Exploring Themes in Brian Fawcett's Cambodia: A Collection of Essays

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Brian Fawcett's 'Cambodia: A Book for People Who Find Television Too Slow', a collection of thirteen essays. The author critiques modernization, television, and technological advancements, arguing they contribute to societal degeneration and the rise of a 'global village.' Fawcett employs magic realism, allusions, and juxtapositions to critique multiculturalism, capitalism, and the communication system. The essay delves into Fawcett's arguments on commodification, the influence of media, and the dystopian aspects of modern society, exploring themes of technology's impact on consciousness and civilization's decay. Through examination of stories like 'Starship' and 'The Huxley Satellite Dish,' the essay highlights Fawcett's concerns about corporate conspiracies, the illusion of progress, and the erosion of genuine human experience in a technologically driven world. The essay concludes by emphasizing Fawcett's call to look beyond superficial realities and question the consequences of our desires in a world increasingly shaped by technology and media.

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Author Note

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Cambodia: a Book for People who Find Television too Slow, is a book written by Brian
Fawcett. It is a collection of thirteen essays, which have a tonality of seriousness and humor at
the same time. It is a brilliant piece of work as the author intense to challenge to make the
readers for see the world in a different way as they complete reading the book. The stories are
very interesting and the readers feel quite glued while making progress through the pages. It
becomes quite evident as a book is read, that Fawcett despises modernization, television,
technological advancements and blames them for degeneration of the world.
According to Fawcett, mass communication and television are the reasons behind the
production of Global Village. He criticizes capitalism and the communication system, which is
the reason behind shrinking of society and civilization. This makes people inhabiting the world,
nothing short of ‘guerillas' living in jungles, as have been put into words by Fawcett himself.
Fawcett, this critiques the modern world through his essays in the book. His thoughts and
perception of the world are put across through the readers in various ways with the help of the
thirteen stories.
The main strategy which has been employed by Fawcett in the book is to amalgamate
every life with magic realism. The stories which have been presented in the book are highly
imaginative as the author rights with the intention to critique multiculturalism, modernization as
well as colonialism. Even makes allusion and reference to various authors and events with a dire
yearning to change the hands of time. The structure is like The story goes at the top while the
subtext runs at the bottom which Anjali lines various aspects of colonialism and the lives in
South Asian region- almost like footnotes. Fawcett does not only am uses for excites his readers
but also makes them infuriated as he allows them to look beyond perception of the world. The

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contemporary times have been defined in terms of jungle with the help of juxtaposed images and
insights.
The story accelerates very quickly and the events unfold. The title of the book aptly is
suggestive of the content which is remarkably presented and comes across as enigmatic to the
readers. The stories have been presented in fictional settings yet depicting the degeneration of
Western civilization. The author makes complex links while presenting his arguments to
emphasize on the various factors which are responsible for the decay of the world. He joins
places like Cambodia, Confirm and Vietnam to reinforce that the world is the grasp of
technology and science and that is how administration runs people slaves to the system. This has
been very evident with underlying theme of techno strangulation acid present in his fictions.
People are, according to him, ignorant and oblivious negating their own consciousness because
of the illusions created by modernity and technology.
Fawcett, is authorial throughout the book as he manipulates the characters to the extent of
dramatizing them. He makes cultural and historical figures juxtapose ad Marsh and Paul get into
dialogue while making it profound and interesting for the readers. Fawcett defies the
conventional notion of narrative to prove his point how civilization has been eschewed. Fawcett
even makes a very interesting point about commodification as he acts that what become saleable
products are nothing but abstractions. The feelings of the buyers are commodified to transform
them into orientations for the consumers. Commodification is a reality in the contemporary
world, which makes Fawcett’s representation very pertinent. The way people use master cards,
out of buying habits with the help of credit has been presented in a manner that they are rather
engaging in philanthropy.

