NOTE: This entry has been post dated to the original date that I wrote it so it still fits the timeline of our class discussions. It was not submitted on time because my computer and I have both been infected with a virus. (***Not a computer to human virus spawned from my earlier sexuality crisis regarding office furniture).
I feel the need to revisit Girl Meets Boy after today's class discussion. I was excited that the role of IPHISOL and graffiti in the novel came up. When I first read the novel I was reading for aspects of belonging and othering and the negotiations of boundary that ensue. The negotiation for public space between marketing propaganda and protest art in the novel align with the negotiations of gender and sexuality also therein. Here's a condensed version:
Robin (and later the Message Boys) employ graffiti to turn public spaces into platforms of protest. The mysterious IPHISOL that Anthea encounters at the beginning of the novel is concerned with transforming marketing ads into "anti-adverts". As their name implies, the "Pure" corporation can be read as a working symbol of the majority- their propaganda is readily accepted in public spaces. Robin's messages are those of the counterculture. (Arguably Smith has chosen human rights propaganda to make Robin a charming rebel and to move readers to empathy for her romance with Anthea.) Simultaneously Robin and Anthea are negotiating a space for their relationship in the myth of Iphis and Midge is negotiating a space for their relationship in her own life. Most important to the writer's argument is that the reader recognizes "Pure" as an antagonist for working towards a consumer monopoly and likens this evil force to the forces of social hegemony acting against Robin and Anthea.
