The Candy House

Bix Bouton’s son Gregory is now 26 years old. Bix recently died from ALS. Gregory is stuck inside in a massive storm. His roommate, Dennis, sells vintage weed, including an old-school type called Eureka Gold. Dennis and Gregory met in a writing class, in which their professor, Athena, encouraged the pursuit of fresh language over proxies. Athena was a legend but was fired when the university found out about her sexual liaisons with students whose work she admired.

Bix’s success turned to blame as technology became dangerous, such as the introduction of weevils (government devices that were recycled and sold on the black market). Gregory turned away from Mandala, embracing instead Christopher Salazar’s nonprofit Mondrian, which created an alternative world that replicated games like Dungeons & Dragons and helped people in treatment centers escape their lives. But Mondrian has not been without controversy itself, because many people disappeared into Mondrian and lost a sense of their real lives. Mondrian and Mandala became competing brands: “Surveillance vs. Freedom (Mondrian); Collaboration vs. Exile (Mandala)” (308).

Dennis returns from selling weed to Athena, with whom Gregory desperately wants to reunite. Gregory has recently stopped writing but imagines revisiting a novel about the lives of New Yorkers he witnesses from his window.