There is not too much I can say about the OC that hasn't already been said. A show about the modern "Aristocracy," a show that permits us to be fascinated and allured by rich, excessive lifestyles. I often say it's sort of a modern day Jane Austin type of allure. And it is a great source of escapism, watching these over-priviledged kids and the drama between them. I think it's interesting how we are shown the community of Newport - the viewer is supposed to identify with the outsider character.
The viewer and Ryan's character are both new to Newport, and view it with the same fascination and apprehensiveness. I don't think the show could have done nearly as well had it been only about the rich people int he OC. Since Ryan is poor and underpriviledged, there is a contrast in views. And his poorness and "hard life" make him cool, make the viewer sympathize with him. Both the viewer and Ryan view Newport with a critical eye, but at the same time are attracted to and drawn into the excess and glamour of the OC lifestyle. Ryan's character is what permits us to be so fascinated by the show. He is our window into the OC. At least in the pilot episode, the viewer is made to sympathize with him so much because he represtents what the OC is not. That's why he seems so "badass." But the msot interesting thing is that his characgter absolutely has to be white. It's the onyl way the viewers could sympathize with him, and it is probably the way Sandy Cohen would have brought him home. Can you imagine him being a Latin American character, perhaps the son of immigrants, working class, with an accent. If that character would have been brought into Newport, the Cohen family and the nieghborhood in General would surely have treated him differently, would surely have been less accepting. And the viewer would have a harder time connecting to him because more emphasis would be placed on cultural differences. The default is whiteness. You're far more likely to find an impoverished, troubled youth of color in Ryan's predicament, but the show would not have played out like it did.

The layout of Tropic of Orange is very interesting. By organizing the sections by time, it shows exactly what each character is doing at the same time. It shows how different things like rain and car crashes effect each character differently. The semis exploding hindered Gabriel's ability to do his job...it gave Emi something to do for her job. It meant nothing to Buzz, being in the Watts area and having to travel on foot. The rain surprised Emi and Gabriel from their seat in the fancy LA restauraunt, but it meant for the Margerita character that she had to pack up her things and move off the street, which meant she couldn't sell her fruit, which meant she couldn't make money that day. By not showing each character at different times, emphasis is made on the differences between each character's lives, the neighborhoods they live in, the realities they face each day, and the troubles they have.
The style of narration is very interesting. For some characters it is in the third person. Some it is the first. For Bobby it's a story being told by another person, a working class latino person. We, the reader, are mostly members of the literary community, most likely educated, and in many ways are part of an "elite." We never hear accounts of living in Watts and what the people in the streets are doing straight fromt he horses mouth, it had to be narraterd to us by a writer, by someone like Gabriel, or someone like Yamashita. The differences between the characters are accentuated further by different narration devices. You hear the events of Bobby through the retelling by someone else, just like we would be more likely to hear about Bobby in real life from someone other than Bobby. The Murukami character does not speak in the first person - we get a very lofty, colorful, and extremely writerly account of him from a narrator's voice. His experiences are not as important as what we as readers and writers and the "elite" make of them and have to say about them.

