Freakish

During class, the one topic that jumped out at me the most was the concept of the Carnivalesque, especially because it was so difficult to define as one thing or another. I am not sure if I am totally off base in my interpretation, but the whole concept reminded me of a scene in an old favourite book of mine as a teenager. In This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers, there is a scene in which the main character describes a memory from her childhood where she and her friends performed a dance for the adults at a party, which continued long after their audience had disappeared. As their dance continues the children eventually take off all of their clothes and the experience becomes what many would describe as pagan, with a sense of disconnect from the world of people in this brief time of their lives through an elated all-night primal dance. I think in this case the reason this can occur is because as children we are not as afraid to break away from social norms and expectations, and oddities are somewhat expected by adults.

How I think of the Carnivalesque is mentally being removed from the normal state of reality. Everyone involved has to play along with the new reality for it to work and keep people disillusioned. In Geek Love, during the Glass House topless auditions scene, everyone (except the one girl who thinks this is a serious audition) is in a safe place where they can express their abnormalities and show their bodies off to the public without (for the most part) any shame. Once the disillusionment is lifted and Olympia is at home recalling the events is the first time she really feels shame about her liberating experience in the spot light. I think that anyone who truly goes through a carnivalesque experience will feel slightly ashamed later, because the whole idea of the carnivalesque is the removal from the normal rules of life, and once returned to those boundaries, one will feel awkward or ashamed at what has occurred in the alternate reality. That is why it makes us uncomfortable or unsettled as well. We as a people don't generally like changes to our establishment of what is appropriate. Change in general makes us feel uncomfortable. As long as Olympia originally felt that feeling of liberation, I would say it is definitely Carnivalesque.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was Olympia's statement that "a true freak cannot be made. A true freak must be born." (pg. 20). I feel that what she is really saying here is in relation to the other 'freaks' at the Glass House that night. Those freaks are masquerading as freaks, but in reality, at least physically, are quite normal people. For example the "Two middle-aged men wore matching red plastic jeans with broad leather belts strapping their adjacent legs together" (pg. 18) so that they can look like conjoined twins attached at the legs. When the social norms flip, Olympia is now better than them because she is not a fake freak, she was born that way and is truly different. Yes, her parents played with her genes to create her, yet she is the real thing, and has no choice in the matter. Miranda is also a 'true freak' with her tail, which is part of why Olympia doesn't want her to remove it. Anyone who tries to be a freak by changing their appearance, whether performing surgery like the Arturans or just parading around in the Glass House, is not half as freakish as Olympia and her family because they were born, not made. In Olympia's world, the Binewski's are always on top.