![]() He gives the card away to a child who doesn’t know what it is, and he is free. “Their end is accumulation,” Biss writes, “collecting cards for a game they don’t know how to play.” In the end, J buys his dream card but is hassled so viciously for it at school that he winds up crying. The kids could battle one another with the Pokémon cards, but they don’t. ![]() These flimsy pieces of cardboard have no objective value each card is worth only what another child will give up for it. Some cards are sparkly, some more powerful in attacking others, some desirable simply because they are rare. The children argue about what the cards are worth. Before long, he is taking part in a miniature market exchange on the school playground. He finds out he can buy more cards using the money he gets for doing his chores. Her son, “J,” begins school and is given a starter pack of Pokémon trading cards by another boy. There is a scene in Eula Biss’s new book of essays, Having and Being Had, that makes me almost howl with recognition. ![]()
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