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The Entrepreneur of God is a very powerful depiction of the creation of well structured
religious system. As St. Paul and Marshall meet after Christ’s ascension, he discusses with the
media personnel to realize about the rise of messiahs, which pose threat to spiritual expression.
Thus, they identify the value of Crucifixion of Christ as an important moment, which can be
valued. Therefore, he expresses the need to establish an order which would comprise of the
people dear to him in the authority. This is a clever representation of how administration and it’s
apparatuses function. This brings out the real image of the cultural and political expansion in
America, which has been present in a satirical manner.
Here, Fawcett has been clever in the depiction of the characters, as Marshal and Paul are
seen in a cave, while they view inscriptions and images made on rock. This is an allusion made
to Plato’s story of the cave with which he tries to mean that man are slaves to the images which
are apparent to them as the believe them to be realities. One has to look beyond them and break
the shackles to see a world waiting outside the cave to be explored. Fawcett makes allusion to
Plato to emphasize on the very fact that Communication technology and media are forces which
have disillusioned people about the realities which are projected in front of them, as they accept
them to be the absolute.
Starship is a story in which Fawcett unveils the primary vices associated with technology
and coverages in television. The technology and coverages on television media create a dazzling
affect on the viewers. The content is dramatized to a great extent, in which reality is lot. The
stories which are represented are thus, filled with ambivalence. He tries to join the dots that
media is very much involved in conspiracies which are ensured by corporate government
entities. The story has been projected in such a manner that Fawcett is able to identify the misfit
in the story. The story draws similarities with that of the Diamond story. He thus, questions the

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image of Unified Germany, Democratic Russia and United Europe as he constantly tries to
reinforce that the world is lacking consciousness and that it is constantly being obliterated from
the civilization to make it more superficial.
Through Starship, Fawcett tries to make the readers understand the shared relationship
between people who enjoy celebrity statuses and how politics function in the society as nothing
but a form of entertainment medium. The image serves as a metaphor to put across the message
that whatever that goes up, has to come down too. And thus, if politicians enjoy such high
statuses, there will be a time, they will also have to come down and hit reality. And thus,
Kennedy also has to die. The story sends out very crucial messages as we are helped to learn to
look at things differently than we already know. We are often oblivious of the things we desire
and live for. However, we underestimate the prices we have to pay for it, some day. The
outcomes which one has to face are solely based on his or her lust and appetites. Kennedy’s vices
and actions, at the end leads him to his own doom.
The Huxley Satellite Dish is a powerful story which stands as a strong metaphor for the
contemporary world. In the story, Fawcett has presented the characters, who also happen to be
citizens of a regime which is governed on the basis of commodity and projects. The world is
extremely materialized, as have been depicted. The most pertinent question is whether the
citizens are happy or not. Rather the most significant point which comes to the kind is that the
citizens are mechanized. Fawcett has asserted that the outcome is dangerous out of such a
systems as the citizens only continue to become more vulnerable as well as made to feel
satisfied. They live under the national domains in Detroit, which makes them not be able to cast
their votes in the federal or local elections of the systems. It is horrific as Fawcett intends to

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point out that the world is increasingly growing to be Dystopic as the progress which we are
making are questionable.
It can thus be concluded by saying that, progress in the post modern era, debatable.
Fawcett has questioned how civilization has only degenerated with time. Forces such as
capitalism, multiculturalism and modernization decayed the world making people more
disillusioned about their realities. Fawcett pays close attention to the system to bring out the
follies while making references and allusions to great works, to bring out the real image of the
society and traces of modernization, which has only yielded to corporate conspiracies and
genocide. The collection of thirteen essays and short stories put across valuable meanings which
are to be drawn from them, as they enable the readers to delve deeper across those images
painted before us, to understand reality.

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Bibliography
Fawcett, B. (1989). Cambodia. Simon and Schuster.
Galbo, J. (1988). Cambodia: A Book for People who find Television too Slow by Brian
Fawcett. Border/Lines, (11).