BB guns introduce new variable into time-killing of Benji and his pals. Rehearsal for shift of black manhood from "fighting" to "annihilation."
Benji relates how overhearing a black-consciousness TV show on the self-esteem impact of black kids playing with blond dolls causes him to shun human Star Wars action figurines in favor of aliens.
Benji's dork penchant for applying Dungeons & Dragons character attributes to classifying people around him: precursor to Whitehead's fascination with typology.
"Taken with the reassuring clarity of the [D&D] alignments, I didn't stop with people, proceeding to label inanimate objects, abstract systems, and states of being. . . D&D had few other real-life applications, except as a means of perpetuating virginity and in its depiction of existance as a never-ending series of grim adventures in dungeons. I rued the former, embraced the latter as an elegant metaphor."
Clinging to D&D an indicator of Benji's backwardness in grasping the "lame/not lame" divide. "The guy dropping off the weekly pamphlets outlining the shifting teenage codes and edicts skipped my house."
Benji's barbecue identified father when passers by encourage him to use alternate fire-making methods such as a chimney or kindling: "whitey made lighter fluid for a reason."
Domestic rage and bullying of Benji's father a counterpoint to then-dominant presence of Cosby on television. "The Road Warrior" a more apt model for how Benji navigates through household disruption.
Whitehead returns to the porn (secretive longings) parallel in describing his submission to the sentimental pop songs on WLNG, violating his own self-styling protocals: "WLNG was (one of) my secret shame(s), indulged when I had the house to myself. . . . The furtive way I scoped out the premises, slowly turning up the volume on the radio, wary of every increment, setting it a little higher and higher as I grew bolder, certainly echoed universal porn protocals. Sometimes I forgot to clean up after myself . . . ."
As with the sugar addicts who line up for mounds of ice cream at Jonni Waffle, Whitehead charts the varieties of "perversion" offered by consumer society, culturally authorized and unauthorized.
"Getting rid of your Sag house, that was unforgivable. Like selling your kids off to the circus for crack money."
Benji's sister Elena has self-styled into the club scene and Eurotrash boyfriends -- her way of escaping home just as Reggie has chosen street style and long work shifts at Burger King.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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