Perversion the Social Relation

Exotic Rituals and Family Values 101points out commonsensically to Francis), but Francis works elaboratelyto provide cover and justification for Tracey's presence in his house whenhe leaves her there: he goes so far as to have his piano tuned so thatTracey, who lives with her paralyzed father above a seedy storefront inobviously less than well off circumstances, can have an instrument onwhich to play and practice. Since Lisa played the piano, to Francis'sgreat pride, Tracey thus becomes further identified with the dead child.Clearly, Francis is fond of Tracey, but equally clearly, the girl is functioningas part of a tense fraternal dynamic. Like Christina, Tracey stands infor the dead daughter, but she also becomes a means by which Haroldcompensates his brother for his earlier betrayal.Of course, none of these family strategies can be named or discussed;all are silently enacted, their success dependent on not being spoken. Infact, Tracey's innocent participation in the ritual, as long as it persists,suggests the efficacy of the child in sustaining adults 9 capacities for themagical thjnking that is at work in fetishistic disavowal. According toMannoni, "The child can, as someone who is both present and an outsider,play a non-negligible role by assuming ... the burden of our beliefsafter disavowal. He is not privy to the adults 9 secrets'* (77). On thebrink of adulthood, however, the teenaged Tracey begins to resist herrole in the brotherly dynamic; her refusal to go along with it precedesand perhaps presages the collapse of Francis's other rituals.Tracey's first defiance of her passive role in the exchange occurs ironicallyafter and possibly in response to Francis's request that she talk tohim (this occurs in the first scene of his driving her home). In this scene,Francis responds to Tracey's silence in the car by asking "I'm not reallythat boring am I?" and gesturing ironically at her headphones; he thenreminds her of earlier occasions when they had talked on these sametrips, and she had asked him questions. Tracey, typically adolescent, replies"You want me to ask you questions?" in a deliberate ironizationof Francis's nostalgia for their earlier intimacy. But in a later car scene,Tracey obliges Francis with questions that both recall that intimacy andsimultaneously challenge the stability of his ritual conduct with both herand Harold. In the following exchange, Tracey speaks first:"Do you consider my Dad a friend?""Does he consider me a friend?""I don't know."