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Popular Culture Review
tourist leaves the battlefields of business and home. And, like Ulysses, the
tourist leaves an entourage that will protect his holdings wiiile he’s gone.
Similarly, meeting the standards of reason and restraint drives the behavior of
both. Passions are ideally subsumed by the internalized censorship of
civilization. Constantly striving, hero and tourist alike operate as good soldiers,
collaborators, and leaders of battles, not wars. Like today’s tourist working in
the competitive marketplace, Ulysses is cunning. He can outfox the gods
through trickery, argument, or personal charm. Ulysses, like his 21®* century
counterpart, operates on a register of self-interest. Loyalty to family,
community, and nation are assumed. Rather the Vegas experience sharpens the
mettle that supports the status quo. Both epic and 21®* century travelers utilize
skills that serve both worlds: problem solver, lover, man of vision, and someone
who succeeds socially, sexually, and soldierly and whose public acclaim is
unquestioned.
Narrative and the trope of the journey make up the epistemological and
eschatological energy that drives the Greek epic and the Vegas experience. The
narrative of both legend and earthly hero begins in the telling of a story. After
the exhausted and naked Ulysses is washed onto the shores of the welcoming
Phaeaceans, he willingly indulges their curiosity about his epic travels. With his
carefully edited and self-serving story, consistent with maintaining his own
kleos (reputation), he gamers their sympathy and good will. By organizing the
adventures into a narrative, this traveler satisfies the personal quest for
knowledge and meaning. Ulysses reassures himself and others that he has
learned how to control fate, guaranteeing his re-entry into the status quo of
home, community, and nation.
As Ulysses tells it, his first stop after departing Troy is the land of the
Kikonians. This is where he demonstrates the love of A^iiolesale acquisition.
With the intention of rewarding his men without consequence or p ayment, he
and his beleaguered mates sack the city with unbridled rape and pillaging.
Ulysses proves an opportunist and a wise, if mthless, businessman. Here is a
case of ignoring the mles when the opportunity strikes. This is Ulysses bargain
shopping—inexpensive buffets, numerous “freebies,” and sexual adventure.
When the investment outweighs the return and the avenging Kikonian troops
arrive, Ulysses and most of his men escape, regretting only having been caught,
not their misdeeds.
After weathering the dark clouds and winds of a hurricane, Ulysses and
his men arrive at the land of the Lotus Eaters ^\^lo consume the narcotic flower,
another temptation which seduces his men. Those who consume the lotus
succumb to the seduction of the narcotic and forget all about going home. In Las
Vegas, the temptations of every kind of drug are everywhere, including alcohol
and street and designer dmgs.