Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - László Dányi: Decoding Decoded Systems: An Interpretation of Steven Millhauser's "In the Penny Arcade"

The story is a marvellous and mocking blend of different genres containing elements of gothic stories; of cheap erotic romances; of the legendary strike-it-rich gambling hall culture of the Wild West, which penetrates into urban culture and by doing so it becomes inauthentic expressing the vanishing prospects of the author for creating serious art. It would certainly be misleading to claim that the aforementioned elements could only be discussed under these five codes, and that there are no overlapping features of the codes. Barthes himself uses references to a variety of different other codes like "the metalinguistic code, the socio-ethnic code, the social code, the narrative code, the scientific code and the scientific deontological code" (Hawthorn 20). All the ambiguities and ambivalences of the codes are embedded in the language itself, which is intelligible and easily reveals the uneasiness of the content. The language of the text immerses the reader into worlds of dazzling catachrestic visual images (brilliant white ticket booth, sunlight painted onto the dusty air, dangerous hair rich with violence, noble with venomous rancor, radiant with spite, fierce amusement), astounding sound effects (metallic whirrings, clank, clatter, hush, creak)

, and minutely depicted motions (plunge, prancing, slump, draw, grasp, struggle, huddle, trot, jerk, stagger). Polysemic words (derrick, prize, coiled, varmint, wisp) offer intricate crossroads in interpreting the story. In the light of the code system this analysis tries to evince that Millhauser's story does not want to become experimental at all costs, but the elements of the story form a medley of worlds that are not accessible to straightforward imagination. These worlds fuse such seemingly contradictory notions as refinement and distortion, negation and vindication, delight in fluency and transformation to scepticism. The reader is fascinated by that quality of the story which is so wonderfully expressed by the oxymoron "dark glittering" (Millhauser 139). 20