Unfortunately the dash to comps prep and a too busy weekend to post then will force me to post now. So excuse the lack of page numerations.

Pleasantville certainly (as everyone else has mentioned) sits nicely with Marling's book. I particularly thought about this first wit the dichotomy between everything being "nice" (which is a cultural construct) in Pleasantville in contrast with Jen who was a "bad girl" from her selfish attitude, teenage smoking culture, and her sexual image. Compared to the 1950s girl who was not supposed to be sexual and that supposedly Skip for example, would not notice her breasts because people generally were less sexual in the 1950s according to the mythology of the decade.

Another area that I thought fit in nicely with Marling's book is the teenagers' uses of automobiles to buck parental authority. This is less evident when we first see Skip with the car than after Jen gets her hands on him and starts telling everyone else about the fun to be had in the back seat of a car. The town in fact begins to be obsessed with what is going on in the cars at the place (sorry can't remember name of the place right now) where the teenagers would hang out.

As others before me in this blog have pointed out the movie addressed simulation vs. reality dichotomy examined by Baudrillard. What I find particularly fascinating about simulation is that ultimately reality enters the simulated world. In Plesantville that happened immediately for Jen. She was not interested in being Bobby Sue and thought the whole town was not living in reality. David wanted Jen to conform until they found someway out of their situation. However, slowly and then abruptly, David absorbed the disgust for this imagined way of life. He became so engulfed in change he could not distinguish when it happened (he forgot the eating of the fruit...I don't know how many more Adam's will fall for forbidden fruit).

Lastly, I thought about the article regarding exotic women and white males' obsession with them. The white males began chasing the "colored" mother in the streets when the town began discriminatory practices toward those not "black and white." Lucky for her she was able to have someone come to her defense unlike many others who were not so lucky.