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A review by eriknoteric
At Danceteria and Other Stories by Philip Dean Walker
2.0
This book is at base a very creative engagement with the pop culture of the 80s - intermixing broader social commentary regarding the AIDS crisis with memories of celebrities past. That being said, I am still straining to figure out the point - why did Princess Di go to this fictional gay club? What's the point of Jackie O hanging out with the gardener from "Grey Gardens" at a NYC leather bar? What are readers supposed to grab from this playful narrative engagement? For me, at least, the answer is still utterly unclear.
The only story in this book that didn't engage with a celebrity protagonist instead tried to playfully engage with the idea that AIDS didn't discriminate based on attractiveness. While I certainly see the point of writing such a story, the way it was presented ("Hot Guy Disease" becomes AIDS) is far to on the nose and in many ways does not accomplish what I think the author wishes it had accomplished.
Perhaps, in the end, this whole situation could have been mediated through a much more technically sophisticated use of metaphor - something both the author and his editor should have caught before going to print. In some places, the use of metaphor is so clunky and absurd that a reader had to revisit sentences several times (My favorite is still the one where he compares saying someone's name to pronouncing the name of a deadly venereal disease? What? How does one pronounce that? Huh?)
An interesting try at reflecting on the beauty and horror of one of the most drastic decades of the 20th Century, "Danceteria" ultimately fell short in both technique and creativity.
The only story in this book that didn't engage with a celebrity protagonist instead tried to playfully engage with the idea that AIDS didn't discriminate based on attractiveness. While I certainly see the point of writing such a story, the way it was presented ("Hot Guy Disease" becomes AIDS) is far to on the nose and in many ways does not accomplish what I think the author wishes it had accomplished.
Perhaps, in the end, this whole situation could have been mediated through a much more technically sophisticated use of metaphor - something both the author and his editor should have caught before going to print. In some places, the use of metaphor is so clunky and absurd that a reader had to revisit sentences several times (My favorite is still the one where he compares saying someone's name to pronouncing the name of a deadly venereal disease? What? How does one pronounce that? Huh?)
An interesting try at reflecting on the beauty and horror of one of the most drastic decades of the 20th Century, "Danceteria" ultimately fell short in both technique and creativity.