Shopping Mall Polytheism

shakahislop

shakahislop

Well-known member
sus said:
There's clearly a continuity between the tiki bar and the Rainforest Cafe. The idea of restaurant as exotic destination. Immersive environment.

There are giant animatronic gorillas grunting. And big simulated thunderstorms with lightning.
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i went there in atlantic city as well. it was quite a weekend. the rainforest cafe was the silliest thing i've seen and again it was full of adults not children, despite being for children. we were lucky to get a reservation. on the jersey shore in febraury
 
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sus

sus

Moderator
shakahislop said:
the mall was a huge theme for years and years a kind of symbol of a desiccated soulless america, douglas coupland was always on about them, naiomi klein, night of the living dead. now they look like a thing of the past like an archeological site or those big stretches of abandoned detroit. you walk around them and they've had the shit kicked out of them. massive construction projects for an outmoded way of life
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Kind of thing DFW would've put in Supposedly Fun Things. With cruises and tv. Simulacra entertainment leisure theme park existence in glass bubbles.
 
mvuent

mvuent

Void Dweller
line b said:
I would not be able to make it, I'm in Austin, the board will be delighted to know I'm hanging out with literal crust punks, but an invite would have been appreciated
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you've already got a permanent invite, you just didn't want to stay at some incel pad in the middle of nowhere like sus evidently did
 
sus

sus

Moderator
@mvuent very astutely pointed out that all the Nickelodeon characters are radiation freaks. Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or how all the Spongebob characters are living in BIkini Atoll and when it's bombed they turn into talking sponges and starfish. This stuff is obviously common in comic books.

There's also the radioactive-green slime thing Nickelodeon does
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
sus said:
@mvuent very astutely pointed out that all the Nickelodeon characters are radiation freaks. Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or how all the Spongebob characters are living in BIkini Atoll and when it's bombed they turn into talking sponges and starfish. This stuff is obviously common in comic books.

There's also the radioactive-green slime thing Nickelodeon does
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The USA could probably have an energy mix comparable to France by now if it hadn't been for Mr Burns.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
One thing I noticed, when we visited the Mall's Barnes & Noble, is that there's this big trend of revisionary mythological fiction written for women. I think I first noticed this circa 2020, when there were all those fanfic-type novels for women where Achilles and Patroklos have lots of gay sex and pronounce their love for one another?
 
sus

sus

Moderator
Shannon Ives's Those Fatal Flowers ("Greco-Roman mythology and the mystery of the vanished Roanoke colony collid in this epic debut filled with sapphic longing and female rage," which Eilish Quin--author of Medea--called "a queer form of time travel.")

Natalie Haynes's The Children of Jocasta ("The New York Times bestselling author of Pandora's Jar and Stone Blind returns with a powerful retelling of two ancient classical works from the perspective of the women the myths overlooked")

Hannah Lynn's Daughters of Olympus ("Demeter did not always live in fear... After an act of devastating violence though, she hides herself away among the grasses and wildflowers... The daughters of Olympus will have the last word... Demeter will destroy everything--even the humans she holds so dear--to bring her daughter back," which Lauren J.A. Bear, author of Medusa's Sisters, called "both a celebration of women and a testament to the importance of perspective--the untold and underappreciated stories")

Nikki Marmery's Lilith ("Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses--and is banished forever from Paradise... But Lilith has a secret: she has already tasted the fruit of the Treet of Knowledge. Endowed with Wisdom, she knows why Asherah--God's wife and equal, the Queen of Heaven--is missing. Lilith has a plan: she will rescue Eve, find Asherah, restore balance to the world, and regain her rightful place in Paradise. Lilith's quest for justice drives her throughout history, from the ziggurats of Ancient Sumer to the court of Israel's Queen Jezabel...")
 
sus

sus

Moderator
They also all have identical graphic design too

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mvuent

mvuent

Void Dweller
good catch! i did find striking how barnes & noble shelves are about 50% lego sets these days due to decreasing literacy rates/attention spans.

walking around there also confirmed my hunch that if you meet someone in The Sprawl who still does read books, they mean brandon sanderson books. heard him namedropped at least twice in the ~20 minutes we were there. the most popular, maybe the ONLY author, in the world.
web.archive.org

Brandon Sanderson Is Your God

He’s the biggest fantasy writer in the world. He’s also very Mormon. These things are profoundly related.
web.archive.org web.archive.org
 
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mvuent

mvuent

Void Dweller


this image perfectly captures shopping mall polytheism. two identical allotments within a sterile space: one becomes a portal to heaven and the other a portal to hell.

the mall is a multiverse, a liminal world of corridors with doorways to different dimensions: the plastic rainforest dimension, the tron neon arcade dimension, the anachronistic toyworld dimension, the faerie princess dimension, the boss dimension, the cinnabon dimension...

what's the ur-text of shopping mall polytheism? snow crash? or is there something earlier?
 
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