Alexander Morán Vinzents

3.U
Niels Brock DIG

Floating in a Privileged Paradise

Picture yourself floating effortlessly on a luxurious rubber raft, flowing on a meandering
watercourse, the sun's gentle caress kissing your skin as you surrender to the soothing
embrace of pure laziness. In this oasis of leisure, time slows, there are no real worries, and
you are oblivious to the real world's evil and cruelness. It sounds nice, right? The burdensome
weight of truth is lifted, and the mind is spared the relentless pursuit of the search for
understanding – the essence of escapism.
This is the world the guests of the hotel live in. In the short story "The Lazy River" written by
the African-British author Zadie Smith; we are offered a thought-provoking exploration of a
seemingly mundane vacation experience at an all-inclusive hotel in southern Spain. While on
the surface, the story appears to portray the leisurely activities of the guests, it delves deeper
into the societal implications and privileges inherent in the vacationers' behaviours.

Smith's intriguing story takes us on a journey where the Lazy River becomes more than just a
physical stream of water. It becomes a powerful symbol - both literal and metaphorical. The
Lazy River represents an artificial and tranquil escape from life's realities, allowing guests to
float blissfully in an artificial current. The river's artificiality serves as a reflection of the
guests' privilege, accentuating the stark disparities in society. It functions as a physical
manifestation of this escapism, a response to the lack of awareness, whether conscious or
subconscious, of the privileged lives they live. In the face of a glimpse of the truth, the guests
resort to escapism as a way to shield themselves from the discomfort of acknowledging their
privilege and the struggles of others, and even when they get a glimpse of the truth, they are
ultimately catapulted back into their state of faux, or rather, chosen state of obliviousness.
This is exactly what we witness when the river turns green: “No, the sad consequence of the
green is that it concentrates the mind in a very unpleasant way upon the fundamental
artificiality of the Lazy River”1
The green river serves as a brief moment of reflection, challenging the vacationers'
immersion in their artificial paradise. It asks them to consider whether their escape from life's
realities and social problems is as genuine as it seems. It highlights the contrast between the
manufactured perfection of the resort and the cruelness of the real world, in a way that is

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Alexander Morán Vinzents
3.U
Niels Brock DIG
uncomfortable for the British. This disruption of artificial magnificence is simply too
intolerable, so they resort back to escapism.

What makes this escapism even more pronounced is the fact that once they enter the hotel,
guests seldom venture beyond its borders; they stay. This creates a microcosm where the
privileged British can disconnect from the real world. It represents a detachment from the
tumultuous currents of socioeconomic struggles that exist just beyond the confines of the
resort. Guests are submerged in a self-contained bubble of leisure, which keeps them
insulated from the challenges faced by those outside the resort. Guests choose to remain
ignorant of the broader societal issues they encounter during their vacation. This self-imposed
ignorance allows them to continue enjoying their getaway, without having to grapple with the
ethical dilemmas or moral responsibilities associated with their privilege. The guests are fully
aware of the privilege they possess, they just refuse to acknowledge it. It is not like the
labourers are invisible to the guests, the privileged are fully aware of the bicycle-riding
people streaming in and out between the polytunnels, working tirelessly to the point of
sweating blood. As the narrator directly states “For we, too, saw the polytunnels”2 This
visibility creates a juxtaposition: the guests are fully aware of the labourers' presence and
their harsh working conditions. But instead, they are caught in this blissful self-imposed
ignorance.

This is not the case for all guests, the sufficiently educated Londoners, who have a broader
perspective on society’s and life's complexities, try to swim against the current - attempting to
distance themselves from this privilege: “There are a few souls from London, university
educated and fond of things like metaphors and remaining in Europe and swimming against
the current”3. Their choice to swim against the current is a metaphor for resisting the system
of marginalization of minorities and acknowledging their own systematic and structural
privilege, as represented by the Lazy River. The current is simply too strong: “The Lazy
River is a circle, it is wet, it has an artificial current. Even if you don’t move you will get
somewhere and then return to wherever you started”4. Even these people cannot abstract
themselves from the strong current of the river. They too are caught in the vicious cycle of

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Page 3, Line 64-65
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Page 1, Line 3-4

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3.U
Niels Brock DIG
ignorance, even when resisting the social conformity that is in part perpetuated by the very
culture that shaped them.

The hotel is carefully designed for the guests' enjoyment. It is a place where guests can float
effortlessly in a controlled, enormous current, experiencing comfort and relaxation to the
limit. However, this idyllic retreat is not just a place of refuge from the chaos of the outside
world; it also serves as a poignant symbol of privilege. It is an oasis that isolates them from
injustices and inequalities that exist beyond the resort's boundaries. The lazy river symbolises
the privilege of being able to escape, disconnect, and remain ignorant of the broader societal
issues that others face. It highlights the complexities and contradictions inherent in the pursuit
of leisure and the evasion of responsibility.