02 July 2009

Cage III-Free Show

Of all the bizarre things David Foster Wallace sticks into the endnotes of Infinite Jest, I absolutely loved the fictitious filmography of James Incandenza, which includes a film bearing a wonderful resemblance to the scenes of the terrifying Mickey Eye theme park from Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart’s Seaguy:

Cage III—Free Show. B.S. Latrodectus Mactans Productions/Infernetron Animation Concepts, Canada. Cosgrove Watt, P.A. Heaven, Everard Maynell, Pam Heath; partial animation; 35 mm.; 65 minutes; black and white; sound. The figure of Death (Heath) presides over the front entrance of a carnival sideshow whose spectators watch performers undergo unspeakable degradations so grotesquely compelling that the spectators’ eyes become larger and larger until the spectators themselves are transformed into gigantic eyeballs in chairs, while on the other side of the sideshow tent the figure of Life (Heaven) uses a megaphone to invite fairgoers to an exhibition in which, if the fairgoers consent to undergo unspeakable degradations, they can witness ordinary persons gradually turn into gigantic eyeballs. INTERLACE TELENT FEATURE CARTRIDGE #357-65-65