East-side to the west-side

Perhaps it's because I've hardly been to the east coast and have not truly experienced it at all, but from aloft I didn't get much of a different picture of the suburbs than the orange county suburbs described in the article. I personally cannot sense much of a difference based on geography.
The difference that I did get was mostly based on the disparity between the generations. The orange county suburbs that Walt Disney adored so much were created to give its residents a feeling of security, predictability, and convenience. Built next to the new freeway, residents could enjoy isolation from rougher urban envoronments, and yet could still get around enough to work in the city or go shopping. This instinct was generated from out of the unpredictability and turmoil of WWII and then the cold war. Facing a theoretical nueclear threat, and the potential threat of communists that could be anywhere -- anyone you know -- and having these fears come after the biggest and bloodiest war in history, the American people wanted predictability and comfort. Disneyland reflected this perfectly, especially inn their Tommorowland attractions. Corperations started to advertise more to the families -- products were inceasingly marketed towards elements of the private sector. People wanted a return to good old fashioned American values...and for people like Walt Disney and many of the Orange County settlers, this meant a return to the nueclear family with tradional gender roles and racial hierarchies.
To me, Hank Battle is the remnant from this generation. He often vocalizes his affinity for the old fashioned gender and race roles. (Look at Mrs. Battle) He has always had that drive to work hard and provide for his family. He represents the sentiments that Walt Disney utilized in disigning disneyland.
Jerry Battle represents the slightly displaced generation. Having been too young to really remember and experience the cold war fears and anxieties -- his life was largely lived in the convenience and simpler routines of the suburbs. His livelihood was handed down to him from his father. His existence and his worldview were simpler, but being raised int he suburbs after their creation, his life embodied a type of displacement. Since he didn't know the cold war turmoil which his parents' generation worked against, he has a harder type finding meaning in it all.
His children, plus the person who wrote the disneyland article, plus all of us, represents the next generation. We saw the creation of the suburbs and the displacement, blandness, and viodness of culture and diversity that the suburbs bred, and we make attempts through academics and historical research to make sense of it all.
Historical writing is interesting because you can see all the elements that put into place what I grew up in today. Reading fiction is like hearing my dad or someone speak about the past. I can piece together how things came to be in a skewed way, but the historical writing is refreshing because I see where the suburbs came from as far as the corperations who shaped the suburb specific identity constructions, the people who planned and built them, and the the political sentiments that dreamed them

Perspectives

My dad makes a lot of money now. He hasn't always, but we were at least always comfortable. There have been times where I secretly wished (but never fully admitted) that I was from a slightly more disadvantaged upbringing, so that I could have more "experience" with the "real world" and could thereby have more "things to say." This of course is rediculous. Most people would kill for an upbringing like mine, and if I feel a little guilty, then I should consider it my responsibilty to do something good with the opportunities I have. A young man my town who lived on the other side of the train tracks, coming from one of the families that perhaps worjs in our yard or scrubs our floors, or makes our meals in restauraunts, he would more than likely do something great if he had the resources I have.
As far as aloft goes, it really accentuates those different perspectives which I am beginning to become more aware of. I couldn't believe Jerry when he wondered if his daughter and her friends would turn in their "black edgar allen poe capes" for a chance at popularity and boys. The character is endearing, for he seems to honestly try his hardest, but his points of view are so shaped by his particular experience, he can never really see things from the point of view of someone like Paul, event hough his wife was asian. Only from my perspective can I consider my uprbinging "bleak and cultureless," when most other people would consider it the most desirable lifestyle in the world...winde cellar int he garage, pool and hottub outback, comfortable funriture, spacious rooms, quiet neighborhood, beautiful garden, etc...




If "third border" means a dividing line other than one drawn in the sand by the state, between two "different peoples," then I was rudely awakened to a third border on thanksgiving last year that made me relaize how deep these "borders" are engrained. Even more effective than strategic city planning and charging for park admissions, is the cultural sparations instilled on children by their parents. It helps them to recognize at an early age which side of the "border" different people belong.
It was last thanksgiving, which we always spend with my aunt's side of the family, up in Marin county. There was this one family there, to whom I have no blood relation, that is always there. They always represented to me the epitome of conservative, super christian whiteness, as conversation with them has revealed throughout the years. They have these two adorable little girls, and my brother and I were jumping on the trampolene with them in the backyard. I was talking to one of them, who was probably 8 or 9, asking her simple questions.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"Sonoma." She replied.

"Ooh, its so nice over there."

"Well, not really," she said. "There's a lot of hispanics now."

(What????)

"Waiiit, what? What's wrong with that?" I asked, not sure if I had even heard her correctly.

"Well, they litter a lot." She replied.

"They don't litter anymore than white people, you know. I don't really think thats true," I tried to tell her.

"No, and they talk differently then us. And dress differently."

The conversation was over at this point, as she went upstairs to be around her parents. I was pretty shocked. No 8 year old has opinions like that. It was quite clear she was just repeating what she hears her parents say all the time. The kind of "us and them" mentalitly really is hammered in from an early age, and while I always new that, this was one of my first hand experiences with it. The funny thing is, I doubt her parents would have sounded any less ingorant, had they tried voice their opinions in their own terms. I haven't much more to add other than the fact that growing up, I never knew how much racism abouned in even my own community, which I always considered tolerant and liberal.