This novel tells the story of Sinatra Hawkins, a combat veteran of the Afghanistan War, who quests north as a personal favor to his drug-dealing, pornographer boss, Major Dufresne. In Chicago, Sinatra's narrative weaves with that of a young DJ, Ramsey Dufresne, who is trying to prevent her ex-lover, a mid-level acid dealer, Webb, from stealing money from a more powerful dealer, her father, Major. Webb intends to use the money to buy an extremely rare recording that has reached near mythical status among devotees of various electronic dance music scenes. Together, Ramsey and Sinatra journey to recover the stolen money before Webb hands it over to a darkweb agent selling info revealing the whereabouts of the recording, which may or may not even exist. After someone is murdered, they return to the place the novel began, New Orleans, where they both confront Major and some other homicidal bad guys who give chase over the last two-thirds of the book. In the process obtaining new, revelatory attentions regarding the traumas secretly guiding them. These characters are intended to loosely fit into the tradition of realism, ultimately, refracting the kinds of fringe characters not typically confronted in contemporary American literary fiction. The novel is, more topically, concerned with drug abuse, sex as industry, and police violence, among other problems encountered by society's fringe characters, while hearing passionate pleas from the young, struggling working class of artists and musicians yearning to bend themselves around the wheel of Commerce in search of a single thing they can comfortably call true. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / February 23, 2017. / Afganistan War, Combat Veteran, Darkweb, EDM, Electronic Dance Music, Trance / Includes bibliographical references. / Mark Winegardner, Professor Directing Dissertation; James McNulty, University Representative; Bruce Horack, Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_513774 |
| Contributors | Sheppard, Gary (authoraut), Winegardner, Mark, 1961- (professor directing dissertation), McNulty, James K. (university representative), Horack, Skip (committee member), Kimbrell, James, 1967- (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of English (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (271 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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