No Coke in Joyce Carol Oates

The other day when I was at a meeting at work donating blood, learning useful things, and otherwise enjoying the company amid laughter and proverbial paper footballs, I also had a pressing issue on my mind still waiting to be resolved.  Hopefully, it will be resolved soon.  But in the meantime, after the meeting, to clear my mind, I wandered over to the library and browsed the stacks a bit.

Joyce Carol Oates, the author with no Coke

I picked up a Joyce Carol Oates novella and started reading.  It helped some.  While reading, I wondered if there would be any soda references, perhaps a Coca-Cola being dropped somewhere.  I've seen it done before in a little Updike and Carson McCullers.  But no dice...there is no Coke in Joyce Carol Oates, at least this one. But there were references to Philomela, Ovid's poor character in Metamorphoses.  And references to other various signs of 1970s collegiate decadence, but alas, nothing to tie into the blog.  

Now, you might be sensibly wondering what literature has to do with a little soda can collection.  Obviously, nothing.  BUT...if you have ever read your Moby Dick, which all good folks should do, you notice that Melville does something unique.  Everything in the novel is described through the lens of whaling.  A little like how everything in Ulysses by Joyce is seen through the lens of the Odyssey.  So why not see other things, such a literature, through the lens of something equally useless and mundane such as soda cans?  Really, why not? Oh you laugh?  Bring it.