Cultural Cross References
- Chapter five includes a description of a "Snow Crash Spectacular parade" based on Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash.
- The book contains references to the Beatles song "Rocky Raccoon". Julius' girlfriend leaves him for his friend Dan, just as Lil leaves Rocky Raccoon for a man named Dan in the song. At the beginning of the book, Jules and Lil sing some lyrics from the song.
- Doctorow's short story "Truncat" is also set in the Bitchun Society, sometime after the events of Down and Out.
- Doctorow's short story "I, Row Boat" also appears to be set in the same universe (though more distantly future), with references to artificial uploading and downloading of intelligence, but no explicit mention of the Bitchun Society or Whuffie.
- The title is a reference to George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.
Read more about this topic: Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or cross:
“Somehow we have been taught to believe that the experiences of girls and women are not important in the study and understanding of human behavior. If we know men, then we know all of humankind. These prevalent cultural attitudes totally deny the uniqueness of the female experience, limiting the development of girls and women and depriving a needy world of the gifts, talents, and resources our daughters have to offer.”
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“I’d take off all my clothes
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into the terrible water & walk forever
under it out toward the island.”
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