#suburban America

[diane-nguyen-watches-cartoons]

[marlowe1-blog]

Another Story (The Stories of John Cheever)

Italian Prince comes to America. Has a bad time

This is a weird one. Mostly it's making me think of stereotypes because everything that Marcantonio Parlapiano (what the hell is with that last name? Parlor Piano? Also the first name is two names - Mark Antonio - Mark Antony?) does is an Italian stereotype, but why are Italian stereotypes so different than Italian American stereotypes. Italian American stereotypes are gangers, tough guys, distinguished gentlemen who are very polite until you don't give them what you want and then there's a horse head in your bed.

Italians have weird stereotypes. Despite Mussolini and Machiavelli and Garibaldi, Americans typically think of Robert Beningi as the stereotype. The goofy heavily accented guy who just is whacky all the time. Even in Fellini movies, there's a bit of a wild horny element going on. I guess "talking with one's hands" is there, but frankly, it's just interesting that Italian Americans have managed to create a scary stereotype while Italians are stereotypical goofballs (and then we can also talk about how Jews and Italians look alike to the point that when an Italian seems nebbish or goofy, he plays Jewish characters and when a Jew can seem tough and nasty, he plays Italians.)

And if I start talking about Nicholas Cage, we could be here all night.

Suffice it to say that Mark Anthony Player Piano, aka Boobee, is the harmless Italian stereotype. Cheever wrote this one in 1967 and it's all about the cultural divide. Poor Boobee (yes, he prefers to be called Boobee) can't speak English that well, keeps getting shit from people, marries a woman whose family hates Italians (and Jews!) and then confides in the narrator who is a New England blueblood schmuck who can't deal with "emotions".

So the narrator is telling the story of Boobee and it's one of those in-and-out relationships where the narrator keeps tacitly comparing himself to Boobee. Boobee can't deal with his wife wanting a career in music. Boobee can't deal with his wife trying to do something. Boobee won't stop talking about it to the narrator. The narrator hates this honesty.

Poor Boobee. Finally Boobee just goes home. The wife gives a concert and it's terrible according to most accounts. But since Boobee never respected her in the first place, it doesn't really matter, now does it?

And then we get this anecdote at the end where a guy tells the narrator a story about how his wife worked at Newark airport and how she kept taking her work home with her. Like she sounded so official when she told him to come to dinner or come to bed.

So how the fuck are these stories related? I mean, did John Cheever just not know how to end the story? So he felt like it was a wet fart of an ending and had to include this other sad husband?

Or maybe it's all about how marriage is hard, especially if you are man who doesn't even want your wife working in the first place? Or maybe it's just that there is a foolishness when it comes to women happening here. This is the 1960s.

But honestly it's a weird sad story about weird sad people who don't understand each other and can't really get over patriarchy. Boobee expects his wife to be ok with being a wife. The other guy expects his wife to at least stop with the work and maybe that's also about how he resents the fact that she's working. The narrator doesn't really care much for his wife. Everyone is drunk.

Buy cigarettes!

[lisboncore]

night photography by dave jordano

[alexandraundone]

[caliginousjunk]

never that

[lakejosie]

[cultofcreatures]

homeward bound

[whegan]

[starlonga]

[frachive]

pavement

[1000dactyls]

my huge gripe w modern httyd aus is that it’s always set in the suburban midwest in podunk nothing town without taking it to its natural conclusion. As if berk would not be a steel mill town on the rust belt with the gas prices jacked sky high for tourists driving through the middle of nowhere. As if the barbaric archipelago would be the suburbs of a big city rather than rural towns in the Deep South. as if hiccup would not somehow end up hiking in the appalachias or turn up half dead after missing for 6months in the oregon wilderness. Cowards. Fools. if you’re setting it in america then you should take it to its natural conclusion 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[zanderism]

haunting the ghost towns | brenton, wv

[creekbed-burial]

Do You Ever Really Leave Your Hometown?

[caliginousjunk]

homemade playgrounds

[lakejosie]

guitar repairers (30/07/2024)

[churcvh]

found this church… i’m getting a little bit of déjà vu, but i’m not sure why…

Daleville, Alabama.