sin city (re: deadly games)

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "zoyd's reference to the uzi submachine gun, 'badass of the desert', as it is 
known in its native israel, had been appropiate. isaiah's business idea was to 
set up first one, eventually a chain, of violence centers, each on a scale, 
perhaps, of a small theme park, including automatic-weapon firing ranges, 
paramilitary fantasy adventures, gift shops and food courts, and video game 
rooms for the kids, for isaiah envisioned a family clientele. also part of the 
concept were a standardized floor plan and logo, for franchising purposes. 
isaiah sat at the cable-spool table, making diagrams with tortilla chips and 
pitching his dreams --- 'third world thrills', a jungle obstacle course where 
you got to swing on ropes, fall into the water, blast away at surprise pop-up 
targets shaped like indigeneous guerrilla elements...'scum of the city', which 
would allow the visitor to wipe from the world images of assorted urban 
undesirables, including pimps, perverts, dope dealers, and muggers, all 
carefully multiracial so as to offend everybody, in an environment of dark 
alleys, lurid neon, and piped-in saxophone music...and for the aggro 
connoisseur, 'hit list', in which you could customize a lineup of videotapes of 
the personalities in public life you hated most, shown on apiece on the screens 
of old used tv sets bought up at junkyard prices and sent past you by conveyor 
belt, like ducks at the carnival, so your pleasure at blowing away these 
jabbering, posturing likeness would be enhanced by all the imploding picture 
tubes ..."
                    (vineland, pp. 18f., secker & warburg edition) 

 well, isaiah's profitable idea could, if realized, perhaps work as a kind of 
 "ventilation institution", decreasing through its offering of discharge 
 possibilities the actual violence in society. only among those who can pay, of 
 course. and then only perhaps. but at least pynchon's view here is, imo, not a 
 completely negative one along the lines of satirical, cultural criticism.      
  
 on that electric chair toy i like to add the historical fact that there were 
 lots of toy guillotines at times of the french revolution (cf. ernst schulin:  
 die französische revolution. münchen 1989: c.h. beck, page 228). well, and 
 there is, of course, a long debate on the educational value of war toys 
 ("kriegsspielzeug"). personally i think that the thing itself - the death  
 penalty (the greatest social porn of all) or the war (right: here it depends) - 
 is the actual "obscenity" while its aesthetic representations is harmless. 
 maybe not only harmless but even - helpful. the toy confronts us in a new 
 way with what's actually happening out there..."heuristic alienation effect",  
 if you like, or perhaps the "re-entry" of the excluded...death penalty must  
 vanish.


kfl


>"the toy industry has scaled the greatest height of bad taste ever: a miniature 
> electric chair. strapped into it is a six inch plastic doll named death row 
> marv, based on a comic book character who murdered his girlfriend's killer. as 
> the electricity is applied, his eyes start glowing and his body convulses, and 
> a voice chip allows him to laugh and to taunt his executioners: 'that's all 
> you 
> got, pansies?' death row marv has proven to be extremely popular in the united 
> states with demand so great that there are waiting lists across the country. 
> the toy, intended for children '13 and up', has been criticised by amnesty 
> international as well as the national organisation of parents of murdered 
> children." (philosophy now, issue 30, dec/jan 01, page 6)