Dream Wish List — A Postmodern Deconstruction

The latest Internet meme circulating around New York — and elsewhere — is a Christmas list.

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It is a — self titled — "Dream Wish List."

Here is a sampling of items:

•"Gold or Silver or Sparkly Christian Louboutins"

[A handwritten margin note indicates a cost of $795.]

• "A necklace like this:"

[Like all items on the list, a URL link is helpfully included. A handwritten note indicates a cost of $2400.]

• "Hermes Avalon Blanket — Orange — $1125"

And so on.

The list may have gone viral after getting picked up by Gawker — but is was originally published by a blog called Velvet in Dupont, after it was allegedly found on the Metro North train.

Whether the list is a forgery, a hoax, an example of high concept performance art — or gospel true reportage — is almost irrelevant.

It's a cultural indicator — a zeitgeist.

(That it was alleged to have been found on a train along the New York / Connecticut Hedge Fund Axis either lends the story credence — or reinforces its auteur's claim on cleverness.)

Either way.

Here's the point: We believe such a woman could exist.

You may envy her or loath her. (It's kind of a Rorschach test.)

After all this is, au fond, a Medieval morality play. (Either as constructed or as framed.)

This Christmas, as the jobless recovery grinds on, some New Yorkers are suffering.

Others have faired quite well. (Through some combination of hard work and blind luck —apportioned according to your worldview.)

The interpolators of this story — bloggers and commenters alike — want you to remember this socioeconomic backdrop. (In fact, it seems they want you to feel a certain level of revulsion.)

Ultimately, it's your choice. (You get to write the ending to this story whenever you tell it.)

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