Shit… what’s his name? How do I not remember his name? Brad? Benji… Bowen? God, that’s so embarrassing. 5 months here and I don’t know the name of the only dude who works Monday midnight shift with me. Jesus. Moments like these make me think I could make more of an effort at work-- be more of a “team player”, or whatever WorldMart told us to call ourselves during training. But then I watch our manager get in his car and hotbox for so long that the smoke practically turns opaque, and I think I might actually be the most involved employee here. I mean, aside from Brock. Brian. Shit. Anyway, Blake just pulled a finger from his pocket- Has he been holding onto that?- and the zombie across from us is motioning for him to hand it over. Look: I’m not jealous of a dead woman. That’d be pathetic. But Bryce and the zombie are like, flirting right now? She’s asking him to choose between an orange or red skirt for tonight and sweet, stupid Billy is telling her she’d look pretty in orange even t...
There’s no title I could come up with would match “Barbie-Q” in terms of pun quality. But if I had to rename the story, the most immediate alternative I can think of would be “Life in Plastic” or something of the like. Despite being possibly stolen from the Aqua song, I like it here for two reasons: One, because it literally describes the lives our main characters live vicariously through their Mattel counterparts. They’ve built a world to escape to out of these dolls, a plastic alternative to their more modest situation IRL. But two, because it describes the fake flashiness of the lifestyle these dolls represent, and the rigidity of maintaining that kind of showy glamorousness. Celebrities are marketing at their core, moreso than people. Affluence is a lifestyle that turns people into brands- plastic. Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch. Maybe I just wanted a reason to listen to Barbie Girl again. If anyone’s actually got the energy to read and engage with this blog post, sound off below.
Reading it, I enjoyed The Lottery quite a bit, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t remind me of the 2012 dystopia movies I was invested in to an embarrassing degree as a tween; Female protagonist (albeit older than the twenty-something-year-old Hollywood average and married with children) who ~rebels~ against the inhumane living conditions the rest of society seems to be fine living under for some reason. Ceremonies to decide who amongst the laypeople crowd will be sacrificed/exiled/etc. Civil unrest directed initially in-group instead of towards the government/power controlling said inhumane conditions. It’s a stretch, but I kind of feel like it works. So were I tasked with adapting this story into a film, there are some aspects of the early 2010’s tried-and-true YA movie formula I’d have to follow: First off, the role of Tessie Hutchinson would have to go to Shailene Woodley. Now, I’ve never left a screening of a Shailene Woodley film and thought, “Wow, Shailene Woodley is a good...
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