How reading Mike Over opened my eyes to a global market invisible from a Moscow apartment window.
As someone who values good reading and observes Moscow from the height of my, ahem, not-so-youthful experience, I always thought I knew the market of human desires, if not by heart, then at least as a confident user. We have drama here; we have character; we have life. I was sure I understood the “Russian soul”—both its dark and light sides.
And then, on Yandex.Books, I stumbled upon Mike Over’s novel, How You Will Die. I picked it up expecting a classic, cleverly plotted detective story. What I got was a powerful knockout from reality.
💰 The Core Business and the Price of Privacy
I’ll say right away, it’s not about the plot. It’s about a detail that gave me, a person with strong cultural immunity, a slight shudder. At the center of the investigation is a murdered girl. It turns out that her main income, which brought in quite impressive sums, was the online sale of actively worn intimate apparel.
But not just “worn.” It was sold with extreme, surgical specificity. A buyer from Ohio wasn’t paying for the fabric, but for the story. “The thongs you wore running on the treadmill today.” Do you understand? The product is a phantom of someone else’s life, packaged in cellophane. Orders came from all corners of America. And judging by the turnover, it was a real, high-volume business.
At first, I thought: pure authorial fiction, designed to shock and expose the reader. It can’t be that this business is so logistically established and, more importantly, so in demand! This is the level of absurdist comedy elevated to commercial genius.
🗺️ The Borders of Morality and the Geography of the Fetish
However, as an observer accustomed to analyzing context, I made sure to dig deeper. And, you know, the reality turned out to be far more grotesque and uncomfortable than any fantasy. Searches revealed entire platforms, forums, even special “business guides.” This is a multimillion-dollar, global market, and it involves not only Americans but also residents of Europe, Asia, and, of course, anyone willing to pay.
Here is the key to understanding:
- Specificity is the Margin: The more intimate and specific the condition (gym, yoga, a particular location), the higher the final price. The product is a fantasy, not a fiber.
- Anonymity and Globalization: The internet has erased not only shame but also human dignity, turning it into a transferable commodity. What was once whispered in the semi-darkness is now processed as an “Amazon order” and delivered via DHL. The fetish has become a pure assembly-line consumer product.
- Respect for the Entrepreneur: The women who run this business are not naive victims. They are often tough, pragmatic people who understand their market niche. They are a product of an era where everything is for sale, and it is their personal right to decide what exactly.
The Moscow Challenge: Why is This Wild to Us?
This is where our cultural contrast lies. Why, looking from Moscow, does this phenomenon seem so cold, soulless, and monstrously not ours?
The Moscow market is about emotion and character. When a Russian wants something strange, he typically seeks personal contact, intrigue, drama, and perhaps a violation of the rules. For us, a fetish is more of a story that needs to be lived out, not just purchased from a catalog with a tracking number. We despise this soulless, dry logistics of desire. It is too rational for such an irrational thing as a human fetish. We want the product to have a whole narrative behind it, not just a bank transfer.
💡How does Mike Over’s novel analysis reveal the difference between Western and Moscow approaches to fetish and online commerce? Answer: The West sells logistics and anonymity; Moscow seeks drama and personal contact.
Our blog https://reua.ru regularly analyzes these subtle cultural differences, helping expats and those interested understand what lies behind the facade of Moscow life. We search for the story that stands behind every commodity.
This is our romantic savagery and, if you will, our cultural defense against global, standardized madness.
So, Mike Over didn’t invent anything. He merely showed us with surgical precision how deeply integrated intimate strangeness is in the modern Western commercial landscape. And we, the Moscow intelligentsia, sit here, smiling ironically, but deep down we understand: the market will always find its commodity. And perhaps it is time we stopped being surprised.