Day 23: 41,039 Words and a Whole Lot of Wasting Time

Since I still have no idea what is happening in my novel, I wasted a whole lot of words describing liminality, and stumbled upon the concept of communitas which seemed pretty helpful. Thank you Wikipedia!

 “We have entered into spontaneous communitas. I have found Turner’s conception to be quite useful in situations such as these,” he intoned as he flung his cape over his shoulder dramatically. Gordon flipped through the pages of his dissertation until he found the passage he was searching for. 

“Communitas,” he said, raising his finger didactically, “refers to the feeling of camaraderie associated among a group experiencing the same liminal experience or rite. In spontaneous communitas, we collectively go through a direct, immediate, and total confrontation of human identities.” He looked up from the dissertation and looked around the room at the celebrities, who were nodding vigorously. “Yes, yes my friends. I think we can all agree that we have gone through this together.” He looked back to the page and continued to read,. “Those involved will share a feeling of synchronicity and a total immersion into one fluid event.” He turned then to Josh, James, and Maeve.

“I did not know the path we were to tread when we set out, but I knew it would contain many perils. Any venture into the liminal space will necessarily lead to the unexpected, and it can at times seem threatening… it can be threatening, but if we are brave and stay true to ourselves, I believe we will succeed. We have been gifted with this communitas to provide us with guidance and strength as we enter into the final stages of liminality. Perhaps it is not the communitas we would have chosen,” he looked around the room at the motley crew of celebrities, including his nemesis.

“I would have chosen the Rock to be in my communitas,” Maeve said wisely.

“Yeah, me too,” said Josh.

“Yeah, the Rock is definitely who you would pick to be on your team at the end of the world,” James added.

“Okay, fair enough, but who among you would have chosen Richard Gere?” he asked, ruthlessly proving his point. Richard Gere, who still had some dried mustard and chicken grease on his face, nodded in agreement. It was a fair point.

“But we are not here to argue semantics!” he said peevishly, although they had been arguing nothing of the kind. “We are close now, can you feel it?” Everyone paused, and listened carefully. There was something building in the room, it felt like… anticipation. Maeve’s heart fluttered and she could feel something like static electricity, like a hum in the centre of her brain and a tickle on the back of her neck. 

“I can hear something,” Josh murmured and they all listened. Was there a faint sound of music coming through the walls? It sounded far away, tinny, but there was definitely something there- the thumping of a bass and the squeal of a guitar. They all sensed that there was something more than drunk teenagers on the other side of the door. 

The Rock ran to the door and tried it, but the drunk teenagers had locked the door behind them. Vin Diesel rose and the two of them appeared to be about to attempt to break down the door. 

“I don’t think he needs you, buddy,” David Boreanaz jeered, and it was true. The Rock clearly had the physique to destroy the door on his own.

“Wait! Stop!” Gordon screeched in a high pitched voice. Vin Diesel and the Rock froze, looking at Gordon with alarm. “One does not use brute force to enter the liminal space!” he continued angrily. “Do you wish to tear a hole in the space time continuum, trapping us indefinitely in a realm of disorientation and ambiguity??”

“I read that part of the dissertation,” James whispered to Josh proudly. “Riveting stuff!”

“Do you have something to share with the whole class?!” Gordon howled, completely losing control. Maeve could see why he had gotten such high ratings on Rate My Professor during his time in academia. James and Josh looked down at their hands, avoiding Gordon’s blistering stare.

And here is a short excerpt of what is happening in Jackie's Place:

Jackie’s Place always had the best music, but never had it sounded better than this night, at least Dylann was willing to swear to it, if pressed. She had had no idea that there were so many lab-themed cover bands, but she sure was glad that there were. Lab Zeppelin, the Rolling Bones, Lab Jam, Backstreet Labs… it seemed they had traveled from far and wide, just to perform at Jackie’s Place, and perhaps take home the big prize at the Battle of the Labs. Even brian j. Pickles had made a return, having made over his band from simply a Rage Against the Machine cover band (boos) to a lab-themed Rage Against the Machine cover band called Labs Against the Machine (booze!) . It made sense. Labs would definitely want to dismantle the heterosexist patriarchal white supremacist colonial capitalist system that had kept them all imprisoned for far too long. Currently Death Lab for Treatie was performing their much loved anthem, I Will Possess Your Snack. As usual, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.

Except, strangely enough, for Dylann. Dylann, who was usually reduced to tears simply at the thought of the lab in the song waiting at home for his owner all day, was curiously unaffected. Not because she was a sociopathic monster, but because while her body was inside the bar, her mind was far, far away, in a small town by the ocean. There was a man there- she could just see him. A young man- a teenager (not drunk), and he was wearing an oversized plaid shirt with a white t-shirt underneath. His jeans were almost comically ill-fitting and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why he was dressed so terribly. Donnie. His name is Donnie.