334/334/Part V

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The fifth part of the 334 novella is subtitled Shrimp.

Summary

Shrimp, mostly in dialogue with other characters.

27. Having Babies

(2024 - Shrimp - reality)

pregnancies and the contractual months of motherhood

Shrimp is being paid to conceive children because the Regents Board considers her genetically desirable, but the fact that she bears the children herself is a strikingly anti-futuristic touch. In vitro fertilization and gestation in an artificial environment have been science fiction commonplaces since at least 1931 (Brave New World)— and in fact do seem to be possible in 334, as described in the end of "Emancipation"— but here Disch has chosen to limit the technology to, more or less, what already existed in 1972.

The Black Rabbit and Billy McGlory

Neither of these movies exists. The title of Billy McGlory refers to a 19th-century New York crime boss; The Black Rabbit might be a reference to the angel of death in Watership Down.

28. 53 Movies

(2024 - Shrimp - fantasy)

the pocket theaters on 1st Avenue

Tiny revival houses showing multiple double features per week were a New York cultural institution that is sadly almost gone, so in this one respect 334 can now be seen as a utopian version of the city. One of the last holdouts was Theatre 80, on St. Mark's Place and 1st Avenue, which started screening movies in 1971, but went back to being a live theater venue in the 1990s. It really would have been possible for a very dedicated person to see 53 different movies in six weeks, as Shrimp does, at Theatre 80 alone. For a less packed schedule but an equally wide variety of movies, Jonas Mekas's Anthology Film Archives is operating to this day on 2nd Avenue, although in 1972 it was more of a museum collection without its own screens.

she saw a total of 53 movies

The titles listed here are a mix of actual movies, imaginary movies that are adaptations of other actual works (although in some cases a movie with the same title now exists, but didn't exist in 1972), and imaginary movies with unfamiliar titles.

Actual movies:

Imaginary adaptations:

  • Melmoth, probably from the novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin (1820)
  • Hellbottom, from the novel by Jerry Mundis (to whom 334 is dedicated) (1972); directed by "Penn", possibly Arthur Penn
  • The Confessions of St. Augustine, from the memoir by Augustine (397)
  • Daniel Deronda, from the novel by George Eliot (1876)
  • Behold the Man, probably from the novel by Michael Moorcock (1969), Disch's editor in New Worlds
  • The Hills of Switzerland, from the fictional volume of poetry by Disch's character Louis Sacchetti in Camp Concentration
  • Zarlah the Martian, from the novel by R. Norman Grisewood (1909)
  • "the remake of Equinox", possibly of the 1970 horror movie
  • Valentine Vox, possibly from The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist by Henry Cockton (1840)
  • Pale Fire, from the unfilmable novel by Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
  • The Day of the Locust, from the novel by Nathaniel West (1939) - later filmed in 1975
  • Three Christs of Ypsilanti, from the psychiatric case study by Milton Rokeach (1964) - later filmed in 2017
  • On the Yard, from the novel by Malcolm Braly (1967) - later filmed in 1978

Imaginary/unknown:

  • Stanford White - probably about the architect famously murdered in 1906
  • Escape from Cuernavaca
  • Snow White and Juliet
  • Down There - with Marlon Brando
  • Black Eyes and Lemonade - title is from Intercepted Letters, or the Two-Penny Post Bag by Thomas Moore
  • Owens and Darwin - may mean "Owen", Charles Darwin's rival Richard Owen
  • Star * Gut
  • The Best of Judy Canova
  • Felix Culp - title refers to the "fortunate fall"; Disch's friend John Sladek named a character Felix Culpa in Roderick
  • The Greek Berets - this was corrected in recent editions to The Green Berets but, knowing Disch, may have been an intentional joke
  • Wednesdays Off
  • "both parts of Stinky in the Land of Poop"
  • The Possibilities of Defeat - title refers to what Victoria denied the existence of
  • Things in the World

29. The White Uniform, continued

(2021 - Shrimp - fantasy)

30. Beauty and the Beast

(2021 - Shrimp - reality)

A Nation of Slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their Master

This is a quote from Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788). Though January would approve of Gibbon's anti-clericalism, Gibbon would probably be disconcerted to see his words delivered by "a black Spartacus."

31. A Desirable Job, continued

(2021 - Lottie - reality)

the sex was nothing

It's possible that Lottie's experience with sex work is what Shrimp is referring to in scene 5 three years later, when she tells Williken she "talked to a prostitute once, mentioning no names"— although it's not clear whether Lottie would have confided in her sister about this, or why Shrimp would make it sound more enjoyable than it apparently was.

32. Lottie, in Stuyvesant Square

(2021 - Lottie - monolog)

Stuyvesant Square is a small park a few blocks from 334. Lottie's monologue here is actually a response to Shrimp's monologue in the following scene.

The object's to be able to say what you want

Mrs. Hanson, who isn't part of this conversation, nevertheless provides an answer in the final line of the novel.

33. Shrimp, in Stuyvesant Square

(2021 - Shrimp - monolog)

34. Shrimp, at the Asylum

(2024 - Shrimp - monolog)

The group therapeutic exercise Shrimp is taking part in is reminiscent of the Synanon Game. The latter is usually described as being more hostile and coercive, but Shrimp's complaint in the next scene that "no one at the Asylum had bothered even to scream at her" suggests that that's usually the case.

35. Richard M. Williken, continued

(2024 - Shrimp - another POV)

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