To get started, let me say that I’m only just at Dylarama in my reading. Thus far, the Gladneys (or Jack Gladney and his step-family with Babette) have visited the Red Cross Boy Scouts camp and have been shuttled to the abandoned karate studio to escape the black chemical cloud. There’s a lot to be said about this story and the complicated themes moving through it, but what I am focusing on most is the parent-child relationships within the Gladney family and how the fast-paced information culture is a variable of argument, interest, and amusement in these relationships. In Jack’s relationship with his son Heinrich, it seems that the two suffer each other, a father-son relationship difficult from all angles. Jack trumps whatever bundle of knowledge Heinrich places at his feet, in what reads as a battle of wit. I wondered though, why Jack cared so much about possessing a greater intellect than his offspring, but the more I learned about Jack with his professor’s robe and thick glasses, the more I understood how he created a story of himself for himself, the image of J.A.K. Gladney as opposed to what lies beneath his disguise. At other moments between Jack and his children, I was caught off guard.
Towards the end of their stay at the Boy Scout camp, he observes Steffie sleeping, a spiritual moment that he believes is important. “In my current state, bearing the death impression of Nyodene cloud, I was ready to search anywhere for signs and hints, intimations of odd comfort” (154). After Steffie utters “Toyota Celica,” Jack comments that the brand name spoken by his sleeping daughter is a truth that “amazed (him) more.” His mind wanders as the reality of how far reaching marketers, television, and commercial forces are warping his children and his world. It is a moment where Jack, by observing his children and their relationship to media, recognizes his own disparity.
Since I am reading on, I will not comment on whether or not Jack’s disparity can be traced to the overwhelming media presence in his life, or whether this scene shows a picture of how parents may view themselves and the nature of their world by watching as their children experience their world, anew. There are other moments in the book where the narrative seems to point to this kind of reading; for example, when Denise warns Babette not to chew sugarless gum and Babette responds by reminding her daughter how just weeks before it was sugary gum that was a product to avoid. It’s funny how commerce and information or misinformation plays into our lives, and then again, it’s a bit troubling to think about how this kind of culture is affecting the next generation. So, this is what I am thinking about so far . . .