Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey

Dr. Erin Shea, Ph.D.: It's arguable that local authorities are aware of Party Crashing and permit it to continue. The ritual would provide a cathartic release for antisocial and antiauthoritarian impulses, either exhausting those persons, crippling them, or removing them entirely via death. Regardless of the outcome, Party Crashing would serve as a cost-effective, efficient social program for preserving the current social order.

Dr. Christopher Bing, Ph.D.: A typical liminal ritual occurs in three stages. The pre-liminal. The liminal. And the post-liminal. Applied to the Party Crashing phenomenon, these stages manifest as: decorating and parading the vehicles; the actual hunting and accidents; and the post-accident public performance of arguing and acting out, commonly known as "milking the accident."

Dr. Erin Shea, Ph.D.: Inherent in Party Crashing culture is the tendency to subvert traditional liminal symbols. The woman dressed in a wedding gown is not an actual bride. Said «woman» may actually be male. The furniture tied to the automobile roof does not indicate a household being relocated. The Student Driver sign is not intended to protect a fledgling driver.

Ina Gebert, M.A.: The same way Tom Sawyer's ritual resurrection suggested that of the Christ—a luminous youth dying and being reborn to immortality—contemporary culture continues to generate deities following this same model. In recent decades, celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, and John Belushi have been corrupted by their success, died prematurely, and are subsequently rumored to be alive. This resurrection might simply signal a public denial of their demise, but it does follow a general outpouring of grief and recognition that serves to construct a mythology around the now-immortal individual.

Dr. Erin Shea, Ph.D.: Examples of liminality in language include the French phrase for dusk or twilight: "Between dog and wolf." This same phrase is used to describe the final months of life, as a human being's mental and physical abilities dwindle. In English, the phrase for twilight, "when all cats are gray," demonstrates the flattening of social hierarchy and obvious status indicators.

From the essay "Liminality and Communitas" by Victor Turner: It is as though they are being reduced or ground down to a uniform condition to be fashioned anew and endowed with additional powers to enable them to cope with their new station in life.

Ina Gebert, M.A.: Rant Casey and Karl Waxman represent the latest incarnation of this ancient model. Both men, degraded by a violent public death, are rumored to be alive, and not simply alive, but immortal. Waxman is said to have traveled backward in time and murdered his parents before the moment of his conception, preserving himself in a permanent liminal state. Casey, well, Rant Casey is another story—his is a redemption through public recognition and emotional attachment, a mass refusal to accept that he died in a well-documented automobile accident.

Shot Dunyun (Party Crasher ): All that Anthropology 401 garbage is beyond boring. Party Crashing is just a fun time. It's a fun playtime. Please, don't kill it with big words.

39–Werewolves V

Hudson Baker (Student): This is hard to explain, but in every toilet stall in every bathroom at the high school we go to, somebody wrote in every stall: "Amber Nye Is Dripping with Rabies!"

Only, really, Amber wrote that herself.

It's really hard to explain.

Toni Wiedlin (Party Crasher): High-school kids would do a dance they called "The Drooler," meaning they'd mimic the partial leg paralysis of an end-stage rabies victim. Kids would stagger around the dance floor, foaming from Alka-Seltzer on their tongue, crashing into each other, and snarling. The word is, doing that dance is a good way to get shot by the police.

Shot Dunyun (Party Crasher): People who want to catch the bug, we call them "spittoons." People willing to pass along the rabies virus are "hawkers."

From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms (Historian): As Charles Dickens once described the French Reign of Terror: During times of plague there will always be those who can't rest until they've become infected.

Hudson Baker: Amber and me would cover our whole, entire bodies in sunblock, SPF 200 or something. We so wanted people to whisper we were Nighttimers, and for the curfew police to try and bust us. Looking back, we wanted people to be scared of us. Like we could run totally wild at any moment and bite everybody's throat at the Christian Pathways Academy.