Status Updates From Oval

"The city isn't postwar, post-Wall anymore-it's pre-something else," said Laura. "You're right that there's no place left. But this place isn't left either." …
"If every place is ruined, why not just sit it out here? Spain will be even worse."
"Better to be somewhere where the apocalypse has already happened than sit through another one." Laura sipped her coffee. "Dystopia takes some time to set in."

"That's the thing about corporate philanthropy, it's not obvious what you get out of it. You do it for a lot of reasons, like public image and employee morale. … If corporations are benevolent and investing in plant-a-tree day and nice buildings then people won't pressure government to do its job and interfere. Philanthropy is the cornerstone of neoliberalism, as they say."

„What did he do for her? Simple: he removed the pressure on herto perform. She was let off the hook. No performing her wealth, no performing outgoingness, no performing a grand vision for the world. These performances could be outsourced to him. … If this arrangement happened to conform to traditional gender roles, so be it. Sometimes the stereotype was also the truth.“