Katherine Dunn Geek Love Analysis

Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love is the tale of an oddly sensational traveling freak show called the Binewski Carnival Fabulon. The show, run by Aloysius (Al) and Crystal (Lil) Binewski, ultimately is hit with hard times due to some of the performers shortcomings so Al “decided to breed his own version of freaks” (Dunn 7) in order to insure they would not have any more issues with such behaviors. Or as Al so loving recalled: “before I even dreamed you, my dreamlets!” (Dunn 6). Not only was the creation of their children considered a means to provide for the family but also as described by Lil "...the idea of inherited security was ingrained from her childhood, "What greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just by being themselves?" (Dunn 7). Throughout each of Lil’s pregnancies Al would concoct various cocktails for her to take. The cocktails
Each of these innocents on the street is engulfed by a terror of their own ordinariness. They would do anything to be unique.” (Dunn 223). Aside from the fact that this came out of the mouth of someone with flippers for hands and legs this young man sounds very proud and content with who he is as a person which is sadly not something that is too common in the world of ‘norms’. One of the biggest problems we have in today’s world is the ideal of what is pretty or acceptable has been greatly modified due to society’s unrealistic expectations specifically in regards to appearance. Some would argue that social media and magazines have set unrealistic goals of beauty due to the photo shopping and editing of celebrities pictures others would say that the issue lies more at home and how a person was brought up. Regardless, Al and Lil must have done something right because their children were not at all ashamed of who they were or the fact that they were different but instead knew the value of being unique in such a uniform