值美学
2023/12
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Photo taken in Putian
There is a stack of bananas that has great significance in my life. When I was in third or fourth grade in primary school, I loved going to the grocery store with my parents. I would often hold my parents’ hands on the way back, even though I was worried about running into my classmates, who would see that I was still a mommy’s boy. One time, after shopping at the supermarket, my parents were walking home together with their shopping bags, and I was following behind them. A stack of bananas suddenly fell out of the bag because of the bumps. I still remember the exact place where this happened, right next to the best junior high school in my hometown, the one I couldn’t go to because my family didn’t have the money to pay the sponsorship fee.
My mom hurriedly picked up those bananas on the ground, and as she did so, she said, “Shoot, why it was the bananas that fell out 哎呀，为什么偏偏是香蕉掉出来了.” I don’t know why I remember this phrase very well and it is still fresh in my mind until today.
Why bananas in particular 为什么偏偏是香蕉? Because if bananas are dropped, they become blackened, so you cannot eat them. Even if I can’t eat them, so what? Just throw it away. But for some reason, at that moment I noticed a little bit of remorse in my mom’s tone.
Bananas? What’s so special about a stack of bananas? Just buy another stack. Is it possible that bananas are an expensive thing? That night, I was horrified to realize that it seemed like yes - bananas were not an ordinary thing for my family. I just hadn’t been aware of it before. This moment was probably the first time I began to have a concept of money, and to see things from their values instead of what they really are.
Later on, I left my hometown and went to Antarctica. Who would have thought that Antarctica, where not a blade of grass grows, would now be the new favorite place for the rich and famous to build resorts and settlements. The global carbon neutral agreement is bankrupt due to the effects of wars in various regions, and now even the temperature in Toronto, where I used to live, is twenty degrees in the winter. Antarctica’s infrastructure and supply chain of goods are very expensive to maintain, which, ironically but not too surprisingly, makes it a continent symbolizing power. Ice and snow are now symbols of wealth, as cold becomes a luxury in the context that the global average temperature is in the high thirties.
Gradually, I realized that there are so many things that are expensive not because of their use value, but because of the surplus value assigned to them beyond their actual practical value. Those that cannot be caught are the real ones. Therefore, I started chasing and manifesting abundance. I have a fit body: fit body = going to the gym often = having enough time + having enough energy = having a good job = surplus of time = surplus of money; I am vegetarian: vegetarian = no need to buy cheap meat industrial products developed for the poor = can afford vegetarian products + having enough time and energy to cook vegetarian food = surplus of time = surplus of money. I think what quantum physics says about time not existing is all a figment of scientists’ imagination who have spent too much time in their ivory towers. You see, money can buy time. If time does not exist, what am I buying? However, I do agree with Einstein that space and time are the same, because I always fly first class: first class = surplus of space = surplus of money. Given that surplus of money equals surplus of time, surplus of space thus equals surplus of time, and therefore space equals time.
A world that believes in surplus value is utopia for me, because it has clear rules and clear goals. Too much freedom is instead scary. I’m now still working in Antarctica. I am not a talker; I do not express my joys and my anger; silence is my supreme social code. I have a new ambition in life. I want to theorize all these phenomena and bring them all into my gaze. Because theory seems to me to be the supreme form of surplus value. I’ve already thought of a name for this theory – it’s called Banana Surplus Value Aesthetics, and it’s as simple as a stack of bananas.
