“13, 1977, 21” by Jonathan Lethem
“13, 1977, 21” tells a story about Lethem’s obsession with Star Wars. He is so obsessed that he watches the film 21 times. He realizes that his was using the film to escape his mother’s death due to a brain tumor and the recent divorce of his parents. All his viewing took place at the Loew’s Astor Plaza off Times Square. He mentions how he associates the theatre with the Death Star. It seems like an adrenal rush going to the movies! He tells about what moviegoing like his mother do at the movies. They would pop in a movie at any time, then sit thought the break to watch the beginning. But once he started going to the movies to see Star Wars alone, he had began to hate popping in in movies. At one point, Lethem’s parents believed he was gay after he followed Alissa Simmon to his ballot class and he drew comics that looked like penises. Lethem wants his mother and Alissa Simmon to like Stat Wars just as much as he did, but when he took them to see it; they thought the movie was just okay. This disappointed him, but it didn’t change his opinion. He talks about spending time with his grandmother trying to distract her for her only child’s death. However, he never tried to force Star Wars onto her. This is funny to because you can never change your grandparent. I try all the time my grandparents. In the story, there is only one other person who loves Star Wars just as much as he does. This is George Lucas who lives in the commune with his father. He explain that he only saw the movie 21 time because 20 seemed to mechanically round. He also associated the number 21 with gaining his maturity in adulthood. Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was the only other movie he saw 21 times. Later, he began not like Star Wars as he did as a child , yet he can’t decide which film is the best. Why Stars Wars? I understand the using the movie as an escape from life.
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Notice that even the movie that ties Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, has “21” in its name. Lethem is still relying on numbers to provide a sense of order in his life. When you look back over the story, does the content of certain paragraphs relate to important age milestones? For example, he follows Alissa when he’s 12 but admits at 13 that he’s weirdly attracted to C3PO. And why do you think he waits until paragraph 10 to tell us about his mother? Is placing it in the middle another way of hiding?