GRGR(24) - Hell 2

[David Morris]

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(537.10) Who would have thought so many would be here?
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Pirate finds himself in the Hell for Double Agents, and "with everything 
else, these are, after all, people who kill each other: and Pirate has 
always been one of them." (542.10)  Notice that this was not phrased "people 
who kill other people."  The victims of these killers are far more personal. 
  These victims are "We" ourselves.

Pirate next gets introduced to the "plight" of the double-agent: Who are 
"We?" meaning "Who can be trusted?" and "Can _I_ be trusted?"

These questions of personal identity are thrown in a twisted flux mingled 
with the tangling lines of guilt and shame.  Pirate is "having one of his 
own" this time.  Hello, Pirate, meet yourself.

Merciful Evans tells Pirate "I can't even trust myself, can I?  How much 
freer than that can a man be?" When one can't trust himself, he's relieved 
of all personal responsibility (that old 
"Radio-Control-Implanted-In-The-Head-At-Birth): Freedom from Guilt / 
Passivity to the Condition.

Pirates super-hero strength, "a gift the Firm has found uncommonly useful" 
(12.5), has been to negotiate the treacherous waters of many people's 
personal psyches.  Now he's having to negotiate his own, and it's a 
dangerous journey.  In some ways he's now vying for the title of "most 
noble" GR character, brutally self-confronted.  Does he survive this test?  
Guess who comes to put him through his chops?

Katje appears as the Goddess of Guilt.  With the mere raise of her brow 
"Remorse, or some late desire to be pure, rush into [Pirate's] blood like 
dope." (545.29)  She does not seduce, she confronts most brutally.  It is 
this trait which establishes her as an agent of the Counterforce.  Otherwise 
she would seek to lull Pirate to sleep and complacency.  She is the agent of 
Pirate's epiphany.

David Morris

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