The Modern American Trimalchio
It is impossible to read the Cena
Trimalchionis (from Petronius' 1st century CE satire The Satyricon) in present day America without thinking of Donald Trump. The
similarities between Trimalchio and Trump are striking. They are both
ostentatious, bombastic, fond of surrounding themselves with sycophants, and successful
to a degree that is perplexing given their apparent lack of intelligence. But I
think the comparison is unjust to Trimalchio. (If I were delivering this
commentary out loud, of course there would be a pause before “to Trimalchio”
for comedic effect.)
Allow me to propose a somewhat more
charitable modern celebrity analogue for Trimalchio: Gwyneth Paltrow. If you
are only aware of Gwyneth Paltrow as a statuesque blonde actress most
frequently described as “luminous” (Pepper Potts in the Marvel films, a number
of roles in Wes Anderson films, the female lead of 1998 academy award winner Shakespeare in Love) the comparison might
seem laughably inapt. But Gwyneth Paltrow is not just an actress. She is a very
successful business woman who founded a company currently valued at $250
million. More importantly, she is a
Cultural Phenomenon. I am not intending to argue that Trimalchio and Paltrow
are similar as individuals. Rather, I contend that they are similar in the
place they occupy in the cultural imagination and in the hostility and disdain
they arouse in many. The same anxieties about class divisions and conspicuous
consumption come into play, as does the human impulse to be feel threatened and
lash out with a countering claim to superiority.
Both Trimalchio and Paltrow occupy a
cultural niche that attracts both contempt and fawning adoration. Trimalchio is
a freedman, his origin at the bottom of the ladder, but he has climbed to the
stratosphere of wealth. His freedman status limits the actual respect people
have for him, but his wealth magnifies the respect others pretend to have for
him. ("Pecunia non olet," the Romans used to say. Money doesn't stink.) Paltrow is also wealthy and from a well known acting
family. But celebrities are often just as reviled as they are adored in our
culture. Actors who dare to venture an opinion about anything outside their
chosen profession are often derided and dismissed.
Paltrow’s
business, Goop, is pretty easy to deride and dismiss. Taffy Brodesser-Akner
describes it thus in her recent New York Times profile:
a wellspring of both
totally legitimate wellness tips and completely bonkers magical thinking:
advice from psychotherapists and advice from doctors about how much Vitamin D
to take (answer: a lot! Too much!) and vitamins for sale and body brushing and
dieting and the afterlife and crystals and I swear to God something called
Psychic Vampire Repellent, which is a “sprayable elixir” that uses “gem
healing” to something something “bad vibes.”
Paltrow’s world,
represented by her personal brand, is as ostentatious, over-the-top, and absurd
as anything at Trimalchio’s dinner. Paltrow has been pilloried and satirized by
nearly every publication out there: Slate, Jezebel, The Guardian, GQ. But The
Washington Post ran the headline: "Go ahead and hate Goop. Gwyneth Paltrow is
having the last laugh".
As much as we laugh at Trimalchio,
maybe he’s having the last laugh too. And maybe he deserves it. Maybe he and
Paltrow both do. They’re just trying to make other people’s lives better. (So
what if they want to be loved and admired for it?)
They’re just trying to live
their best life.
Brodesser-akner, Taffy.
“How Goop's Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow's Company Worth $250 Million.” The New York Times, The New
York Times, 25 July 2018,
www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/magazine/big-business-gwyneth-paltrow-wellness.html?rref=collection/byline/taffy-brodesser-akner&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.
