GUEST REVIEWER: on “Protagonist Unbound” by George LaCas
Today’s guest reviewer is Pierre Roquefort-Strand, author of New Directions in Postmodern Theory and the recent poetry chapbook La Plage, Ma Bit (Livres de Rive Gauche, 2007). He joins us today via satellite link from his office near the Sorbonne.
BLOG MODERATOR: Welcome, Professor Roquefort-Strand! What do you have for us today?
PRS: Thank you for the opportunity to appear on this weblog which appears to have nearly no web traffic. Today, I will offer a short review of the meta-fictional short story, entitled “Protagonist Unbound” by the essentially unknown yet in some ways provocative writer George LaCas, whose name sounds vaguely French as bastardized in the history of Canada.
In this story, Mr. LaCas seems to be making fun of the writing process, and in particular Western story structure (i.e., the basic form of the story which includes a hero or protagonist, whose world is threatened in its status-quo, who must go on some sort of interior or exterior journey to achieve a goal, exhibit character change, achieve redemption through suffering the consequences of sin, all while the story’s arc has a recognizable beginning, middle, and end – character from crisis to climax, and then home to the fireside to tell us all about it), and in so doing Mr. LaCas makes at least some of his characters aware of their own place within a fictional environment. At the same time the story itself is a satire, but of what? Of story in general? Or is it auto-satirical? Is LaCas making fun of the way he writes? Is he making fun of us for reading this story?
To summarize: A man named Protag is confronted by the sight of his wife leaving him, so he goes to his therapist, who is playing computerized solitaire and not paying much attention, who gives Protag his blessing in going forth to achieve the stated goal of “getting laid, even if I have to hire a call girl.” Protag then goes to a tranny bar and arranges a liaison with a red-headed person he believes to be a woman, the two have some sort of off-camera sexual activity, and Protag goes home to find that his wife has returned, which seems to negate the entire purpose of the story in the first place, including any enjoyment Mr. Protag had in bedding the sexy transvestite.
And if I may interject a personal comment: the ending, alas, I found wanting. By that I mean I wanted to know more. How did it feel to have sex with a transvestite? Was Protag’s masculinity threatened, or did he simply absorb this experience for the amusement of the author (George LaCas)?
BLOG MODERATOR: So in other words, Professor, you wanted details, a blow-by-blow account, as we say here in the States?
PRS: Oui, meaning yes. I wanted a fully-fleshed scene in which Protag suffered from the stripping-away of his larded-on masculine construct (such that it was; I doubt Protag could do 5 push-ups if his head was in the guillotine), or at least some good hot action for my own personal titillation. Wait. How do I backspace this device? I do not want to say that. Please excise that last bit.
BLOG MODERATOR: I’m afraid I have no control over your PDA, or keyboard, or voice-recognition system, Professor.
PRS: Merde! I demand a retraction of my own words! Salop!
BLOG MODERATOR: So did you like the story, or not, Professor?
PRS: [inaudible, unprintable]
BLOG MODERATOR: Thank you, Professor Pierre Roquefort-Strand, for your kind and considered critical input.
