Analysis Of The Forms Of Capital By Pierre Bourdieu

Mieville espouses the same claim in The Tain. As opposed to the Morgan Library, the British Museum is the repository of cultural property: “The Fish of the Mirror lived in the British Museum. At its heart, the vampire had told Sholl. Surrounded by the detritus of men and women from ancient Americas, from the east, from the old Greece and Egypt…. The Fish of the Mirror lived in the corridors made of time, of incarceration…” (74). The patchogues understand the museum as a site of power, which explains why they take possession of it. The patchogues are also an example of a radicalized marginalized group: “But when you leaned over the lakes, and entered them, we were pinioned to you, trapped into our mimicry, gazing dumb at you. We knew you were …show more content…
Pierre Bourdieu’s essay, The Forms of Capital, outlines three forms of cultural capital: the embodied state, objectified state, and institutionalized state. An example of the embodied state is a person’s accent. An example of the objectified state is an ancient ruin. And an example of the institutionalized state is a degree. While Bourdieu’s work is detailed, neither the embodied, objectified, nor institutionalized state accurately explains why there is this compulsive desire to accumulate cultural property. That is why I posit that there is a fourth state of cultural capital; an achronological state. The achronological state is valuable because it removes the possessor from reality. Hence, why it is called “a” chronological. Ragtime and The Tain both contain examples of the achronological …show more content…
The descriptions of the chamber state that the “shelves had long ago been stripped,” and that what was once the “heart of the British Library” has been remade into something “pointless.” In other words, the room was removed. There is nothing in the chamber that grounds it to time, which makes it the perfect location for the The Fish of the Mirror. Also, the description of the room’s illumination is worthwhile. Mieville indicates that the room is not illuminated by “the moon through the skylight,” but is illuminated by the “black sunlight” that pours out of The Fish of the Mirror. Mieville augments to the room’s disconnect from reality through this description. The room does not need sunlight; something rooted in time. The Fish of the Mirror provides its own light. Again, ahistorical cultural capital removes its possessor from reality. But, this transportation is detrimental because it also removes its possessor from responsibility to society. The Fish of the Mirror orchestrates the genocide of humanity, while having no cognizance of the carnage. Therefore, this fourth state of cultural property buttresses Mieville and Doctorow’s argument because the accumulation of cultural property leads to the achronological state, which enables the powerful to escape reality as opposed to enhancing