SURRENDER
One minute Surrender is autobiography (we think); the next it’s semiautobiography (we think–the program lists Bales as ‘Ted,’ the quotation marks suggesting a persona rather than an actual person); and then it’s parody (with what seem to be aspects of ‘Ted’ splitting off to become an Italian sex kitten and a clownlike drunk).
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Bales takes a couple of lame pokes at Vietnam-war protesters, women’s liberationists, the homeless, and other groups outside of the mainstream. When he gets a little too close to the edge on racial matters, he immediately tries to justify himself. “I’m not that racist–I couldn’t be,” he tells us. “I’m gay. That’s the lowest minority on the totem pole.” At best this is open to debate; at worst it’s arrogance of immeasurable proportions.
In other words, we’re right back where we started, gazing at the protagonist’s incredibly ordinary navel.
