Malls: Starring Me and Marty McFly

Nothing good ever happens at a mall.

Other than Cinnabon. My hippocampus is screaming as I stretch the limits of recall right now, trying to think of one good thing that has happened to me at a mall, or to anyone I have ever known, and I am ‘O’ for the century. You buy things you do not really want, things that are going to eventually make you miserable, and every once in a while there is some sort of tragedy like a kidnapping or a shooting. Those are the energies that compose the universe within a mall. If you want to see some of the more deplorable aspects of human existence in a highly concentrated setting, just go to a mall. Wal-Mart is much of the same, but with the misery even more condensed.

Everything you touch in a mall has been tainted by the fingerprints of a seven year-old on the other side of the world, and saturated by the sweat of his little brother. And then you buy that thing to validate your worth, but only to find it is insufficient. You are then forced to buy something else. Again, and again, and again this transpires. You are a broken record of material consumption, repeating the same mistake, never figuring out that there is nothing sold in a mall that can make you whole. That is what goes down at a mall. We all know it, but we can’t stop making it happen. I am not leaving myself out of this. I just bought two undershirts and a pair of socks today. They were argyle socks, and I thought it would be cool to have argyle socks.

I spent one hour traveling the cold, empty corridors of a mall, and all this ran through my head. It is a strong reaction. It is likely a bit over the top, but it was a revelatory experience, being in that mall. I was getting new glasses at the LensCrafters that is carefully placed among the infinite shops of the Garden State Plaza, and I had to wait for a licensed optician to prepare the lenses. I had 60 minutes to kill, and kill them I did. There is no other way to describe how I spent that time. I walked nomadically within the four hard walls of this colorful prison. I peered at objects and mannequins through store windows, and then would subtly alter the machinery of my eye so that I could instead be looking at myself in that window, and be dazzled by how out of place my reflection seemed among the aesthetics of that store. I would be assaulted by the images of millions of tasteful products that occupied space in that mall, and I would become overwhelmed, and be filled with anxiety.

Occasionally, I would be appealed by some pretty shoe, or some simple sweater, and the attraction would get me to step inside a store. I would be greeted by an amiable, overdressed employee with nice hair and thick-framed glasses. I was always impressed by their sincerity in our conversation. There was no intent of manipulation or other tactful marketing games; the employees were sweet and accommodating-- never forceful-- just looking to do their job well and make my day a little better if they could. The foulness of the mall had nothing to do with these people, nor with my fellow shoppers, nor with any other players in its clever game. We were all nothing but hapless victims of the corruption that courses the vasculature of consumerism.

I also started thinking about Marty McFly while I was strolling around that mall. Specifically, I started thinking about Marty McFly and his role in Back to the Future Part II. I thought about how we are one month away from the year 2015, and how that was the year Marty, Jennifer, and Doc landed their DeLorean in some foreign, futuristic land. What I saw in the mall today made me realize that we have probably surpassed the seemingly outlandish level of technology that was projected in that film.

Have you seen an Apple Store recently? I saw one today. What a terrifying place. The technology is daunting, if you can step back and examine it all in a more objective way. It is hard to believe such a place exists in our time. It looks too fantastical to be a true component of our reality. It is all windows, which I found ironic for an Apple store (get it?). There are these translucent islands floating about a sea of lights, flanked by sleek stools, and crazy slabs of electronics decorating the walls, and the tabletops, and even decorating the human hands. Everything is silver, or shiny, or some combination of the two. Things are flashing, and virtual projections are flying all over the place, making you question what is real and what is not. I was drawn to the store’s wonder, like a moth to a flame, but I was able to resist the temptation to enter. I reminded myself of Marty McFly, and how he taught me that it is usually better not to meddle with fragile elements of the future, so I chose to observe from the innocuous vantage of a calendar stand just outside that Apple Store.

'Futurepedia' provides a comprehensive list of the new technology found in the 2015 of Back to the Future Part II.

We have checked off a good number of things on this list, and produced them with even more efficiency and precision than the movie could have dreamed. Any of those things that have not become realities are pretty much wastes of time, anyway. Although a soda can with a built-straw still seems like a good idea.

So we have added some of our own technology, but it has also been accompanied by some new elements that eluded the grasp of Spielberg’s clairvoyance. The 2015 depicted in the movie was rather mesmerizing to the viewers, and seemed convenient, and maybe even utopic. In our world, the technology is mesmerizing, certainly convenient, but anything but utopic. I don’t think we could have known the dangers of such advancement when it was all floating around in the hypothetical stage. Now we are more familiar with the dangers.