Infinite Limits

Visible Design

          Macnab applies her principles to things that are very relatable to the outside world and one in particular helps visualize certain qualities of the work, Dolly City. In chapter three of Macnab’s Decoding Design, she discusses the women’s pelvis in relationship to a triangle and the importance of the number three. In figure 3.15, the Pelvis as Truss System and Transformance Passageway is exemplified to decode the number three. Macnab discusses the idea that a woman’s reproductive organs form an upside down triangle: ovaries, womb, and birth canal. Contained within the triangular truss, the symbol for a female is displayed as the triangular shape is pointing down.

          This is very representative of the type of female that is displayed in the novel, Dolly City because of the mother complex that is discussed. Dolly continues to use her female and motherly intuition when it comes to taking care of her son. Though at times she is physically hurting him, she believes that what she is doing will inevitably save him. The mother complex is very common in females because of the way we were made and how our emotions run due to our reproductive organs.

          The way that the mother complex works are visualized through certain scenes in the novel, “I only wanted to protect him from harm. I wanted him to live to a hundred and twenty, and what’s wrong with that? I wanted to be in command on all fronts, and what’s wrong with that?” (Castel-Bloom 60). The images of Dolly towards her son reflect the mother complex and how she did such insane things in order to, in her mind, save and protect him. These images create the visible reasons why Macnab’s principle of the Truss in a female can be compared to the type of female and mother Dolly was.