BE chapter 7 Melanie's Mall

[Mark Kohut]

The chapter ends with an allusion to The Wizard of OZ.....Dorothy's ability
to magically transport herself, clicking her heels three times......and, of
course, that unreal land that is OZ....

On Tue, Dec 7, 2021 at 9:10 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> There are some things about Fiona and Otis’s playing that reflects a not
> so subtle rebellion against being infantilized. Vyrva’s consolation to
> Fiona for her own and Justin’s absence is toys that are more suited for
> younger children, Otis has taken an interest in Melanies Mall but with a
> twist because  Fiona and Otis are taking in more adult stories , fears,
> aggressions etc. and trying to game out in their play how they want to deal
> with the world they find themselves in.   “
>
> "Melanie herself is a half-scale Barbie with a gold credit card she uses
> for clothes, makeup, hairstyling, and other necessities, though the secret
> identity Otis and Fiona have given her is a bit darker and requires some
> quick costume changes. “
>  including ,we find out, an ammo belt.
>  "Otis having introduced into the suburban girl idyll a number of
> four-and-a-half-inch action figures, many from the cartoon show Dragonball
> Z, including Prince Vegeta, Goku and Gohan, Zarbon, and others. Scenarios
> tend to center on violent assault, terrorist shoplifting sprees, and yup
> discombobulation, each of which ends in the widespread destruction of the
> Mall, principally at the hands of Fiona’s alter ego the eponymous Melanie,
> in cape and ammo belts, herself. Among fiercely imagined smoke and
> wreckage, with generic plastic bodies horizontal and disassembled
> everywhere, ….
>
> The mall is a perfect metaphor for a consumer culture clearly bounded with
> banished cultural fears- a culture with which these yup children and many
> of the characters in BE have a love hate relationship. They feel trapped
> and summon classic  monsters of the subconscious to tear down the walls and
> walk away singing.
>
> “,... Otis and Fiona kiss off each episode by high-fiving and singing the
> tag from the Melanie’s Mall commercial, “It’s cool at the Mall.”
> The singing is sarcastic but probably liberating too.
>
> Upstairs the ‘adults’ ( are they also infantalized by the comforts of
> endless need-fulfilling fantasies?) are seeking their own avenues of
> escape.  Escape from or escape deeper into?
>
>
> > On Dec 5, 2021, at 5:43 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Questions about chapter 7
> >
> > 1) thoughts on fiona and Otis’s play? I saw an online image of Melanie’s
> mall, ultra bright plastic pinks, light blues, reds,
> > very child oriented, like beanie babies.
> >
> >
> > 5) If there was ever an analog and digital  hypertext writer, Pynchon
> has to lead all challengers. As far as I know he is the unchallenged king
> of the hypertext novel.( text references as important as plot)  Is this a
> different way of thinking born out of WW2, Post Einstein physics,
> multiculturalism, psychedelics, jazz, that was inevitable and has the
> potential of such a model of thought simply been subverted by binary
> culture wars. The early academic and human scale internet felt so different
> to me. True I was younger , but there is more to it than that.
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> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
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>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>