Week 2: Journal Q1

So, I'm currently trying to write up my responses for a reflective journal. I really should have been answering these every week after the lecture but, at that time in the morning, all I'm thinking about is getting breakfast. To combat this, I've bought some of those dodgy breakfast-cereal-blended-into-a-milk-substitute things ("Up & Go"). Banana is quite yummy.

In the words of Monty Python, "Just get ON with it!"

What do you understand Duncan to be referring to when he says about the characters in Metro, "I think that to an extent, the characters in the book wear their privilege and wealth as protection against scarier, outside forces of the world.".

First off - I don't think 'Metro' criticises OR endorses the demographic. Both positions could be argued till you're blue in the face. And yet, I think this is an interesting view of a book that could be easily disregarded. Nothing is actually achieved at the end of the novel, no character progression and certainly no grand moral lesson learnt by the protagonist that will make him a better person. He's a white, upper middle class brat at the start, and he's a white, upper middle class brat at the end. Albeit, one with a little more 'deviant' sexual experience under his belt.

Thinking on the question though, it intrigues me. The characters DO wear their privilege and wealth on their sleeves, though maybe this isn't brat-like behaviour....maybe it's to protect them from the scarier forces of the world. The unknown. Yet, I don't think this 'forcefield' is limited to those two things. I feel, particularly because the emphasis of the novel is on sex and sexuality, that this protection of privilege and wealth feeds into Liam's performance of gender roles. He is protected by his performance and that performance is informed by the nature of what white, upper middle class brats are expected to do. As long as you do/say/act/be who you're supposed to, that bubble will continue to protect you. And indeed, no real problems appear to beset those that perform the way they should. (Lack of physically having the book in front of me means I cannot remember significant details...such as the name of the 'maybe gay' fellow who 'maybe killed himself' in a car 'accident'. Sorry about that). He didn't really fit in, and he wasn't willing to duck behind his privilege and play pretend. He didn't perform his gender roles correctly. Those 'scarier outside forces' - _________ - got in, and he couldn't handle it.