Laurent La Gamba's lexicon & characters
Mr Wonderful
Mr Wonderful whose name is mentionned at the end of Monlywood in these simple terms: "Mr Wonderful was thus born", is a portmanteau-character. For the author, he personifies a kind of autobiographical double. He embodies all at once the marvels and shortcomings of men and is also the filagreed presence of the author himself, whose narcissism, bombast and megalomania he represents. Mr Wonderful is a mogul, a billionaire, a captain Nemo, a kind of modern-day nabob who watches the world go round from his elected Monlywood. He stands for the most blatant excentricities and proven excessiveness, a tribute to a sort of idealised British aristocratic spirit. His character, like all the author's characters, is a vessel for his thoughts, not
for a normative, rigid content.
Superlakan
The Superlakan character makes his first appearance in Monlywood. It is of course a satirical reference and a tribute by the author to the emblematic psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, a character that is an improbable mix of the allegorical superhero figure from American comics and the psychoanalyst. This portmanteau-character has its own book: The book of Superlakan. The Superlakan character enables the author to introduce themes that are dear to him in a highly satirical and oneiric manner.
CCCPKMarxx
CCCPKMarx is the portmanteau-character who best personifies the idea of the-being-throughout-history. This character is at the heart of historical and sociological stakes and enables the author to digress on philosophy or history, either regarding the historians' or philosophers' or journalists' views on historical events or on the events themselves. This character appears for the first time in embryonic stages in Monlywood, in the episode entitled "Karl Marx's Jaguar".
Paul Hanon
Paul Hanon's character is a "generic" character. He is often used by the author to describe situations that he calls "psycho-pathologic" ones. He is a character that represents the ordinary individual, a character that is like a gearbox, whose name does not evoke anything special and who exists only to serve the coherence of the story.
Chloë
The Chloë character, which appears unchanged from the first books (A Californian Odyssey, etc.) must be thought of as a character in its own right, even if its autobiographical entrenchment is evident and the will to keep as is the name of his wife, does not bother the author. On the contrary the Chloë character is an embodiement which allows the writer to introduce a number of reflections on life, love, marriage, infidelity or illness without disowning the autobiographical anchoring.
The "TrivialPursuiters"
The TrivialPursuiters make their first appearance in "The book of Superlakan" even if their presence was already felt in Monlywood and Monlywood Encore. They represent the "caste" of journalists, of TV anchors and presenters or commentators of all kinds of the TV era.
Monlywood
Monlywood is the homeland of Mr Wonderful and the imaginary city in which this group of characters live. Its origin is described and explained at the beginning of Monlywood and consists in the simple symbolic transformation of the name of the Monléon village where the author works and lives into Monlywood.