Authenticity, Identity, and Individuality

In many ways, the central thematic concern in Nothing Special is Mae’s continuing obsession with identity, authenticity, and individuality. As she transcribes tapes of Andy Warhol and his artistic associates, Mae believes that they represent the pinnacle of cool, unforced authenticity; they seem unbothered by social mores and conventions. She shows a particular affinity for Ondine, one of Warhol’s close friends and collaborators. Mae notes that Ondine’s sexual frankness helps to reveal much of acceptable society as “a big fat lie” (127). She observes that “everything was more available to [Ondine], because he was brave, selfish and volatile enough to take it” (127). Here, authenticity emerges as, in large part, the willingness to act in a “brave, selfish and volatile” (127) manner. Mae interprets Ondine and his fellow artists’ vulgarity and self-involvement as markers of actualized identities. Late in the novel, however, Flattery...