VLVL Ditzah

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2004-02-17 at 16:35, jbor wrote:
> on 18/2/04 2:27 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> > Danish and sangria of course had nothing to do with any of it.
> 
> Not in isolation, of course, but the accumulation of descriptive details
> emphasises her materialism: Ditzah in the present day is "divorced and
> solvent", she lives in a "Spanish split-level up a pleasant cul de sac on
> the high-rent side of Ventura Boulevard" and owns a "vintage T-Bird". She
> wears "eyeglasses with fashion frames and a muumuu with parrots all over it"
> (194). This is our introduction to the character and it's framed in terms of
> her possessions and financial status (and ostentatiousness).
> 
> Back in the '60s the twins stored their explosives in "Tupperware containers
> in the icebox", wore battle fatigues and "oversize" hairdos and, with
> Frenesi, held enough capital between them to set up 24fps and run a convoy
> of vehicles, including "a dinged and chromeless but nonetheless kick-ass
> Stingray" (194-5). Their primary points of reference, in general, and in
> comparing "apartment living" in NYC and life in California, are the
> grandness of shopping centres and comfort food (hot fudge sundaes,
> Danishes), and whether or not people's pets need to go to shrinks (196). As
> they work, having somewhere acquired extensive proficiency with expensive
> film-making equipment, "[t]hey liked to chain smoke and to have two to three
> television sets" and a radio on (197). Ditzah's reminiscences focus largely
> on episodes of excessive drug consumption.
> 
> Satire operates here in the juxtaposition of their materialism and elitist
> attitudes against their pseudo-socialist pretensions. The Danish controversy
> was always only a quibbling sideshow.


And it continues to be.